Fantasy ramifications of Williams in Dallas

So Jerry Jones unloaded four draft picks and sent them to Detroit in exchange for wide receiver Roy Williams. Will owners of Williams get an immediate kick for their fantasy football dreams?

Immediately, the impact is more likely to be an improvement for guys like Terrell Owens and Marion Barber who will have another weapon to take pressure off of them. Defenses will have to spread their coverages more evenly against Williams leaving those two and Jason Witten more space to roam. They can’t double-cover everybody.

There are a couple other issues that will prevent Williams from having a huge immediate impact himself. First, he has to learn the offense. Sure, they can draw up four or five plays for him to run or tell him to go deep and he might get lucky and catch a couple long ones, but he’ll need to know the entire playbook before he can maximize his contribution.

Second, Tony Romo’s broken pinkie means Brad Johnson will likely be flinging the pig the bulk of the next couple weeks. He might get deep once in awhile but he doesn’t have the arm strength anymore to match the diversity of throws that Romo offers.

Finally, and I borrow this tidbit from Saturday’s Fantasy Football Weekly on KFAN-AM, is the Cowboys’ schedule. After playing St. Louis this week, Dallas hosts Tampa Bay, visits the New York Giants, takes a bye week, then heads to Washington for a Sunday night game.

The NFC East is the toughest in football and those two division games and Tampa make for a tough trio. They then face weaker defenses at home in San Francisco and Seattle. But during weeks 14, 15, and 16, which typically are fantasy football playoffs for most leagues, they play at Pittsburgh, and then host both the Giants and Baltimore Ravens.

Sure, the Cowboys are one of the better teams in football and they’ll likely win more of those games than they’ll lose. But at least a half-dozen of their remaining contests are going to be tough sledding.

Over the next month Williams will likely get more and more comfortable in his new surroundings. And he’ll probably be more productive than Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton have been as regular players. But if you’re looking for an substantial upgrade – if you’re looking for a season saver, you should probably look somewhere else.