Yeah, it’s a bit late in the season to be telling you about sleepers, I know. I’m also a bit late to the party to maybe put you in the know before everyone else. It’s also too late to tell you not to have eaten 5 chili cheese dogs. Now your wife has parked you on the couch for the night and you reek of onions…among other things. With all that said, it’s time we take a look at a deep call and see why Kendall Hunter will bring the thunder this season. Off-Rhymes! Hrm, something seems missing…I know what it is! I haven’t interrupted myself to tell you about other cool Razzball things. The first reminder is that we have at least one more league open as of this typing for the 2012 Razzball Football Commenter Leagues and you can win some pretty sweet swag as the grand champion. My second reminder is that Razzball went BIG and got to be a part of an interview of Maurice Jones-Drew and Brent Celek. Our resident lady’s man and all around cool guy Tehol Beddict – aka LT aka a young, pre-crazy Tom Cruise – got to be a part of the action and represented Razzball like a boss. Check him out here before you dive into the sleeping Hunter. And with that, away we go to what may be the final sleeper post of 2012. Unless of course I feel like throwing one at you on Wednesday after everyone has drafted. I’m kinda ruthless like that, don’t put it past me. Now on with the show!
Please, blog, may I have some more?2012 Fantasy Football Sleepers
Seriously, we’re all Vikings all the time with our sleepers around here apparently. I touched upon Kyle Rudolph a bit ago as a 2012 sleeper and now I turn to a man whose nickname I will force you to like until I see it tweeted ad finitum. Folks, I’m here to talk to you about Minnesota’s Valhalla Warrior, Toby Gerhart.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Yeah, I didn’t think I was going to write this post either and yet here we are in training camp and Mike Wallace is still a no show in Pittsburgh. Of course, I’m on vacation which means I will be away just when the news breaks and Wallace has signed and is back with the team just to make this post look silly. Overall, I think the holdout is a vast conspiracy to really muck up my wide receiver rankings this year but since I can’t prove it, I have to move on and examine the guy who should benefit if Wallace stays away and that man is Emmanuel Sanders.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
So yes I know this is an unpopular sleeper idea. And yes part deux the return of ‘si’ there are a lot of things that hinge on him gaining value for 2012. This post probably applies more to deeper leagues than it does a standard one but I think we all need to take a closer look at what Chris Ivory has done with the Saints since 2010. Though most of his stats are front-loaded onto the 2010 season, over 18 games with the Saints, Ivory has managed 216 touches and 1090 yards rushing, good for a 5 yard per carry average to go with 6 touchdowns. Look, I understand fantasy football is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ sport but living in the now might make you miss Ivory as a cheap 2012 fantasy football sleeper.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
So the story goes, when I started my top 20 tight end rankings for 2012 fantasy football, I decided ‘I’ll write about a few guys that weren’t in the top 20 but deserved some words’. Looking back, instead of defending my lack of love for Kellen Winslow or Martellus Bennett, I wish I’d spent a few moments with the youngster set to be the starting tight end in Minnesota – Kyle Rudolph.
In review of his 2011 rookie season, there isn’t too much to glean from it to say he’s fantasy sleeper material: 26 receptions, 249 yards and 3 touchdowns from his 39 targets. But, to quote a valley girl, ‘that was, like, soooo last season…gag me!’ Seeing as it was Kyle’s rookie year and he was still playing behind Visanthe Shiancoe, we’re going to look at how Minnesota treated their Tight Ends as a whole…there’s a joke about holes and tight ends in that last sentence but I’ll leave it up to your sick imagination to fill in the gap. But I digress, with their magical powers combined, Minnesota produced 62 receptions on 109 targets as well as 658 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns. Those type of numbers would’ve had a tight end that was sniffing around the outside of the top 10 last year if it had come from one Viking rather than the two.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
So we’re going to start this post with a little hint on how I view wide receivers. There are a lot of extremely talented receivers in the game but there are really only a few that can dictate the game itself. Calvin Johnson is one of those guys. So is Larry Fitzgerald. They catch everything that is thrown near them, essentially. They have the ability to make guys like Shaun Hill and John Skelton look almost decent. If that’s not talent, I don’t know what is. Now I’m not gonna lie and say Robert Meachem is of that level but there are truly few who are anyway. What I WILL say, though, is on the other side of the spectrum you can have a good to great quarterback making decent players look like superstars. Eli Manning has made 1000 yard receivers from guys like Steve Smith. No, not that Steve Smith. THAT Steve Smith. All this to say, quarterbacks can make or break the ‘talent level’ of some wide receivers and so can the system they play in. With that, let’s take a closer look at why I’m reachin for Meachem (even reachin for rhymes too, apparently).
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Most fantasy owners have been burned by a sleeper pick or two at some point. That is why a lot of people reading this article are starting to feel a lot of anxiety and maybe even a sharp pain in their temple. James Starks was a popular sleeper pick in 2011 fantasy football leagues after an epic performance in the 2010 Green Bay Packers playoff run. Fantasy owners may have passed up guys like Fred Jackson, Willis McGahee, and Beanie Wells to draft Starks. Obviously that did not work out so well since Starks rushed for only 578 yards and 1 touchdown.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Razzball Nation! The 2012 Fantasy Season is approaching! It’s great to be back and never too early to start thinking about how to field your best squad.
What better way to start planning for your upcoming drafts than to think about sleepers. And just like your friendly proctologist, I’m going to start with the Tight End.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
