

Fantasy Notebook (cont.)Posted: Friday December 1, 2006 1:13PM; Updated: Friday December 1, 2006 1:13PM By Bob Harris, Special to SI.com, FootballDiehards
No Change: Joseph Addai Will Continue To Work Off The Bench "I think it's helped me out a lot, not having a lot of pressure on me, not going in trying to make something happen early, but at the same time take advantage of the opportunities I have while I'm out there," said Addai, whose 789 rushing yards top all NFL rookies. Change: Reuben Droughns Slipping Down Depth Chart Still listed as questionable with the foot, Droughns has been working with the second team again this week. Romeo Crennel said earlier this week that Wright started only in part because of Droughns' foot -- the other part was because he liked the way Wright hits the hole. No Change: Larry Johnson Will Continue To Be VERY Busy Johnson is averaging almost 26 carries a game, which projects over a 16-game season to about 410 -- the record Jamal Anderson set in 1998 in leading Atlanta to the Super Bowl. I'm not going to wear him out," Herman Edwards said last Friday, with a hint of impatience that the issue would even be raised. "That's what good runners want." In fact, in an interview conducted last offseason, I asked Johnson how many carries he felt a good NFL running back needs. "It all depends on who the running back is," he said. "Running backs like me, like when I played the Houston game [in 2005], I didn't realize I took the ball 32 times. I didn't realize that because my body just didn't feel that way. It's different for each running back. "But to me it feels like I need to have 32 touches just to feel like I'm doing something." Based on his effort to date this season, who am I to argue? Change AND No Change: Raiders Replace Offensive Coordinator The better question might be what kind of impact can he make? Oakland has scored a league-low 132 points this year and is assured of a fourth straight losing season for the first time in franchise history. The Raiders were last in the league in passing offense and total offense, and 21st in rushing offense. Oakland has just 10 offensive touchdowns all season, less than half of LaDainian Tomlinson's individual total for San Diego. The Raiders have allowed a league-high 53 sacks -- 10 more than second-place Cleveland -- and are the only team in the league gaining fewer than 250 yards per game, with a 239.8 average. Given their limited personnel, apparently pervasive attitude issues and sundry other problems, it's hard to imagine a change of coordinators making an immediate difference. It might provide a short-term spark, but the Raider offense isn't suddenly going to hit stride down the stretch. Bob Harris is co-founder of the FootballDiehards Web site and senior editor at FSP Inc., publisher of Fantasy Football Pro Forecast, DraftBook, CheatSheets and Football Diehards magazines. He is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. 2 of 2 |
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