2 Questions about the rest of the year.

[captain77]

1) how do you see the Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert situation turning out? everything i read people are saying Tolbert is on his way out and Mathews is going to see more time. why do people think this? Tolbert seems to be a beast in short yardage and pretty valuable with receiving the ball out of the backfield. why would they change it? i understand Mathews was drafted high and is getting paid AND producing BUT Tolbert seems pretty solid in his role. how do you guys see this unfolding for the rest of the year?

 

2) how do you see Roddy White and Julio Jones doing down the stretch? Roddy is no doubt a stud and getting tons of targets but looks to have the drops right now (and only one td). Julio seems to getting more involved in the offense and seems to be more of the deep threat...and not that far behind in targets (but zero td's). ATL drafted Julio and all the rumors are the want to be able to air it out ala the packers, new england and new orleans. the difference is they have Michael Turner and that seems to be more of ATL's identity. i understand to keep up with the big boys you need to score points but i think the best way to slow down those big offenses is keep their offense off the field by having long drives and pounding the rock. how do you guys see this offense being from here on out?

 

thanks for your replies?

[delusions of grandeur]

I have no insight about #1, but as for Julio Jones and the Falcons, my thoughts are pretty well summarized here.

 

To the dismay of many fantasy owners, I think the Falcons are going to go more and more with a pick-your-poison approach (assuming the O-line can continue to improve and not have D-lines in the backfield by the time they snap the ball)... With the role Julio has established for himself, I still believe WR3 is now closer to his floor, but Roddy, Gonz and Turner are still gonna get theirs, especially as defense's have to respect Julio. So predicting which games they come up big might be quite the challenge this year without looking more at the matchup.

 

If it's a strong offense with a weak run D, expect a lot of Turner early and often. However, games like this weekend, where the Falcons are playing the Pack with the top offense and weak passing D, people are expecting it to be a coming out party for Julio in a shoot-out... They will still try to run Turner to keep the ball out of Rodgers' hands, but what will be more telling for the Falcons O will be how they handle the pass-rush.

 

To summarize all of that, while I feel all Falcon starters have a very high floor, the targets all limit eachother's ceiling, and make the big games harder to predict.

[captain77]

@ delusions of granduer: thanks for the input and the link.

[Chloroform Rx]

1) how do you see the Ryan Mathews and Mike Tolbert situation turning out? everything i read people are saying Tolbert is on his way out and Mathews is going to see more time. why do people think this? Tolbert seems to be a beast in short yardage and pretty valuable with receiving the ball out of the backfield. why would they change it? i understand Mathews was drafted high and is getting paid AND producing BUT Tolbert seems pretty solid in his role. how do you guys see this unfolding for the rest of the year?

 

The only area IMO that Tolbert has an advantage is in short yardage and goal line situations. Mathews is quicker, faster, and mroe explosive. Having said that, he played quite well in goal line situations in week 3 when Tolbert was limited. The only incentive to keep Tolbert's workload up at this point, aside from what I mentioned, is to keep Mathews fresh and healthy. If the Chargers want to move the ball they should feed the ball to Mathews when they can.

[SecondString]

I see Matthews establishing himself as the clear #1, with about a 75-80% share, relegating Tolbert to some goal line carries and that 20-25% load.

 

Atlanta - about what they're doing now, meaning Roddy will not be a top 5 fantasy WR in that offense.

[captain77]

thanks guys.

 

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