FIRST DOWN – Top 10s for 2015
Is it ever too early to take a look at the top-10 for next year? Of course it’s not. The draft and free agent signings will likely impact these rankings but until that happens here they are in all their early glory. Guys that just missed making the cut; Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger at QB, Jonathan Stewart (yes, JStew), Mike Evans and Kelvin Benjamin at WR and Tyler Eifert at TE.
| Rank | QB | RB | WR | TE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Rodgers | Le’Veon Bell | Julio Jones | Rob Gronkowski |
| 2 | Andrew Luck | DeMarco Murray | Calvin Johnson | Jimmy Graham |
| 3 | Cam Newton | Eddie Lacy | Dez Bryant | Travis Kelce |
| 4 | Drew Brees | Jamaal Charles | Odell Beckham Jr. | Greg Olsen |
| 5 | Matt Stafford | Jeremy Hill | Antonio Brown | Zach Ertz |
| 6 | Russell Wilson | LeSean McCoy | Jordy Nelson | Martellus Bennett |
| 7 | Peyton Manning | Arian Foster | A.J. Green | Julius Thomas |
| 8 | Eagles QB | Carlos Hyde | Demaryius Thomas | Dwayne Allen |
| 9 | Ryan Tannehill | Matt Forte | DeAndre Hopkins | Jordan Reed |
| 10 | Jay Cutler | Tre’ Mason | Josh Gordon | Jordan Cameron |
SECOND DOWN – Steve’s Seven Sleepers Recap
I unfortunately didn’t start my seven sleepers in week one which is why they start at week 3. What I think this exercise proved is that QB can be streamed and streamed successfully. Yes, Johnny Manziel and Josh McCown really hurt my average with their week 15 and 16 performances. Back those out and the rest of the QBs would have extrapolated out to a QB12 value. At RB, it’s hard to find and mine consistent value off of the waiver wire. WR isn’t as bad as RB and even though I had misses, there were still plenty of options that put up points. For the year the WRs would have extrapolated out to WR34. TE and DL are very similar in that beyond the top options they are two of the most difficult positions to project let alone stream the waiver wire with. That’s why in my player write-ups I’m always saying that with the top DLs and upside DLs that you just have to plug and play them and live with their highs and lows…TE feels that way to me.
| Week | QB | RB | WR | TE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | FPts | Name | FPts | Name | FPts | Name | FPts | |
| 3 | Kirk Cousins | 29.58 | Reggie Bush | 21.90 | Allen Robinson | 14.90 | Dwayne Allen | 14.30 |
| 4 | Ryan Tannehill | 22.62 | Donald Brown | 9.40 | Mike Evans | 16.50 | Brandon Meyers | 0.00 |
| 5 | Austin Davis | 30.00 | Bishop Sankey | 2.70 | Rueben Randle | 13.30 | Garrett Graham | 1.30 |
| 6 | Mike Glennon | 20.56 | Bishop Sankey | 7.80 | Torrey Smith | 21.10 | Luke Willson | 3.10 |
| 7 | Derek Carr | 7.12 | Lorenzo Taliaferro | 0.30 | Jermaine Kearse | 8.00 | Jared Cook | 5.50 |
| 8 | Andy Dalton | 24.04 | Bryce Brown | 1.50 | Jermaine Kearse | 3.50 | Jermaine Gresham | 7.40 |
| 9 | Brian Hoyer | 19.90 | Mike James | 0.90 | Jordan Matthews | 13.00 | Clay Harbor | 0.00 |
| 10 | Zach Mettenberger | 11.16 | Charles Sims | 6.00 | Justin Hunter | 2.70 | Scott Chandler | 4.70 |
| 11 | Brian Hoyer | 16.60 | Ryan Mathews | 8.50 | Miles Austin | 1.00 | Kyle Rudolph | 0.00 |
| 12 | Josh McCown | 18.84 | Isaiah Crowell | 20.80 | Kenny Stills | 17.60 | Vernon Davis | 5.10 |
| 13 | Zach Mettenberger | 12.26 | Tre’ Mason | 37.40 | Donte Moncrief | 29.00 | Charles Clay | DNP |
| 14 | Shaun Hill | 16.42 | Jonathan Stewart | 21.50 | Cecil Shorts III | 2.30 | Kyle Rudolph | 2.90 |
| 15 | Johnny Manziel | 4.50 | Chris Johnson | 5.50 | Marqis Lee | 5.40 | Ryan Griffen | 3.10 |
| 16 | Josh McCown | 5.88 | Lance Dunbar | 3.40 | Dwayne Bowe | 11.70 | Andrew Quarless | 3.70 |
| AVG | 17.11 | 10.54 | 11.43 | 3.93 | ||||
On the defensive side of the ball, as I pointed out above, the DL position is much like TE and is very difficult to mine. That’s a big part of why I suggest hitting the DL position before LB and DB in drafts. It’s also why I don’t have a ton of issues with going super early and trying to land two of the top-5 at the position. At LB, I got out the gates very slowly with 3 points from Perry Riley and zero points from Sam Barrington but then I rebounded and for the year the LB sleepers extrapolated out to what would have been LB28. At DB, I always say to wait on the position and that there is zero reason to pick one early. Well, the sleepers show that it is possible to wait on DB. For the season their 13.14 PPG would have extrapolated out to 197.10 points which would have been DB7.
