The 2010 Comeback Player of the Year!
2009
Last year at this time, all I could talk about was how Michael Turner was going to bust. Ok fine, maybe not bust – but while every other fantasy website/magazine had him going 1 or 2, I had him ranked outside the top 7 and after two WRs (‘Dre and Calvin Johnson –oops on CJ). My main reasons had something to do with difficulty of schedule and the risk of injury via all those carries in 2008 (370+). I was advocating taking Frank Gore ahead of him – and taking bets I might add. I won a lot of bets in 2009–except my friend Danny skirted out on one of them, because we had made some caveat that each had to play a minimum of 12 games – lucky bastage.
A New Decade
At any rate, a new year, new analysis, new projection, and guess what? I’m pulling a 180 on the entire situation (my Frank Gore bust piece will be forthcoming). Turner missed 5 tilts in 2009, was not quite the same runner as he gained some weight between ’08 and ’09. And oh shocker, he went down to injury in week 9. But look at his stretch of games in weeks 2-8 before he went down… while his yards weren’t quite consistent, his end-zone dances were; 10 tuddies in those 7 games before he went down to injury. And week 9? He had racked up 111 yards in the first half, and little known Jason Smelly came in and busted off another 68 or so yards and a score in the 2nd half of that game. The point? Turner was on a roll.
2010 Fantasy Outlook
27 career games with the Falcons and 27 career TDs with the Falcons. You PPR’rs have it ALL wrong with this cat. Ok, so he doesn’t catch the ball out of the backfield – who needs it when you are rattling off 6pt tuddies and 95.7 (2570 rush yards in 27 games) yards in every game you play on average?
I always love it when I read these words in the off or pre-season; so and so “showed up to the camp in the best shape of his career, his cuts are crisp and he’s hitting the line with authority” blah blah blah. These are the words that are being sung about a Turner. He’s back, healthy, and making waves in OTAs – the good kind; the kind that have insider fantasy ballers drooling.
This all said, there is an important trend that emerged in 2009 that is worth mentioning here and which should prevent you from getting all excited and making him numero uno… In the first 8 full games the Burner did play in ‘09… he averaged a sliver shy of 20 touches per game (down from 24 in 2008). This trend WILL continue in 2010. 20 x 4.6 ypg = 92 YPG. And with that, he’s averaging a tuddie per game w/ the Falcons and I see no reason for that to stop. Non-ppr leaguers should have this guy just inside their top 5, and PPR leaguers could maybe drop him to 7 or 8 among RBs. He’s gonna roll in 2010; I’m gonna bet the bank on it.
The best breaking news on Michael Turner can be found at:
