Burning Questions
The following is information gathered by NFL writers and reporters from around the country. They are our eyes and ears in the locker room and on the field. We rounded up some of the very best from to help us answer some of the burning questions of the 2009 season.
1. Do you expect the Patriots to get less aggressive and/or effective throwing the ball with Tom Brady returning from knee surgery?
I think Brady is going to sling the ball around like it's 2007. He remains the team's biggest and best offensive weapon. The only person looking forward to Brady's return more than fantasy owners is Randy Moss.
Without Brady (and a true No. 1 running back) last year, the Patriots rushed for 2,278 yards, the sixth-highest total in team history, but backup Matt Cassel still had six games where he attempted 35 passes or more. The Patriots are a game-plan specific offense, but they love to go to the shotgun, spread teams out and let the quarterback (Brady) surgically pick defenses apart. That's not going to change.
Christopher Gasper, Boston Globe
2. With so many other backs in Denver, how big a workload do you expect Knowshown Moreno to have in his rookie year?
I would expect Moreno to be spotted here and there in the first three or four games and then start getting 15 carries a game from there. The Broncos will be a pass-first team so Moreno's value could be nearly as much as a check-down receiver as a ballcarrier.
Mike Kils, Denver Post
Editor's Note: Follow Gregg Rosenthal and Evan Silva on Twitter and get the daily fantasy goodies on our fantasy blog.
3. The Jacksonville receiver group looks pretty thin. Who do you think will step up and will the group hold back David Garrard from a good fantasy season?
Torry Holt will clearly be the go to guy and he should have respectable numbers. Mike Walker will have his moments, but not enough to make him a reliable fantasy starter. The running game, not the wideouts, is the key to Garrard's season.
His 2007 campaign was the product of the line being able to punish teams in the running game, drawing the preverbial extra defender in the box. If he can have a solid year with Reggie Williams and Ernest Wilford in the lineup, the wideouts won't be the case if Garrard fails to have a good year.
Mike Dempsey, 1010XL Jacksonville
4. Will Darren Sproles and the young backs behind LaDainian Tomlinson make it a running back by committee in San Diego?
The plan is for LT to still get his 300 carries. Sproles and Jacob Hester would combine for 15 touches-per-game in a perfect world.
Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune
5. Are the Packers confident in Ryan Grant as a 300-carry- type running back or will they spread it around more this year?
Well, coach Mike McCarthy told our Tom Silverstein before last season that an ideal workload for Grant would be about 20 carries a game. Brandon Jackson seemed to have turned a corner last year so I think they would like to get him involved a little more -- although when Grant was battling through his hamstring injury in the first half the Packers decided against that.
One x-factor could be the emergence of undrafted free-agent Tyrell Sutton from Northwestern. The Packers liked him enough to give him a three-year deal with a signing bonus. He would be the shifty-, elusive-type back the Packers haven't had on third downs. But that shouldn't affect Grant much. He's strictly a first- and second-down back. So 300 carries -- Grant had 312 last season -- is about his ceiling.
Greg Bedard, Packers Blog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
6. When do you expect Matthew Stafford to take over at quarterback?
As Lions head coach Jim Schwartz likes to say: "It depends.'' In this case, it'll depend on whether Stafford is competing with the Daunte Culpepper of 2003 or the Daunte Culpepper of 2008. If Culpepper continues to look as good as he did in minicamp, the Lions will be in no hurry to rush Stafford into action.
The huge contract is no longer a factor because the money has already been spent. The only thing that's important now is making sure the coaching staff puts Stafford in the best possible position to succeed.
Tom Kowalski, Mlive.com/Lions
7. Is the coaching staff at all concerned that Michael Turner may be at risk
of breaking down after such a heavy workload last year?
Turner held up considerable well under such a heavy workload, but the plan is to diversify the offense and split more of the carries with Jerious Norwood and an emerging Jason Snelling. Also, an improved passing attack should make Turner more effective as the offense won't be so predictable.
D. Orlando Ledbetter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8. Who do you expect to lead Tennessee in receiving yards?
The Titans will continue to distribute the ball, and with the addition of Nate Washington and Kenny Britt have more options than ever before. Still, look for Justin Gage to lead the way if healthy. He has the experience in the offense and chemistry with Kerry Collins.
Jim Wyatt, Nashville Tennessean
<!--RW-->9. Marshawn Lynch was outplayed at times by Fred Jackson last year. Do the Bills still see Lynch as someone who could carry the ball 20 times a game once his suspension is over?
Lynch is still by all means the feature back. When he returns from his three-game suspension he will still be toting the mail 18-22 times a game. His reception numbers however, could be impacted by Jackson and veteran signee Dominic Rhodes.
