Fantasy Atlanta Falcons

Yeah. You totally want this guy on your fantasy football team. Ice-man.

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet the ...
Wal-Mart shoppers. And I don't mean that like the Falcons are cheap or reside in the upper echelon of America. I just mean to point out that they're horrible consumers. Both the contracts to Michael Turner and Matt Ryan were a touch absurd, but at least as a result they'll be more entertaining to watch this year. And maybe help your fantasy team. Maybe.

The Breakout
There's really no other option -- it's Turner. Now, the true sleeper (look how I highlight key phrases!) would be Jerious Norwood, because people are casting him aside, talent be damned. But Turner is getting relatively little love for the quality of work he's shown while backing up LaDanian Tomlinson. He's probably going to go third round or later, which is reasonable considering the Falcons stink and he's untested as a starter. But I would probably reach up to the middle/late second round to grab him; I've done the same thing with other untested guys on crummy teams (LaMont Jordan, Chester Taylor) over the years, and it's worked out well.

Fantasy FanHouse will be chiming in throughout the NFL draft with fantasy analysis of each fantasy relevant pick.

I'm of the opinion that Matt Ryan is not a franchise quarterback, no matter how much Mel Kiper will justify his 19 interceptions by saying he was "coming from behind." Ryan will, however, be given the reigns in Atlanta next season. He might not start right away -- the Falcons still have Joey Harrington and Chris Redman -- but he'll be taking snaps by week six.

That doesn't necessarily mean that he will be fantasy relevant this year. Well, actually, he'll be relevant, but he will not be worth much for single season leagues. At the very best in a one year league he will be a QB2 option, and that's only for the owner who prefers to take a stud QB early and then wait a long time for a backup. Still, even if you're that type of owner, Ryan is a lower end option at best.

For dynasty/keeper purposes, Ryan certainly has a lot more appeal. He would not be my first draft choice for a keeper league though -- I'd rather spend that on Darren McFadden or Rashard Mendenhall -- but deeper leagues are obviously going to want to jump on Ryan. But I'm not entirely sold, personally. On the other hand, there are a lot of owners who will want to get all up on the Matty Ice hype. If that's the case, I would recommend using him as trade bait. If you get stuck in the keeper draft position of having to draft him though, you could certainly be worse at quarterback.

The big news in the NFL is that the Falcons have traded backup quarterback Matt Schaub to the Texans. In return, the Falcons got to swap their own 10th overall pick for the Texans' eighth overall pick, and they also got the Texans' second-round picks this year and next year.

Doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations and using the chart that NFL teams rely on when determining the value of draft picks, I've come to the conclusion that those picks mean the Texans have given up the equivalent of a mid-first-round pick (about the value of the 19th pick overall) for Schaub.

So here's the question: What makes the Texans think Schaub is worth that much? As my colleague Tom Mantzouranis noted yesterday, Schaub has started only two games in his career, going 81-for-161 with six touchdowns and six interceptions. There's no guarantee that he'll be a competent quarterback when he gets the starting job, let alone a star.

That's why the contract the Texans and Schaub have agreed to is so interesting. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that it's a six-year, $48 million contract with $7 million guaranteed. That's really not a lot of guaranteed money for a starting quarterback contract, especially a six-year contract for a 25-year-old starting quarterback. That means the Texans and Schaub both understands that if things work out, he'll be rewarded handsomely, but if things don't work out, he won't have cost the Texans anywhere near as much as David Carr did.