Sleeper Disclaimer: Although these are players that ought to be undervalued due to poor performance or injury in 2009, there might be a lot of hype swarming around them preseason. In this case the player has been “de-sleepered” and we don’t want them because our whole objective is to get undervalued players. Here at Razzball we will have extensive pre-draft coverage and go over all this.
In a previous post I discussed why DeSean Jackson could be a disappointment in 2010 for Fantasy. I am a big believer in managing your risk in order to produce consistently. We don’t want our scores to fluctuate drastically from week to week because we’ll lose more games that way.
A critical strategy in managing your risk is to avoid owning players on the same team unless you have an extremely good reason to do so (i.e. they are both huge Sleepers, you are handcuffing, etc.) I am going to dedicate a post to this whole concept and why I am right about it.
The reason I bring this up is both DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are attractive players in 2010 Fantasy football. Since I’m not willing to own both and take on more risk, however, I need to choose between the two. In this type of dilemma I go with whichever player offers more upside.
DeSean Jackson will probably have the same type of year in 2010 that he had in 2009, perhaps not quite as good (still very solid, though). Jeremy Maclin should have a monster season and can be drafted MUCH later than Jackson. He has a lot more upside and thus I’ll be skipping over DeSean Jackson (who I owned in every league last year) and targeting Maclin in all my drafts.
Dude, what’s the deal with your ridiculous man-crush on Maclin? Am I gonna have to read about this constantly in your Razzball pre-draft coverage? Unless McNabb gets traded the system in Philadelphia is set up perfectly for a receiver like Maclin. Even if McNabb gets traded the system is favorable. And yes, you’re going to have to listen to it because I preach about the players that are the best value and Maclin fits the bill.
Entering the 2009 season there was some hype surrounding Maclin. He was a high round pick, had a great pedigree, and was a receiver (which the Eagles never seem to have enough of). He was drafted in the middle rounds in most leagues. The early part of the season Maclin’s production was basically nothing. He didn’t see the field nearly as much as anticipated and Donovan McNabb was giving him a lot of looks when he was in. Through the first 4 weeks he only had 6 catches for 45 yards with no touchdowns (although one of those weeks was a Bye). Many people, myself included, ending up dropping him in favor of better Sleepers. It looked like Maclin wouldn’t be relevant at all for 2009.
Beginning in week 5 Maclin went on a tear. Through the final 13 games he had 49 catches for 717 yards and 4 touchdowns.
I certainly think Maclin is capable of that pace or more for 2010. Don’t forget that he caught 7 balls for 146 yards and touchdown in the Eagles only playoff game. Even if he simply maintained his 2009 regular season production from week 5 on he’d rack up about 60 catches for over 1,000 yards and 5 touchdowns. That is a solid year in and of itself but remember: there’s upside!!!!!!
So let’s consider all the factors. Maclin has the pedigree, work ethic, physical tools, stable organization, superb passing attack, etc. He has everything we look for in a Sleeper. In 2010 he is a player you must target in your draft(s).