Chris Brown, Lead Journalist, BuffaloBills.com
10. Will the passing attack fall off with Jon Gruden leaving and who do you expect to start at quarterback in Week 1?
The Bucs don't plan to throw the ball a lot, which would be a significant change from the Jon Gruden era. New offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski plans to run the ball early and often in his zone-blocking scheme.
Tampa Bay doesn't want to find itself in a position where it's throwing the ball a lot since with the exception of Byron Leftwich and Brian Griese, who will be released or traded, Bucs signal callers Josh Freeman, Luke McCown and Josh Johnson have combined for less than 10 NFL starts. Tampa Bay wants to let their 2009 first-round draft pick sit and learn during his rookie campaign, and all indications suggest the team is determined to give McCown every chance possible to prove he should be the starter on opening day.
Jim Flynn, PewterReport.com
11. Do you think Ted Ginn has what it takes to be a true number one receiver or is he just a role player?
If Ted Ginn Jr. wants to become a true No. 1, he is going to need to become far more aggressive and far more physical on a far more consistent basis. We all know Ginn has the speed to be elite, but he's always running out of bounds prematurely and trying to avoid any contact across the middle.
At this point, I'm not sure that's something you can teach. But if the Dolphins can find a big body to handle some of those duties, it might take some of the attention off of Ginn long enough for him to still become an extremely productive receiver in the NFL.
Jeff Darlington, Miami Herald
12.. Will the addition of LeSean McCoy mean fewer touches for Brian Westbrook or will McCoy simply take over Correll Buckhalter's role?
I think the plan is to give Westbrook the football a little less often than they have the last three years and McCoy should be the beneficiary of that philosophy. Westbrook has averaged 22 touches per game in the regular season the last three seasons after touching it just 12.3 times per game in his first four seasons. McCoy should be able to take some of that workload away from Westbrook as long as he can learn to be competent at picking up blitzes.
Bob Brookover, Philadelphia Inquirer
13. Arizona's passing game was wildly productive last year. What is their biggest obstacle to repeating that success?
Biggest obstacle to continuing passing success is health. Warner has to stay healthy. Coaches like Leinart but the offense will change if he plays, they'll rely more on the run.
Kent Somers, Arizona Republic
14. How do you think the new offense and the addition of Glen Coffee will affect Frank Gore?
Since Gore carried a club-record 312 times in 2006, his rushing attempts have fallen to 260 in '07 and 240 last season. Gore is such a tough runner that the team wants to be careful not to work him too hard. That is why they want to institute more of a shared system at running back.
Coffee might get seven to 10 touches a game. Gore has never been great in short-yardage situations, so Coffee might get an opportunity to take on that responsibility. If Coffee performs as expected, he could end up with as many touchdowns as Gore with a lot few rushing attempts.
Matt Maiocco, Instant 49ers, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
15. Do you expect Jay Cutler to continue to put up big numbers with the Bears receiver group or will they drag him down?
Without the talented receiving duo of Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, Cutler will not enjoy the same statistical success he had with the Broncos. That doesn't mean he won't put up numbers that look big in Chicago. While he is taking a definite step down in class with the receivers he is working with, Devin Hester started to come on at the end of 2008 and if Kyle Orton hadn't missed him on a handful of passes when he was open deep, Hester's statistics coming out of his first full season as a wide receiver would look much different.
Earl Bennett and Juaquin Iglesias are unknowns for Cutler, but he has a proven pair of talented receiving tight ends in Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark, and they'll be featured significantly. Don't be surprised of Olsen becomes his go-to target. There will definitely be some growing pains for Cutler in the offense, but if he's as good as the organization believes he is, he's going to make the receivers around him better.
Brad Briggs, Inside the Bears Blog, Chicago Sun-Times
16. Ben Roethlisberger had a career worst YPA and threw 15 fewer touchdowns in '08 than he did in '07. Who is the real Big Ben?
Ben's TD:INT ratio plummeted in '08 because he was running for his life for most of the season (he was sacked 46 times in 2008) behind a bad offensive line. He also didn't have the benefit of a capable ground game to open up play action possibilities. These are two very good explanations for the drop in big plays, touchdowns from the passing game.
The question, then, is what will change in '09?
With the same offensive line, the loss of their best downfield threat in #3 WR Nate Washington and no immediate help from the draft, I'm not sure we can expect much of an improvement in this area.
If you're the glass half-full type, Big Ben is entering his age-27 season. That's a very good age to be a professional athlete and many see it as the very middle of one's physical prime.
But taking a glass half-empty view, Ben relies on his youthful manuervability more than any QB in the league...and age-27 magic or not, the 2009 season will be Roethlisberger's sixth in the league. That's six years of relentless punishment to his body, the last three of which have seen him sacked 46, 47 and 46 times.
Gun to my head, I'll predict 22 TDs, 17 INTs and yardage totals in the 3,000-3,400 range.
