It's early, but preseason position ranks aren't optimistic about Oakland's fantasy performers. Will anyone pop? We break down the fantasy implications.
Sneak peek alert!
The SB Nation Fantasy Football preview is coming soon, and along with that will be our consensus rankings at each position, and of the top 150 overall. When compiling that top 150, I mentally checked off a list of the teams. Sure, the Eagles and Chiefs and Broncos were checked off early. Toby Gerhart got the Jaguars off the schneid in the 40s, and Carolins, Cleveland, and Baltimore followed soon after. When Mike Wallace came around at 77 as the first Dolphin, I thought, that finished all the teams.
Then I came across Darren McFadden at No. 97.
Here is the rank at which team first appears in our top 100, as well as the total number of top 100 players each team has:
| Team | First Appearance | Total Top 100 |
| Arizona | 31 | 3 |
| Atlanta | 19 | 4 |
| Baltimore | 54 | 3 |
| Buffalo | 37 | 3 |
| Carolina | 47 | 3 |
| Chicago | 4 | 4 |
| Cincinnati | 11 | 2 |
| Cleveland | 46 | 2 |
| Dallas | 10 | 5 |
| Denver | 7 | 7 |
| Detroit | 5 | 4 |
| Green Bay | 9 | 4 |
| Houston | 18 | 3 |
| Indianapolis | 41 | 4 |
| Jacksonville | 44 | 1 |
| Kansas City | 1 | 1 |
| Miami | 77 | 2 |
| Minnesota | 2 | 2 |
| New England | 28 | 5 |
| New Orleans | 6 | 4 |
| NY Giants | 39 | 2 |
| NY Jets | 57 | 2 |
| Oakland | 97 | 2 |
| Philadelphia | 1 | 3 |
| Pittsburgh | 16 | 2 |
| San Diego | 32 | 4 |
| San Francisco | 48 | 5 |
| St. Louis | 26 | 1 |
| Seattle | 12 | 4 |
| Tampa Bay | 21 | 2 |
| Tennessee | 53 | 2 |
| Washington | 24 | 5 |
Basically, not only are the Oakland Raiders terrible for fantasy value, they are forgettably terrible. There were worse teams than the Raiders a year ago. Houston and Washington won fewer games; Houston, Jacksonville, and Washington had worse point differentials. But, as far as fantasy is concerned, you could just about have pretended Oakland didn't exist, and nothing would have changed.
I've been finding interesting team tidbits throughout these team previews. And almost universally, the Raiders don't do well:
- They had the sixth-worst Interestingness Quotient.
- They were seventh-worst in team fantasy depth.
- They've finished third in five of six years, and fourth in the other.
- They have had more roster turnover than any other team.
- They lost a huge chunk of their fantasy scoring from last year
In a word, the Raiders are sad.
So, what is there to look for out of the team? Are there sleepers? Will new additions Maurice Jones-Drew and Matt Schaub make a difference?
Quarterback
Schaub wasn't always terrible. He almost reached 5,000 yards in 2009, finishing fifth among quarterbacks in fantasy scoring that season. Heck, in 2012, he played all 16 games, topped 4,000 yards passing, threw 22 touchdowns against 12 interceptions, and finished a well-it's-not-awful 19th.
So rather than 2013's collapse being the end of Schaub, perhaps he was collateral damage in the abomination that was Houston's season. After all, in the team's two wins to open the season, he threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns per game.
Regardless, the string ran out on Schaub in Houston, and they dealt him to Oakland in March for a draft pick. And oh boy, is Schaub excited to be a Raider.
I am of the mind that Matt Schaub is still a fine NFL quarterback. Not great, but a fair piece ahead of the Terrelle Pryor-Matt McGloin combo Oakland ran out there a year ago. On the other hand, Schaub no longer has the Andre Johnson security blanket he enjoyed throughout his Houston tenure.
Schaub is a placeholder for the team, until second-round draft pick Derek Carr is (ideally) ready to take the reins. It's hard to see that happening in 2014, though.
I rank Schaub 29th among quarterbacks in fantasy, just above EJ Manuel and his replacement in Houston, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He has the upside of a mid-to-low QB2, but to start the season it's hard to see any way to use him.
