The Chicago Bears and Chester Taylor have come to a deal valued at 12.5 million dollars over four years, which means everything changes in the running back landscape for the 2010 fantasy season.
Mike Martz, as everyone knows, is the OC and with him comes the lateral, downfield, fast moving version of the West Coast offense which means good news for those who draft Chester Taylor regardless of Matt Forte’s fate.
But what about Matt Forte?
In 2009 his 828 yard 4 TD season was a far cry from his rookie debut year in 2008, and with Taylor in town he will be a committee back at best; and that’s IF he retains his job.
Martz’s style of offense is one that commands multiple receivers to get involved at various stages of the game. His version of the West Coast can stretch the field sideline to sideline or end zone to end zone; sometimes both at the same time.
What this does to defenses is it creates holes in coverage after the snap regardless of whether you are playing press or zone, so for those tall speedy receivers, catches are a custom commodity; perfect for PPR leaguers.
For the backs and even TEs, scoring opportunities increase within the 20; perfect for Standard leaguers.
In the same vein, even playing out of the vaunted Cover 2, speedy receivers can gain an advantage by creating one-on-one mismatches somewhere on the field.
So what does this all have to do with fantasy?
Chester Taylor is known for his speed and power, and for his penchant to be a check down receiver. For Cutler, acclimating to this version of the West Coast is heavily shouldered by utilizing your check downs, before becoming comfortable in airing it out.
But for Taylor, it’s not just gonna be about catching the ball.
Taylor will in fact get a quality amount of touches simply—if for nothing more—to set up the play action; another essential piece of the Martz puzzle.
He could have more value in Standard leagues than PPR, but his stock has considerably risen thanks to this deal.
There is a lot of initial buzz that Taylor won’t be worth anything in PPR leagues, and although that could wind up being true, I wouldn’t believe that just yet until we get closer to the 2010 season.
In addition, there is a growing concern over Greg Olsen in the respect that his value will take a significant hit due to the offensive style Martz employs, but that simply isn’t true since they did also sign Brandon Manumaleuna as their premier blocking TE.
Olsen will be a pivotal security blanket for Cutler as he adjusts, and could have significant value as a slot utilized TE ala Jason Witten.
The Bears are more and more shaping up to offer a great deal of fantasy fodder in 2010, will you be at the dinner table at draft time?
Click here for more FA news.