Rocco DeMaro, WPGB
The following is information gathered by NFL writers and reporters from around the country. They are our eyes and ears in the locker room and on the field. We rounded up some of the very best from to help us answer some of the burning questions of the 2009 season.
1. Do you expect the Patriots to get less aggressive and/or effective throwing the ball with Tom Brady returning from knee surgery?
I think Brady is going to sling the ball around like it's 2007. He remains the team's biggest and best offensive weapon. The only person looking forward to Brady's return more than fantasy owners is Randy Moss.
Without Brady (and a true No. 1 running back) last year, the Patriots rushed for 2,278 yards, the sixth-highest total in team history, but backup Matt Cassel still had six games where he attempted 35 passes or more. The Patriots are a game-plan specific offense, but they love to go to the shotgun, spread teams out and let the quarterback (Brady) surgically pick defenses apart. That's not going to change.
Christopher Gasper, Boston Globe
2. With so many other backs in Denver, how big a workload do you expect Knowshown Moreno to have in his rookie year?
I would expect Moreno to be spotted here and there in the first three or four games and then start getting 15 carries a game from there. The Broncos will be a pass-first team so Moreno's value could be nearly as much as a check-down receiver as a ballcarrier.
Mike Kils, Denver Post
Editor's Note: Follow Gregg Rosenthal and Evan Silva on Twitter and get the daily fantasy goodies on our fantasy blog.
3. The Jacksonville receiver group looks pretty thin. Who do you think will step up and will the group hold back David Garrard from a good fantasy season?
Torry Holt will clearly be the go to guy and he should have respectable numbers. Mike Walker will have his moments, but not enough to make him a reliable fantasy starter. The running game, not the wideouts, is the key to Garrard's season.
His 2007 campaign was the product of the line being able to punish teams in the running game, drawing the preverbial extra defender in the box. If he can have a solid year with Reggie Williams and Ernest Wilford in the lineup, the wideouts won't be the case if Garrard fails to have a good year.
Mike Dempsey, 1010XL Jacksonville
4. Will Darren Sproles and the young backs behind LaDainian Tomlinson make it a running back by committee in San Diego?
The plan is for LT to still get his 300 carries. Sproles and Jacob Hester would combine for 15 touches-per-game in a perfect world.
Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune
5. Are the Packers confident in Ryan Grant as a 300-carry- type running back or will they spread it around more this year?
Well, coach Mike McCarthy told our Tom Silverstein before last season that an ideal workload for Grant would be about 20 carries a game. Brandon Jackson seemed to have turned a corner last year so I think they would like to get him involved a little more -- although when Grant was battling through his hamstring injury in the first half the Packers decided against that.
One x-factor could be the emergence of undrafted free-agent Tyrell Sutton from Northwestern. The Packers liked him enough to give him a three-year deal with a signing bonus. He would be the shifty-, elusive-type back the Packers haven't had on third downs. But that shouldn't affect Grant much. He's strictly a first- and second-down back. So 300 carries -- Grant had 312 last season -- is about his ceiling.
Greg Bedard, Packers Blog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
6. When do you expect Matthew Stafford to take over at quarterback?
As Lions head coach Jim Schwartz likes to say: "It depends.'' In this case, it'll depend on whether Stafford is competing with the Daunte Culpepper of 2003 or the Daunte Culpepper of 2008. If Culpepper continues to look as good as he did in minicamp, the Lions will be in no hurry to rush Stafford into action.
The huge contract is no longer a factor because the money has already been spent. The only thing that's important now is making sure the coaching staff puts Stafford in the best possible position to succeed.
Tom Kowalski, Mlive.com/Lions
7. Is the coaching staff at all concerned that Michael Turner may be at risk
of breaking down after such a heavy workload last year?
Turner held up considerable well under such a heavy workload, but the plan is to diversify the offense and split more of the carries with Jerious Norwood and an emerging Jason Snelling. Also, an improved passing attack should make Turner more effective as the offense won't be so predictable.
D. Orlando Ledbetter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8. Who do you expect to lead Tennessee in receiving yards?
The Titans will continue to distribute the ball, and with the addition of Nate Washington and Kenny Britt have more options than ever before. Still, look for Justin Gage to lead the way if healthy. He has the experience in the offense and chemistry with Kerry Collins.
Jim Wyatt, Nashville Tennessean
<!--RW-->9. Marshawn Lynch was outplayed at times by Fred Jackson last year. Do the Bills still see Lynch as someone who could carry the ball 20 times a game once his suspension is over?
Lynch is still by all means the feature back. When he returns from his three-game suspension he will still be toting the mail 18-22 times a game. His reception numbers however, could be impacted by Jackson and veteran signee Dominic Rhodes.
