11) Willis McGahee – I can still vividly picture McGahee’s knee being destroyed in that championship game vs. Ohio St. and thinking he would be lucky to walk again, I laughed as the enemy Bills drafted him in the late first round, I would now strongly recommend the famous Dr. James Andrews to put anything back together. Willis hated everything about the city of Buffalo and managed to work his way out and I expect it to help him in every way shape and form. The Ravens got their power RB to slow down the game and move the chains. Yeah the D lost Adalius Thomas but they are still one of the top Defenses in the league which will translate into lots of carries/yards and touchdowns for Willis.
12) Laurence Maroney – Only reason he isn’t higher on the list is the patriots love to pass the ball in goal line situations, which of course will help Brady and Wes Welker ( get ready to hear that a lot this year ) but it will probably hurt Maroney. Also his shoulder is still a little bit of an issue, mainly cause of how he has been babied and treated with extra care and this guy is just a 2nd year back, he shouldn’t be skating through training camp in New England like a vet. Still he will make a solid # 1 RB and a great # 2.
13) Reggie Bush – Like i said with Westbrook, if your in a PPR league take him higher, he will get you at least an extra 5 – 7 points each week, also if your in a keeper league definitely bump him up this list cause after this year he will be a top 5 pick for the better half of a decade. However he is still the # 2 Rb in New Orleans and yes he will get more carries he will still be more dangerous in the passing game. Duece still gets most of the goal line carries but expect Bush to pick up where he left off last year and build on it this year.
14) Maurice Jones-Drew – I wanted to put him higher but Fred Taylor is healthy ( sleeper ) and while i don’t expect him to stay healthy, Greg Jones is also back and healthy and if he stays that way look for him to take a lot of those goal line carries away from Drew this year. However when they don’t use him to run they will probably try to use him more in the passing game and this is his second year so hopefully you can get some improvement on his impressive numbers from last year. ( 8th ranked RB last year )
15) Adrian Petersen – By all means don’t draft him with the # 15 pick or even the # 20 pick., but he is my 15th rated RB on the board and I wouldn’t be shocked at all if he ended the season in the top 10. In most drafts he is going somewhere between 4th – 6th round, but I’m telling you he will be outscoring a whole lot of people who are drafted before him. By the time in draft where you would start to think about A.D. you will probably notice most the owners already have 2 RBs and are now concentrating on either their WR’s or QB’s, which means you can too for another round maybe 2 before you grab Petersen, but do it especially if your in a keeper league then you should have no worries about reaching for him. The Vikings have a great o-line, among the best in the game, and yeah Chester Taylor is still there and a real good quality back but by week 4 Petersen’s talent should of just taken over the job and lead to big numbers down the stretch.
16) Thomas Jones – Another sleeper and a great value pick. I also might of had him higher but I wonder how much of that is the Jet fan in me. ( pause ) Anyway the Jets had a solid passing game last year with ZERO running game. Thomas Jones will change that and open up the offense to become the best in the league ( my bad, delusional Jet daydreaming again ) …but it will open up and improve on last year, and yes Leon Washington is a dangerous weapon but it won’t hurt Jones workload. Jones will get more touches than he did last year thats for sure.
* EDIT * I did my rankings last week, before the Jets traded Pete Kendall to start a rookie with no experience on the o-line, so if they don’t sign a good solid vet from another team within 2 weeks, they Jets are in for a long year with that swiss cheese excuse of a o-line.
17) Edgerrin James – He let a lot of people down last year ( thank god i knew to stay away ) but this year look for him to surprise those very same people by having a strong bounce back year. New coach and coordinator who was an o-line coach, their big new draft pick for that o-line, year 2 for Leinart and his 2 top receivers and a very easy schedule all should mean big numbers for Edge, who will be a great value pick this late.
18) Ronnie Brown – Wasn’t this guy just the # 2 pick in the NFL draft ? Theres some people ( obviously delusional Dolphin fans ) who have been saying they think Cam Cameron could turn him into L.T. Jr. and to these people i ask what kind of talent transplant procedure took place during the off season that would allow for this to even be a legitimate question.
19) Cedric Benson – Listen his teammates, coaches and fans don’t like the guy, so why should I ? He should put up good numbers considering the position he is in and the talent he has, and maybe he belongs higher on this list, but this guy is known to have no heart at all and i don’t want anyone like that on my team, fantasy or not.
20) Duece McAllister – Yes he is sharing carries with Bush, even more so than last year, yes the Saints like to throw the ball, but he was still right around the 10th ranked RB last year and that was coming off off-season knee surgery, this year he is healthy and I expect the Saints to perfect a rotation for them both to put up huge numbers and wear defenses down, and like i said when talking about Bush look for Duece to get the majority of the goal line carries and that offense is capable of getting lots of them.
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