Fantasy Football Questions for 2009

With every new Fantasy Football season, there are always questions we want answered. Position battles, injuries and so on. One thing I have learned in life is that often simple home town fans know more than the football experts who don't live and follow the specific teams. Living in Detroit suburbs, I am often amazed with things Yahoo, ESPN and other sites will say about the Lions, knowing what I know about my home team. For this reason, if there are any home town fans who know something I do not, please leave a comment so we can work as a community to answer the following questions. If anyone has a question not listed here, please ask away and I may add it in.

RUNNING BACK BATTLES

Chris Wells vs Tim Hightower - Wells was fighting injuries for most of training camp, giving Hightower a chance to take a lead in the position battle. In Arizona's third preseason game, they were given nearly equal playing time and Wells made the battle close again.
Hightower - 6 rushes, 38 yards, 6.3 YPC, 0 TD
C.Wells - 7 Rushes, 46 Yards, 6.6 YPC, 2 TD
ANSWER - It seems to me that this could be a committee situation with Wells being more valuable as he may get more scoring chances.

Derrick Ward vs Earnest Graham vs Carnell Williams - This was originally a fight between Ward and Graham and many experts believed Ward would come out on top. The a healthy Williams stepped up and has opened eyes while in Tampa Bay's last game Ward had a very sub par outing.
ANSWER - At this time I have not found any real material to give a definite answer. I fear this could turn into the worst of fantasy football situations and become a 3 headed monster at running back.

Willis McGahee vs Ray Rice - McGahee is now healthy and he is motivated to show he is still a star. Ray Rice is much improved over his rookie season. Both players are playing well so far.
ANSWER - This could be another RB by Committee in Baltimore with McGahee seeing the inside game and scoring touches while Rice is the speedster to the outside and receiving.

Willie Parker vs Rashard Mendenhall - Parker is healthy and looks good, but I dont believe the Pittsburgh brass has faith in him to stay that way. Do you? In comes Rashard who has shown he can handle the job if given a chance.
ANSWER - Parker will get the start and most of the carries, at least at first, but Rashard will see plenty of action and be ready to take the load if Parker goes down.

Thomas Jones vs Leon Washington vs Shonn Greene - The rookie, Greene, will miss the rest of the Jets preseason with rib injuries and may have just been knocked out of the running. Jones and Washington both have been angry with contract problems.
ANSWER - So long as they both are healthy, it looks like Jones will resume as the starter, however, he will share some carries. Since the Jets are expected to be much more run heavy this year, I would see Jones getting near 850 yards and 8 TD's. Washington will be used all over the field as well as getting more carries than he did in 2008.

Joseph Addai vs Donald Brown - This is one battle that seems to stay a mystery to me. Funston of Yahoo Sports thinks Brown could see as much as 40% of the workload to start the season. So far in the preseason, they have played fairly even as Addai did better in one game and Brown did better in the other.
ANSWER - I will wait and see what happens in the third preseason game before answering this.

DeAngelo Williams vs Jonathan Stewart - Stewart has been fighting a tight achilles tendon but he insists he will be ready by week-1. Still, one has to believe the rookie Mike Goodson who has impressed the coaches will get some of his carries.
ANSWER - Williams is still the #1 Running back for Carolina and is worth a mid 1st round pick. Stewart and Goodson will battle over the touches Stewart got in 2008. Both are worth a later round pick.

Justin Fargas vs Darren McFadden vs Michael Bush - I almost want to say to stay away from these just simply because they are Raiders. In Oakland there seems to be dissent among coaches, their best receiver broke a foot with no contact and Russell is not a QB to force defenses to respect the pass.
ANSWER - Recently I read that both McFadden and Bush are expected to get more playing time than Fargas. There is a question if they will even keep Fargas on the roster for he would be too expensive to be a reserve.