Fantasy Tennessee Titans

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

Apparently Jeff Fisher was feeling like his backfield was bare with the departure of the unexciting Chris Brown, because -- for the third year in a row -- the Titans have selected a running back early in their draft. Now Fisher has Chris Johnson at his disposal along with LenDale White and Chris Henry.

Johnson's a poor-man's Reggie Bush. He can bang like an outside the tackles tailback, but catch passes out of the backfield as well. His value initially will be as a third down back, but he has the explosiveness that could help him develop into much more as soon as 2008. He's the home run hitter that White and Henry are not with his reported 4.25 40 speed.

Fantasy Spin:

- White: He's the inside bruiser, so short yardage and those lame first down "let's establish the run now" handoffs right up the middle are about all she wrote for the big man. You can't count on him for any better than your third fantasy back, because his value will stem strictly from short-yardage TDs. I wouldn't even count on him for that, as the lack of confidence in him carrying the load is evident with the past two years' drafts.

Titans quarterback Vince Young is sick of talking about his quadriceps injury, but fantasy players, betting folk, and others interested in the Texans-Titans game want to know more about it. So here's my talking out of my rear semi-educated guess on the subject matter:

Factors for Him Starting:
Past History. Titans coach Jeff Fisher tends to keep injury information very wishy-washy, and often former-Titan QB Steve McNair would not practice, or minimally practice, and still play the game. It is likely we find out the starter on game day. Young has been receiving treatment for his injury, and reports today said he threw the ball.

Vince Young and Houston. Though Young doesn't want to talk about the game against Houston as being special, you know he wants to stick it to the Texans every time he is in his hometown.

Factors For Him Sitting.
Nature of His Injury. Often, you can't get straight information from teams about injuries, so you have to look em up for yourself. From the appearance and description of his injury, and in my role playing fake doctor, it sounds like he had a second degree quadriceps strain. From what I've read about these, Young will be able to do normal activities, but may exacerbate his problem if he runs in a full sprint.

As Mario Williams knows, it is hard to own a Lamborghini and not drive it fast. Similarly, it would be difficult to put Vince Young in a AFC South battle in his home town, and expect for him to play it like a pocket passer.

I just got a new ride, and it has Sirius Satellite Radio in it. Sweet. I find that I listen a lot to Chill, Raw Dog Comedy and NFL Radio, not necessarily in that order. Anyway, yesterday on his NFL Radio program, Pat Kirwan mentioned his NFL.com article about how there could be 10 quarterbacks in the NFL this year who are starting the season for the first time as a 16 game starter. I hadn't realized it could be that many. He stresses that expectations shouldn't be too high for these quarterbacks because their learning curve is steep.

Stat stud, Doug Drinen at the always interesting Pro-Football-Reference.com blog, wrote an entry a while back about the difficulties of teams with inexperienced players at the offensive skill positions. He took a historical look at the greenest teams at quarterback, running back, tight end and 2 wide receivers, and then compared that to their final season records. Though there were a few success stories in the bunch, the data shows that the least experienced teams at the skill positions usually stunk. But since all quarterbacks have to start somewhere, a number of those quarterbacks helming those teams eventually went to the Super Bowl.

So, I have a few questions for you. Are you concerned about the inexperience of your team's quarterback and/or the skill players around him? And, what other Sirius radio programs do I really need to check out?

The AP is reporting that Vince Young will be the Tennessee Titans' starting QB when they face the Dallas Cowboys tomorrow.

Tennessee is 0-3, dealt away last year's starter Steve McNair in the offseason, dealt away his backup Billy Volek last week and the guy who signed two weeks before the season began [Kerry Collins] has struggled mightily. Collins has just 1 TD pass and 6 INTs. Not really an equation for success.

So with the season slipping away, the Titans are putting the ball in the hands of the guy who gives them the best chance to win. Young has played here and there this season.....going 10 for 23, 133 yards, a TD pass and an interception. He is athletic and has a better understanding of the offense than anyone at the QB spot right now.

Young was the #3 player taken in the 2006 draft and was figured to be a semi-project. It seems that the project has been greenlighted to 'go' status.

It seemed for a while like Titans running back Chris Brown would be displaced as the starting running back in Tennessee. There was never any official announcement about it, of course, but the Titans drafted LenDale White, Brown was disgruntled, and he had requested a trade. And there was also the issue about him just not being very good.

But despite all of that, Chris Brown remains the Titans #1 running back, as noted here in The Tennessean. And even though I couldn't recall anyone else being named the starter in Tennessee, I was still sort of surprised to see the headline. I guess I just kind of assumed that with all the drama, the Titans would make an effort to go in a different direction.

I guess that didn't go too well for them. Which brings us, of course, to Chris Brown's fantasy value, which is about as about equally exciting as Chris Brown the running back. I just don't see him really lighting things up. He averaged less than 4 yards per carry last year, he won't have much of a passing game to back the defenses off, and he'll probably lose goal line carries to LenDale White. Other than that, however, he could be fantastic.

It might just be me, but if the question was "Better Year: Jamal Lewis or a tree stump with a rotting root structure," I might have to go with the stump. I know that Jamal's had some (ahem) off-field distractions in recent years, and that's supposed to be behind him, but his decline in production over last few years is staggering.

His decline has as quick and as thorough as that of Britney Spears. All that's left for him to do now is spend a few romantic evenings with Kevin Federline. This might be a good pick, that is, if your league count stats from 2003. Look at his yardage totals in the past few years. 2066 three years ago, 1006 two years ago, and 906 last year. His yards-per-carry numbers parrot those: 5.3, 4.3, 3.4. I see Lewis going in the third or fourth round in some fantasy drafts, and it baffles me. If you do draft him, make it with a much later pick, and then take Mike Anderson shortly thereafter.

I'm not entirely sold on Chester Taylor, either, but I'd be more willing to roll the dice on him than I would be on a Jamal Lewis comeback. Taylor's at least got a clean slate. All he has to overcome is some talented competition from Minnesota's other backs, and the dumb new Vikings uniforms. Lewis has history--a lot of it--to overcome.