Underrated Fantasy Players

The fantasy season has been upon us as the majority of people have by now had their draft.  For the first time in a couple of years, I have jumped back into a league myself, which is why I am waiting until now to do a fantasy preview of sorts.  The first blog will pertain to players that I feel that are not getting enough love.  Every year there are players that are written off too early as they still have gas left in the tank and end up having a very good season.  There are others that maybe something has changed with the offense and they are being unfairly written off due to that.  This blog is going to contain those players in my opinion.  For the record, I missed out on many of these in my recent draft, so don't feel bad if you did as well.  In the heat of the draft when you only have 1:30, it is sometimes difficult to process these value guys.

Running Backs

This is a position that is becoming more and more scarce to find good week in week out starters.  If you have not drafted, let me start by saying I would focus on this position first as you will be able to get quarterbacks and wide receivers later.  Your first 2 picks should be on running backs unless, the best of the best fall to you as a great value in another position.



Bradshaw being drafted too low

Ahmad Bradshaw, the average draft pick of this guy is 92 in Yahoo leagues.  This is absolute insanity as far as I am concerned as when he is given the carries, he has always done well.  He is known to have injuries from time to time, but even if he ends up starting 12 games, he would be well worth it this far down considering how scarce the position is.  One of t
he most important factors to weigh as well as that Andrew Luck's old offensive coordinator from Stanford is taking the reigns from Bruce Arians.  That is going to mean a very un-NFL like reliance on the running game.  If you get Bradshaw as a third running back, consider yourself lucky.

David Wilson,  Mr. Wilson will be the New York Giants running back at all times even around the goal line, now the Andre Brown broke his leg, which even without talent should make him a higher pick than the average 57th that he is being drafted according to Yahoo leagues.  Wilson, has shown enough talent that the Giants had no problem saying good bye to Bradshaw, who despite injuries has been productive for them.  Good luck to NFL defenses trying to cover their receivers and commit to the running game as well.  Should have a very good year as long as he stays healthy.

Rashard Mendenhall, not a huge fan of this guy, but he is averaging a draft pick of 103.  This is a guy that was easily worth drafting as he has great upside with Carson Palmer now running the offense.  For some reason, people easily equate that Palmer will make Fitzgerald a better fantasy pick, but they do not think that will carry over to the running game as well.  If defenses will now be more worried about Fitzgerald and company, this should make more room for Mendenhall.  I would expect that he should be good for at least 800 yards and 8 touchdowns, which for a 10th round pick seems to be great value.

Wide Receivers

Andre Johnson, how in the world is Andre Johnson falling this much.  The average pick for this guy is 31.  Are you kidding me?  I am in this as well as I did not pick him and I regret it now.  We sometimes look at what is ranked and forget to go with our gut.  This dude is a freak, that just in case anybody cared, had over 110 catches and almost 1600 yards last season.  Enough said, I am distraught about this one.

Antonio Brown, in reality the average pick for this guy is around 53 right behind Welker, which is not terrible.  It seems that many people are down on him verbally, when I think the fact that Mike Wallace being gone is going to only makes him more important.  Brown can stretch the field and make the tough third down catch.  Should have a lot of targets.

Sidney Rice, I don't think that he will have insane numbers but in deep leagues he could easily be a third or fourth receiver.  He had almost 800 yards and 7 touchdowns with Russell Wilson only being a rookie.  I think that as Wilson starts to go downfield more as he gains experience, Rice could have a bigger year.  The main reason for him being on the list is that his average pick is 115.  This guy would be worth the flyer.

Quarterbacks

Michael Vick, the average pick is 104.  Barring injury, which is tough to say as he does get injured quite a bit, he should really take advantage of this offense.  He is on the downside as he has some wear and tear, but being picked this deep as most likely a backup, he could end up

Vick should be a good later round pick
in this new Chip Kelley offense

being a starter down the road for most fantasy teams.  Chip Kelley runs a faster offense than New England and that makes it very difficult for defenses.  If he stays healthy, he should have a good year, I would expect 25-30 total touchdowns if he plays all 16 games, which is truly the big question mark.

Joe Flacco, it is true that he lost a couple of his toys, but people are failing to see the change with Jim Caldwell taking over the offense.  Flacco's production has gone up as he throws downfield a lot more.  He still has some capable receivers in Torrey Smith (avg pick 46) and Jacoby Jones.  So we don't mind taking Smith fairly high, but we are picking Flacco behind Brandon Weeden and Ryan Tannehill.  Okay!

Jay Cutler, Phillip Rivers, Carson Palmer, Sam Bradford:  These are the last 4 quarterbacks being taken.  Outside of Carson Palmer, who is fairly old at this point and hasn't shown us too much, the rest of these guys could easily be your 2nd quarterback, but you are getting great value out these guys as a third.  Sam Bradford is a lot more comfortable and with Jeff Fisher at the helm, means he is good enough as he would have got rid of him if he wasn't.  He has more tools and should do very well this year.  Jay Cutler now has Marc Trestman (I like the whole bears offense this year) , who is very offensive minded and should help corral Cutler's errors. Phillip Rivers should get back to basics after a pretty bad year now that he has a new coach and low expectations.  I like all of these guys in comparison to where they are being drafted.

Later on I will go on to give my sleeper picks.