Fantasy Football Team Preview: Raiders

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the ...
Running game that needs help from the passing game. One thing is for sure, the Oakland Raiders can run the football. They finished 10th in the NFL last season in rushing offense. The problem is that they only had nine rushing touchdowns (only three teams had less), which we can attribute to the fact that the Raiders had the worst passing offense in the NFL.

If the Raiders can find a way to stretch the field and move the ball through the air, expect the rushing game to get even better.

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The Breakout
If you've read anything I've written this offseason, do I even need to say his name? He's pictured above. He's tumbled down draft boards a year after he was highly sought after, and he's as explosive as any running back in football. Some know him as "Run DMC." I know him as my No. 1 value pick in fantasy football this season.

Darren McFadden is currently being selected as the 26th running back in drafts. Reggie Bush, Joseph Addai, Marshawn Lynch (who is suspended for the first three games of the season), Derrick Ward and Knowshon Moreno are among the cast of characters ahead of McFadden. Did one injury-riddled season make us forget how much talent McFadden has? He was getting the workload in college ahead of Felix Jones. He still averaged 4.4 yards per carry and scored four touchdowns in a rookie year while saddled with injuries to his big toe. If you don't think that sounds bad, just picture how difficult it is to make hard side-to-side cuts while running full speed with a bad big toe. Agility is McFadden's game, and it was stripped from him during his rookie campaign. He's healthy and getting rave reviews in offseason workouts.

Furthermore, I direct you what I mentioned in the intro. The Raiders need to inject some life into the passing game. Naysayers of McFadden might point to the presence of Justin Fargas and Michael Bush in the backfield, but those two combined for 29 catches in 2008. McFadden himself caught 29 passes and he was injured. The best way for the Raiders to make the passing attack more explosive is to utilize the back with the pass-catching skills. He'll be on the field more than the other two.

The Bust
It's pretty difficult to name a bust on a team where the only two highly-ranked guys (McFadden and Zach Miller) are going to play well. I did find this little oddity on the latest ADP charts, though. JaMarcus Russell is currently being drafted after Jeff Garcia. Russell is the starter and Garcia is the backup. In fact, this isn't even a job competition. According to the Raiders beat, Russell would have to do "a faceplant of major proportions" to not be the starting quarterback this season.

And yet, owners are still drafting the backup before the starter. That doesn't make sense at all. Garcia is a wasted pick -- no matter the round -- and he's going before the actual starter. B - U - S - T.

The Depth Chart
QB1 - JaMarcus Russell
QB2 - Jeff Garcia
RBBC1* - Darren McFadden
RBBC2* - Michael Bush
RBBC3* - Justin Fargas
WR1 - Chaz Schilens
WR2 - Johnnie Lee Higgins
WR3 - Darrius Heyward-Bey
WR4 - Javon Walker
WR5 - Louis Murphy
TE - Zach Miller
K - Sebastian Janikowski

*RBBC = Running Back By Committee -- I ranked them how I like them to perform from a fantasy perspective, but right now all three figure heavily in the offensive plans.

The D/ST
They aren't a bad real defense, but nothing is overly exciting from a fantasy standpoint. The star of the defense is Nnamdi Asomugha, but he's too good to help in fantasy. I can translate. He's such a good cover corner, teams either don't throw to his man or they are so careful when throwing in his direction he doesn't have the chance to pick it off. He only had one interception in 2008.

As a team the Raiders aren't bad anywhere for fantasy defense purposes. They are just average. They finished 13th in sacks and 18th in takeaways in 2008. They do have a good return game, but those touchdowns aren't consistent enough to shoot them up the draft board; the overwhelming majority of leagues don't award points for return yardage.

Overall, they are a low-end D/ST2 that does a much better real job than fantasy.

The Skinny
• Miller and McFadden are both very solid value picks who can blossom into stars this season if things fall into place. Other than that, no one is really getting much run, which means you have a solid shot of finding no-risk value picks.

• Russell should be taken as a third quarterback and anything from him this year is gravy. It's far too early to write him off, considering he's only made 16 career starts and was dropped into a bad situation. Plus, we've seen bits of him being good.

• Schilens had six catches for 98 yards and two TDs over the last two weeks of 2008. That's good, but not great -- and it was only two games. He's going to be the top wide receiver for Oakland this season, but they'll be spreading the ball around. Don't look for him to do more than a WR4 and a late-round selection with the potential to be a good spot-start.

• Higgins found the end-zone seven times in 2008, thanks to three return scores. Once he started playing offense, he played well. In the last three games of the season, Higgins caught 12 passes for 174 yards and three touchdowns. Like Schilens, target Higgins as a WR4 and watch his early-season progress (we like Higgins more, for what it's worth).

• Heyward-Bey is being drafted ahead of both Higgins (by three rounds) and Schilens (by a ridiculous nine rounds). That's bust range. He'll use his speed in the slot frequently this season, but he's more of a project for the Raiders -- and reports from offseason workouts haven't been good. He's nothing more than a last-round flier and should not be taken before either of his aforementioned receiving cohorts.

• Walker's career has been derailed by lots of unfortunate injuries and what seems like bad luck. Avoid him in all formats.

• Bush and Fargas are interesting queries. You know McFadden is going to get his touches and be on the field more than either of them. If either Bush or Fargas can squeeze the other one out (the way LaMont Jordan was squeezed out a few years ago), you have a solid second running back like a Jonathan Stewart in Carolina-type situation. Fargas is currently being drafted three rounds earlier than Bush, but I like Bush better. He seems like a better complement to McFadden with his size and ability to bruise inside. Plus, Fargas only averaged 3.9 yards per carry and scored just one time last season (even McFadden had four). Take Bush as a RB4 with decent upside and ignore Fargas, considering where he's being drafted.