ABC, Easy as RG3

Avery Dorsey, Staff Writer

Now that my fantasy football team name caught your attention, I would like to declare the return of fantasy football.  Even if you come from all spectrums of the fantasy football world; a returning champion fanatic, the no-win ‘I never even checked it’ failure, or a new member to the ever-exciting draft, anything can happen. It’s easy to go with consistency leading you to make the cut into the playoffs of your league, but it’s how you manage your team. Look deep into the NFL where, the sleepers lie, and it’ll go easy as RG3.

To construct a mediocre fantasy team, you’re going to need to stack your team and bench with running backs, which account for a lot of fantasy points and can be placed in the flex position. There are a multitude of great running backs, like our obvious ones: Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy, and Adrian Peterson, who junior Matthew Vohs and seniors Kevin Escobar, Freddy Giesler and Joe Fales all agree are first round draft picks.

One thing to avoid is acclaiming a running back who has a sharing role, such as Carolina Panthers running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. They’re unpredictable in how many snaps they’ll be handed, and you’d have to get both to compliment each other, wasting precious draft spots.

Defense/Special Teams are usually left until the end of the draft, but this year is different with the presence of the impenetrable defenses of the NFC West: Rams, Cardinals, Seahawks and 49er’s. There are the favorites like the Panthers and the Broncos as well.

“Although running back De’Anthony Thomas is a rookie and most sleepers aren’t, he is going to prove himself to be an everyday starter after the first couple of games,” Vohs said.

De’Anthony Thomas is a rookie version of Darren Sproles. Both are flex players that can gain points from on the ground and in the air.

“Darren Sproles of the Philadelphia Eagles is going to be a sleeper,” senior Damian Divine said.

New England Patriots running back Steven Ridley is a sleeper to look out for as well.  Although he’s fumble prone, everyone witnessed a breakout season for him when he busted out 1200 yards in 2012 and finished off last season with a whopping seven touchdowns in five games.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers veteran quarterback Josh McCown is finally getting a shot at the starting role.  He is prepared alongside a studded receiving core consisting of Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, Brandon Myers, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and a returning running back, Doug Martin, behind him. With a QB rating of 109 in eight games last year with the Chicago Bears, he recorded 1,829 yards and 13 touchdowns. You can easily make a prediction that he is a major sleeper in the draft.

The biggest risk you take is with injury prone players.

Senior Damian Divine says that, “Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Percy Harvin is bound to get re-injured.”

Percy Harvin is a projected star has only played one complete sixteen game season in his career. Another player who is known for his off-the-field incidents and his recently torn rotator cuff surgery is Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress. At the age of thirty seven with a shoulder injury, it’s likely his career is coming to an end. Senior Freddy Giesler agrees that the Steelers will be injury prone for the majority of the year. San Diego Chargers’ wide receiver Danario Alexander, who has torn his ACL for the fourth time, is also in the list of injury prone players to stay away from.

Following the first week of fantasy football, my team fell short 85-83 against junior TJ Ball.  Matthew Stafford went on a rampage with 246 yards and two touchdowns for a massive 29 fantasy points leading TJ to a last second victory, while Larry Fitzgerald flopped productively Monday night for me. Darren Sproles proved to be efficient on the Eagles spread offense and in fantasy earning 14 overall points on 11 carries for 71 yards and six targets for 14 yards.

Steven Ridley barely received any carries in the Patriots offense and Josh McCown showed to be unfamiliar with a new offensive scheme in Tampa Bay by throwing two interceptions.

A glimpse of hope by Josh was seen with his 183 throwing yards for two touchdowns.  Panthers defense held Josh McCown and the Buccaneers to just 14 points while getting two interceptions and one fumble recovery for a strong 12 fantasy points for myself.

Two solid performances by Colin Kaepernick and Vernon Davis were signs of consistency week in and week out.  Kapernick hooked up for both of his two touchdowns with Davis, acquiring 17 fantasy points for Kaepernick and 16 for Davis. The first week of fantasy football and my predictions were both off and accurate, but that just proves that fantasy football is very complex and takes both research and luck.

 


 

ABC, Easy as RG3 is a weekly fantasy football column written and created by Avery Dorsey.