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WR Louis Murphy
With training camps opening around the NFL within the next week, fans everywhere are preparing for their fantasy football drafts.
There has been no fantasy football value on the Oakland Raiders for the past few years due to the state of their offense. However, with the intensity that Hue Jackson is bringing to the offense and the improvement at the quarterback position means that the Raiders should have an offense that can move the ball and score significant points, which is something that has not been seen in Oakland for a while. This improved offense means that there are some players in Silver and Black who will be relevant to FFL aficionados once the season starts.
Now, don't go all full stop homer and put Jason Campbell at the top of the quarterback draft board. The Raiders aren't going to be setting scoring records. Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo and several others will likely be much better investments for fantasy football teams. However, there are Raiders who are worth grabbing onto to fill out other positions.
Zach Miller is going to be the best Raider receiver in terms of fantasy football scoring. He was able to lead the team in receiving for two of his three years in the league despite having JaMarcus Russell throwing the ball to him and the other teams building their defensive coverages around stopping him. Now, with the Raiders running a more diversified passing attack, it should free coverage off of him so that his catch numbers will rise. He is among the best of his position in the NFL, and will be among the first tight ends taken.
Michael Bush is going to be the Raiders starting running back. He has the Raiders last three 100 yards rushing games, and is going to be a consistent generator of yards and touchdowns. He should clock in around 1000 yards for the season and will have added a few receptions.
Louis Murphy is going to be the Raiders best wide out from a fantasy football perspective, edging out Chaz Schilens. Either one of them would be a solid pick up as a third or fourth receiver depending on the size of your roster/league.
Darren McFadden is a complete wildcard. He is not an every down type of back, but is a threat as a receiver out of the backfield. He is a big play threat, but he has no consistency. He may be someone to take a flier on in late
Comments
I usually agree with you, and I like this artical. However, are you picking Murphy to be more productive than Schilens becuase he is injury prone? It is obvious watching Schilens when he is healthy that he has potential to be one of the best in the NFL.
Any improvement in scoring compared to the last three (3) years will be deemed significant. You don't know how many times I begged for just one (1) more touchdown.
I firmly beleive that the Raiders will be improved this year. But I would stay away from them in Fantasy. Maybe you could go with Miller. But the rest of the guys are Fantasy back-ups at best, until they prove me wrong.
The Raiders have been worthless in Fantasy ever since Gannon, Rice, Brown, and Garner left. Lamont Jordan and Randy Moss had the only two good years since. But who cares, I'm worried about the REAL Raiders. I always seem to be competitive in fantasy football. I'm sick of seeing my real team get beat up every year! GO RAIDERS!!! Let's get back to dominating!!
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