| Week | DL | LB | DB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | FPts | Name | FPts | Name | FPts | |
| 3 | Ziggy Ansah | 4.00 | Perry Riley | 3.00 | Matt Elam | 4.00 |
| 4 | Akiem Hicks | 4.00 | Sam Barrington | 0.00 | Kenny Vaccaro | 17.00 |
| 5 | Wallace Gilberry | 10.00 | Jerrell Freeman | 12.00 | Kemal Ishmael | 23.00 |
| 6 | Mathias Kiwanuka | 7.00 | Anthony Hitchens | 13.00 | Usama Young | 13.00 |
| 7 | Jeremy Mincey | 1.00 | Malcolm Smith | 23.00 | Terence Newman | 6.00 |
| 8 | Michael Johnson | 4.00 | James Thomas | 13.00 | Alterraun Verner | 17.00 |
| 9 | Dontari Poe | 11.00 | James Thomas | 15.00 | Major Wright | 20.00 |
| 10 | Akiem Hicks | 1.00 | Telvin Smith | 6.00 | Will Hill | 5.00 |
| 11 | George Johnson | 0.00 | Ryan Kerrigan | 5.00 | Andre Hal | 2.00 |
| 12 | Vinny Curry | 2.00 | Anthony Hitchens | 11.00 | Louis Delmas | 17.00 |
| 13 | Justin Tuck | 8.00 | James Thomas | 27.00 | Pierre Warren | 11.00 |
| 14 | Damontre Moore | 10.00 | David Hawthorne | 9.00 | Marcus Gilchrist | 13.00 |
| 15 | George Johnson | 6.00 | Devon Kennard | 19.50 | George Wilson | 18.00 |
| 16 | Vinny Curry | 0.00 | Steven Johnson | 4.00 | Bradley McDougald | 18.00 |
| AVG | 4.86 | 11.46 | 13.14 | |||
NOTE: When I say I’m extrapolating out numbers I’m doing so on 15 weeks in a 16 week regular season because that’s how many games a player could have logged.
THIRD DOWN – Steve’s Seven Sleepers
It’s week 17 and if you need sleepers for a week 17 championship you have problems. In any event, let’s see if we can help you out.
| Week 17 | |
|---|---|
| Position | Sleeper |
| QB | Blake Bortles |
| RB | Joseph Randle |
| WR | Chris Hogan |
| TE | Tim Wright |
| DL | Damontre Moore |
| LB | Gerald Hodges |
| DB | Brandion Ross |
Good luck if you are in a championship game and I hope that my sleepers have either helped you get to your championship game and/or won it.
FOURTH DOWN – TRENCH WARFARE
In a winner take the division title here’s a look at how the Packers and Lions matchup.
PACKERS RUSHING OFFENSE & RUSHING DEFENSE
PACKERS PASSING OFFENSE & PASSING DEFENSE
LIONS RUSHING OFFENSE & RUSHING DEFENSE
LIONS PASSING OFFENSE & PASSING DEFENSE