Chris Brown, Lead Journalist, BuffaloBills.com
10. Will the passing attack fall off with Jon Gruden leaving and who do you expect to start at quarterback in Week 1?
The Bucs don't plan to throw the ball a lot, which would be a significant change from the Jon Gruden era. New offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski plans to run the ball early and often in his zone-blocking scheme.
Tampa Bay doesn't want to find itself in a position where it's throwing the ball a lot since with the exception of Byron Leftwich and Brian Griese, who will be released or traded, Bucs signal callers Josh Freeman, Luke McCown and Josh Johnson have combined for less than 10 NFL starts. Tampa Bay wants to let their 2009 first-round draft pick sit and learn during his rookie campaign, and all indications suggest the team is determined to give McCown every chance possible to prove he should be the starter on opening day.
Jim Flynn, PewterReport.com
11. Do you think Ted Ginn has what it takes to be a true number one receiver or is he just a role player?
If Ted Ginn Jr. wants to become a true No. 1, he is going to need to become far more aggressive and far more physical on a far more consistent basis. We all know Ginn has the speed to be elite, but he's always running out of bounds prematurely and trying to avoid any contact across the middle.
At this point, I'm not sure that's something you can teach. But if the Dolphins can find a big body to handle some of those duties, it might take some of the attention off of Ginn long enough for him to still become an extremely productive receiver in the NFL.
Jeff Darlington, Miami Herald
12.. Will the addition of LeSean McCoy mean fewer touches for Brian Westbrook or will McCoy simply take over Correll Buckhalter's role?
I think the plan is to give Westbrook the football a little less often than they have the last three years and McCoy should be the beneficiary of that philosophy. Westbrook has averaged 22 touches per game in the regular season the last three seasons after touching it just 12.3 times per game in his first four seasons. McCoy should be able to take some of that workload away from Westbrook as long as he can learn to be competent at picking up blitzes.
Bob Brookover, Philadelphia Inquirer
13. Arizona's passing game was wildly productive last year. What is their biggest obstacle to repeating that success?
Biggest obstacle to continuing passing success is health. Warner has to stay healthy. Coaches like Leinart but the offense will change if he plays, they'll rely more on the run.
Kent Somers, Arizona Republic
14. How do you think the new offense and the addition of Glen Coffee will affect Frank Gore?
Since Gore carried a club-record 312 times in 2006, his rushing attempts have fallen to 260 in '07 and 240 last season. Gore is such a tough runner that the team wants to be careful not to work him too hard. That is why they want to institute more of a shared system at running back.
Coffee might get seven to 10 touches a game. Gore has never been great in short-yardage situations, so Coffee might get an opportunity to take on that responsibility. If Coffee performs as expected, he could end up with as many touchdowns as Gore with a lot few rushing attempts.
Matt Maiocco, Instant 49ers, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
15. Do you expect Jay Cutler to continue to put up big numbers with the Bears receiver group or will they drag him down?
Without the talented receiving duo of Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, Cutler will not enjoy the same statistical success he had with the Broncos. That doesn't mean he won't put up numbers that look big in Chicago. While he is taking a definite step down in class with the receivers he is working with, Devin Hester started to come on at the end of 2008 and if Kyle Orton hadn't missed him on a handful of passes when he was open deep, Hester's statistics coming out of his first full season as a wide receiver would look much different.
Earl Bennett and Juaquin Iglesias are unknowns for Cutler, but he has a proven pair of talented receiving tight ends in Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark, and they'll be featured significantly. Don't be surprised of Olsen becomes his go-to target. There will definitely be some growing pains for Cutler in the offense, but if he's as good as the organization believes he is, he's going to make the receivers around him better.
Brad Briggs, Inside the Bears Blog, Chicago Sun-Times
16. Ben Roethlisberger had a career worst YPA and threw 15 fewer touchdowns in '08 than he did in '07. Who is the real Big Ben?
Ben's TD:INT ratio plummeted in '08 because he was running for his life for most of the season (he was sacked 46 times in 2008) behind a bad offensive line. He also didn't have the benefit of a capable ground game to open up play action possibilities. These are two very good explanations for the drop in big plays, touchdowns from the passing game.
The question, then, is what will change in '09?
With the same offensive line, the loss of their best downfield threat in #3 WR Nate Washington and no immediate help from the draft, I'm not sure we can expect much of an improvement in this area.
If you're the glass half-full type, Big Ben is entering his age-27 season. That's a very good age to be a professional athlete and many see it as the very middle of one's physical prime.
But taking a glass half-empty view, Ben relies on his youthful manuervability more than any QB in the league...and age-27 magic or not, the 2009 season will be Roethlisberger's sixth in the league. That's six years of relentless punishment to his body, the last three of which have seen him sacked 46, 47 and 46 times.
Gun to my head, I'll predict 22 TDs, 17 INTs and yardage totals in the 3,000-3,400 range.
Rocco DeMaro, WPGB