Running Backs
In six NFL seasons, Darren McFadden has never played more than 13 games; he's averaged just over 11 a year. In eight NFL seasons, Maurice Jones-Drew has played fewer than 14 games only once; he's averaged just over 14 a year. Jones-Drew has averaged more touchdowns per year, more yards per carry, more everything than everything than McFadden.
I rank McFadden ahead of Jones-Drew this season.
To be fair, it's really close - I have McFadden as my No. 30 running back, Jones-Drew as my No. 32 - but yes, despite everything in that earlier paragraph, I think McFadden is a better fantasy play than Jones-Drew in 2014. Part of that is the fact that Oakland, when deciding between McFadden and Rashad Jennings after last year, held onto McFadden before also signing Jones-Drew. Part of that is gut feeling.
But there's also this: At the elite at each position, you need guys who are likely to play as many games as possible. When a player is averaging 15, 18 fantasy points a game, their bad games are still 10-pointers, and any absence is critical. On the other hand, the middle tiers, the guys who score 10-ish a game, you would rather they just miss a game. A bad game from a mid-tier guy is a four-pointer, and that's worthless. When McFadden is out, pick up someone with a favorable matchup - Darren Sproles, or Lamar Miller, or DeAngelo Williams - and roll them out. Jones-Drew plays every week, and his bad games just hurt you.
That's not perfect - McFadden isn't guaranteed a good game just because he's on the field, after all - but your low-end starters are where you don't mind an occasional injury as much, and he makes sense there.
Latavius Murray, a 2013 sixth-round draft pick, missed 2013 with an injury, but has been garnering some publicity entering camp. It's possible he could be a viable sleeper running back in deeper leagues.
Wide Receivers
The Raiders' top three receivers - Rod Streater, Denarius Moore, and James Jones - could all easily lay claim to being the team's No. 1. Streater was the top performer of the three last year, putting up 104 fantasy points and finishing 35th at the position. But he played every game; Moore missed three, and his 95 points in 13 games is a better per-game average. Jones is the big-game guy, the one who has had absolutely dominant single games.
Of course, those big games Jones had came when he had a quarterback, in Aaron Rodgers, who is quite a bit better than his current passer. When Greg Jennings left Green Bay for an inferior quarterback, his numbers fell off a cliff. And Jones is no Greg Jennings.
Still, his new teammates aren't exactly top-flight receivers, either. Moore has been around three seasons, and has yet to play a full 16 games or get to even 750 yards in a season. Streater went for 888 yards a year ago, but that strong performance was at least in part because he was the team's lone healthy option.
The best bet in Oakland is that Jones will be the team's leading wide receiver. Even then, I don't have any of the three in the top 50 at the position. I'd slot Jones in the mid-50s, and Streater and Moore in the 60s.
That said, if one of the team's receivers is going to pop, become a fantasy starter, it seems like Streater is the one to do it. The team decided it liked him a year ago, and he's the most reliably healthy one of the group, so far at least.
Tight End
"Mychal Rivera" is a cool name. Unfortunately, Mychal Rivera, without the quotation marks, isn't much of a fantasy tight end. Nor is David Ausberry, the team's other primary option. Unless something changes drastically, neither is anything approximating fantasy relevance.
Miss out on any of the team pieces so far? Catch up here:
| AFC EAST | NFC EAST | |
| Buffalo Bills | Dallas Cowboys | |
| Miami Dolphins | New York Giants | |
| New England Patriots | Philadelphia Eagles | |
| New York Jets | Washington | |
| AFC NORTH | NFC NORTH | |
| Baltimore Ravens | Chicago Bears | |
| Cincinnati Bengals | Detroit Lions | |
| Cleveland Browns | Green Bay Packers | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | Minnesota Vikings | |
| AFC SOUTH | NFC SOUTH | |
| Houston Texans | Atlanta Falcons | |
| Indianapolis Colts | Carolina Panthers | |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | New Orleans Saints | |
| Tennessee Titans | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | |
| AFC WEST | NFC WEST | |
| Denver Broncos | Arizona Cardinals | |
| Kansas City Chiefs | San Francisco 49ers | |
| Oakland Raiders (Hidey-ho) | Seattle Seahawks | |
| San Diego Chargers | St. Louis Rams |
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