After completing my fantasy football draft this evening, it's time to unveil the five players that I would absolutely classify as late round steals when it comes to your draft, and five players I wouldn't touch with a wooden pole. I thoroughly hope you find this insightful and feedback via twitter(@bretzky26) or by e-mail at brett_h_murray@hotmail.com would be greatly appreciated.
"Slithering Steals"
1.Devin Funchess-WR(Carolina)- With the unfortunate news coming out of Raleigh that stud receiver Kelvin Benjamin suffered a season ending injury, this has opened the door for the recent Michigan graduate Funchess. Funchess is a giant standing at 6'5, and the expectation was that along with Benjamin, the Raleigh "Twin Towers" were purportedly amongst us, but we'll have to wait until at least 2016 for anything of that magnitude to materialize. Funchess doesn't possess high end speed but is an excellent route runner and the strong arm of his now quarterback Cam Newton will be able to effectively find him with numerous quick hitting patterns that will work to Funchess' advantage. In non-keeper drafts, try to land Funchess in the sixth to seventh round.
2.Kyle Rudolph-TE(Minnesota)- Kyle Rudolph due to the market he resides does not get the deserved recognition. Rudolph's career plight throughout the first three years of his career is that of someone that has had difficulty with staying healthy. The reason I view Rudolph as a mid to late round steal is because a lot of the "insiders" are under the premise that Minnesota Vikings will constantly stuff the ball inside and seemingly ignore their running game, but I'm here to tell you that the emergence of Teddy Bridgewater will be an added bonus attack for Rudolph and other Vikings pass catchers. Selecting Rudolph in the sixth to eighth round would be a worth while concept.
3.Dorial Green-Beckham-WR(Tennessee)- In my keeper league this evening, Green-Beckham was picked relatively early so kudos to the owner who nabbed him in my league. I think Green-Beckham, as has been stated numerous times had his issues collegiately getting removed from the Missouri Tigers program, but if he would've been a civil citizen of the program he likely would have had his name called in the first round of the NFL draft. Green-Beckham's comparable, and this is solely my opinion as is everything else with this enterprise is would be Brandin Cooks out of the Louisiana state. The concern I have, and we'll see whether this becomes me overthinking the situation or ending up being correct and that's whether Marcus Mariota will show the maturity to be a consistent gun slinger in his first season. A third round pick without the quarterback concerns, sixth round pick otherwise.
4.Victor Cruz-WR(New York Giants)- Some reading this will feel as if I'm contradicting myself, particularly seeing as how I didn't end up pursuing Cruz as a fantasy selection. Well...the jokes on you, as I still might! Nonetheless, my reasoning for labelling Cruz a sleeper is three fold For starters, I'm prognosticating the G-men to win the Super bowl so that right there should exquisitely explain my reasoning for wanting Victor Cruz. I think all of the attention and rightfully so will be on the best receiver in the business in Odell Beckham which will create matchups pitting Cruz against a lot of CB2's. Let's not forget that Cruz has been a number one receiver on a super bowl team before and even though he's a little long in the tooth, I could go on and on but I better wrap this up and login into my league and acquire the Super Bowl champs #2. Very, very late round pick would suffice.
5.Nelson Agholor-WR(Philadelphia)-Again, kudos to the same owner who I also believe selected Green-Beckham, but being how he's a delusional Eagles fan, this one didn't surprise me. I only classify this individual as delusional as who in their right mind cheers for the Eagles. Agholor, the more I read I continually get the same rhetoric back and that's he's the number two receiver on the Eagles. Maybe I need a news flash brought to my attention, but what has Jordan Matthews done to suffice being considered the Eagles top show in town. The answer is nothing, Jordan Matthews is an overrated commodity in the city of Brotherly Love which furthers my reasoning for why Agholor is a fantastic pick as by the end of the year I guarantee barring injury he will get the bulk of the work load for Philadelphia. Fifth to sixth round pick.
"CFL Bound"
1.Mark Ingram-RB(New Orleans)- My thought process in including Ingram on the no touch list is that I look at New Orleans as a whole, and I see a team who's bound for a plentiful decrease in the passing game losing Jimmy Graham allowing defensive coordinators to emphasize shutting down the run which will negatively influence Ingram's production. Ingram has reportedly claimed that he aspires to be the three down back but Mark, if I may, and I know you're chomping at the bit every time I post an entry, stick to focusing on the run my friend as without that you're a useless pylon hindering the Saints. They brought in C.J Spiller for a reason.
2.Amari Cooper-WR(Oakland)- The laughable Raiders have once again struck with incompetence. The sad reality is for newly appointed head coach Jack Del Rio is like all other head coaches that have come and went in the Davis era, a team now hawked over by late Al's son, they seem to focus on the short term, never focusing or concentrating on the long term plausibility of the franchise. I fear Cooper's going to succumb to the same pressures put on him that Darius Heyward-Bay dealt with while donning the Black and White. The hierarchy in Northern California doesn't breed success and the fact that quarterback Derek Carr will have the mandate to throw Cooper's way twenty times a game, it's likely that defensive coordinators will have Sunday feast against a rookie that at this point doesn't know any better.
3.Julian Edelman-WR(New England)- I can only imagine some of the reactions that will be internally thought of after reading this. Edelman's Patriots just won the Super Bowl right? Well yes, but the impartial observer in myself clearly saw a scenario developing in Foxboro that when the game got tougher, more targets were going Brandon LaFell's way. Edelman is a premier kick returner, but relying on the kick return won't win you fantasy championships. I think some confuse the fact that because he has such excellent return abilities that he's actually being a premier receiver, for which he is nowhere close. The Patriots may thrive, but Julian will not.
4. Ryan Tannehill-QB(Miami)-Throwing for twenty seven and twenty four touchdowns the last two years respectively is certainly commendable, but the loss of Mike Wallace should not be understated. Jarvis Landry had a astonishing 2014 campaign, but I'm not convinced can retain his number one receiver status. Who else does he have the opportunity to throw the ball too? Greg Jennings? The same Greg Jennings who may allow the infamously slow baseball great Mo Vaughn look like Usain Bolt? Not happening, the lack of quality receiving targets is a scary proposition for fans in the Miami area as to parody a quote from the great Lebron James" This year, I'm going to take my fantasy quarterbacks from South Beach".
5.Doug Baldwin-WR(Seattle)- This Stanford grad may cause most fantasy owners to commit the Cardinal sin by overvaluing one aberration of a year while not focusing on the depth a team has, and particularly in the Seattle Seahawks case, they now have other receivers that are ready to take away some, if not all of Baldwin's productivity. The two names I had in mind were Jermaine Kearse and former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Chris Matthews. I don't think picking Baldwin in a lower rounds of the draft is a make or break mistake but the ones that do are going to switching their sole focus to hockey sooner than others.
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