Brett Landoll Fantasy Writer

1. J.J. Arrington and not Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams, or Cedric Benson will be the best rookie running back this season and earn the rookie of the year honors. Here's why: Ronnie Brown may be in a holdout and will have Ricky Williams in his way. Cadillac Williams has to fight off Michael Pittman.  Cedric Benson has Thomas Jones to worry about. As for Arrington, he basically has no one to worry about as Marcel Shipp is still injured and Troy Hambrick wasn't terribly dedicated this offseason. Denny Green will give the Arrington the ball early and often.  Arrington should also figure for a handsome amount of receptions.

2. Priest Holmes will come back strong and lead the league in rushing touchdowns. Holmes finished third in the NFL last year in rushing touchdowns in just eight games! Even if Holmes does get hurt later in the year, he could still play just 10-12 games manage tol lead the league in touchdowns. He is that good.

3. DeShaun Foster will stay healthy long enough to have a 1,000 yard season. The past couple major injuries that Foster encountered were the kind of freak accidents that could of happened to anyone. This year will be different than his past couple years so I believe that he will have his first 1,000-yard season. But with that said, Foster will break down later in the year, which will lead to rookie Eric Shelton out of Louisville to come in and have a strong finish.

4. Marc Bulger will lead the league in passing yards this season. With how much that Mike Martz loves to throw the ball and Bulger just getting more experience, it just should equate to big yardage totals. Bulger missed a couple games last season and still finished with nearly 4,000 yards.

5. Julius Jones will lead the league in rushing yards. The second year back out of Notre Dame will get twenty to thirty carries a game, which will lead him to the rushing title. In the last seven games last year as a starter, he had 192 carries. That is an average of 27 carries per game! Bill Parcells will keep giving him the rock, and Jones will produce.

6. Chad Johnson will finish the season as the # 1 fantasy receiver and tally 100+ receptions. Here's why: Randy Moss is on a new team and will be playing a lot more games on grass.  Terrell Owens and the Eagles might be harboring some bad blood from his threatened holdout situation.   Marvin Harrison is getting older and Reggie Wayne is becoming more involved.  I could easily see Johnson leading your league in fantasy points. Johnson has played in every game the last three seasons and has never really had any injury problems. With this being Carson Palmers second year as a starter and Palmer's potential breakout season, Johnson will benefit.  Heck, Johnson  even had the most passes thrown his way out of any receiver in the league last year.

7. Chris Brown will hold off Travis Henry and stay healthy for most of the year while leading the Titans in rushing. Many people automatically thought that Henry would come in and take the starting job away from Brown or that Brown will get injured early enough so Henry could take over the reins and lead the team in rushing. But, I don’t see it that way as I believe that Brown will prove all the doubters wrong.

8. Ricky Williams will start in week five for the Miami Dolphins, just after his four game suspension. With Williams already gaining a lot of his weight back and Ronnie Brown in a potential holdout, Williams could come in off the suspension and contribute right away. There is even a chance that Lamar Gordon could start the first few games due to Brown’s holdout and Williams’s suspension. I just don't see Gordon as the starter week five when Williams is in uniform.

9. Michael Vick will finish the season as a top five-fantasy quarterback. Vick finished in a lot of leagues almost in the top ten last year with only 2,313 yards passing and 14 touchdown passes. This is now his second year in the west coast offense and he'll likely have a new starting WR in Michael Jenkins.  With a year under his belt, Jenkins should be ready to play.  Also, considering the addition of speedster rookie Roddy White, Vick can’t get any worse. Another thing that most people forget about is, this will really only be Vick’s third year as a starter being that he just started a couple games his rookie year, and missed most of the 2003 season due to injury.

10. Justin McCareins will be this years Mushin Muhammed. I have been looking and thinking whom this years Muhammed would be and McCareins is the name that I continue to come up with. With all the similarities, how could I say no to this logic? The first thing that will happen is Laveranues Coles will get hurt. Coles and Steve Smith are both smaller, speedy receivers who are around the same age. Smith was looking for a breakout season last year, as many people are looking for Coles to breakout this year being reunited with Chad Pennington. Secondly, McCareins and Muhammed are both 6-2 and around 215 pounds. Another similarity with these players is their past statistics; in 2002 and 2003 Muhammed had around 800 receiving yards and had 54 receptions in 2003. The past couple years McCareins had around 800 yards also and had 56 receptions last season. Now you may be thinking, this is all just a coincidence and it will never happen…well you may be right, but I just could not ignore all the similarities. I didn’t even mention the next receiver in line pairing with Muhammed was rookie Keary Colbert.  After my predicted injury to Coles, the player that’ll pair with McCareins will be second year player Jerricho Cotchery. Another coincidence...McCareins and Muhammed both start with an “M” and Colbert and Cotchery both start with a “C”. That just adds to the craziness.