Sports

2013 Fantasy Football Sleepers

The key to winning a fantasy football league is the ability to recruit Sleepers. Sleepers are rookies or NFL players who haven’t had much of an impact on their NFL careers. In the fantasy football world, this is the way to win your league championship. Last year, Alfred Morris, as a rookie, was expected to be part of an RB committee, at best, and took control of RB’s No. 1 position and delivered over 1600 yards and 13 TDs. In his sophomore year, Stevan Ridley impressed Bill Belichick enough to take on running back duties full-time and proved he was right by rushing for 1263 yards and 12 TDs. No one expected any of those performances and the owner had to ruin the rest of his team to miss the league playoffs. When you can take a player as a driver or bench player and he becomes your # 1 producer at that position, you, my friends, have a true Sleeper. Below are the best fantasy football sleepers by position for the 2013 season.

2013 Fantasy Football Sleepers

QB: Carson Palmer (AZ) – Palmer leaves Oakland and lands on the same vertical pass attack he led at Oakland. He put up some really good fantasy football numbers in Oakland and they had limited talent, at best. In Arizona, it has an arsenal of weapons. The great weapon is Larry Fitzgerald. This combination, if I can risk it, will rival the numbers that Tom Brady and Randy Moss put in in 2007. In addition to Fitz, I look forward to great seasons from Michael Floyd (standout season for him) and Andre Roberts. What strikes me most about this season is that Palmer is the 19th quarterback drafted, on average, which puts him in the 12th round or later.

Runner-up: Jay Cutler (CHI) – Cutler is on a one-year contract, has an improved offensive line and a new coach who is focused on offense, unlike his last coach. Cutler is being selected ahead of Palmer as the 16th quarterback chosen with an ADP in the 10th round. I think Palmer has a higher ceiling this year, but both will deliver huge numbers for his ADP.

RB: Andre Brown (NYG) – I know he’s in a battle with David Wilson for the starting RB position and there is talk of one RB per committee, but I love where he’s being selected. It’s almost as if the audience is already giving Wilson the starting position. Even if that happens, at 6’227 pounds, Brown is the goal-line running back, as evidenced by his 8 TDs last year in just over half a season. With Tom Coughlin being an old school coach, I think Brown will be his favorite based on his ball handling and blocking skills as well as being a powerful back. With him being selected in the eighth round, he is a perfect choice as their third or fourth RB.

Runner-up: DeAngelo Williams (CAR) – Williams closed 2012 with a 210-yard game and gets the starting role this year with Jonathan Stewart injured. If Williams can prove he can carry the load full time again, it will be a steal in a 10th round ADP.

WR: Golden Tate (SEA) – Tate is entering his third season, which is the classic breakout season for a WR. It also helps that Percy Harvin is out of season and Sidney Rice is injured, again. Tate had good chemistry with Russell Wilson last year, which steadily improved as the season progressed. He had 32 receptions, 493 yards and 4 TDs in the last 9 games. Tate has a golden opportunity to secure the No. 1 spot in WR, which is huge for a 12th round ADP … although I expect this to go up quickly towards the start of the season.

Runner-up: Emmanuel Sanders (PITT) – The Steelers paid to keep Sanders on the team after losing Mike Wallace to Miami. They plan to get their money’s worth. He’s an unknown playmaker, averaging 14.2 ypc last year and just over 5 yac. Big Ben likes playmakers and will be seen in the Sanders way often, even if Antonio Brown is considered to be the No. 1 WR. With a twelfth round ADP, Sanders makes a great fourth WR with which can easily be counted to start each week.

YOU: Brandon Myers (NYG) – The Giants lost Martellus Bennett (another Sleeper) to the Bears and replaced him with the underrated Myers. Myers had a staggering 79 receptions and 800 yards last year and joined the Giants as a free agent. Hey? Man, Oakland don’t know about talent. Eli likes his tight ends, in more ways than one, and will use Myers as much as possible and release his name this year. TE is a deep position, so Myers has an ADP in the 13th round.

Runner-up: Rob Housler (AZ) – The quarterback who threw all those passes to Myers is now Housler’s quarterback Carson Palmer. Housler is only being drafted in deep leagues, making him one of the true sleepers in fantasy football. He had 45 receptions last year on an anemic Cards offense. With Palmer at the helm, there is no reason not to expect a 50% increase in production from Housler.

D: Cincinnati Bengals: The Bengals have played solid defense in recent seasons, but they are always overlooked as they are in the same division as the Steelers and Ravens. Truth be told, the Bengals are better than those two teams this season. This group of strangers is extremely talented. Led by Geno Atkins and his 12.5 sacks last year, Michael Johnson and Carlos Dunlap are behind him in productivity. In the off-season, they added James Harrison to truly inspire this team. The writing of a defense always depends on your scoring system. Most leagues don’t award defense beyond fumbles, interceptions and sacks, which Cincy does well, but they don’t allow much separation in scoring between teams. If your league is set up to award points based on low yards and points allowed as well, you’ll want the Bengals to be your first D drafted. Seattle, San Fran, Houston, Chicago and Denver will be selected too high. You can get the Bengals in the 13th round with ease.

K: Phil Dawson – I’m always reluctant to put this position in an article on Sleepers, but I decided I would do it this year. The 49ers finally realized David Akers hit the wall and cut it in late 2012. He missed TOO many field goals last year. However, he had 94 attempts in the last 2 seasons to lead the league. Dawson isn’t a very interesting name, but he did 54 out of 60 FG during that time frame, including 27 out of 29 over 40+. With that precision and a similar number of attempts, Dawson could easily lead the league in points this year.

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