Hopefully you listened to most our sleeper picks last week, and ignored the Kendall Wright advice. Yea, he was a big disappointment despite a great match up as he only had 3 catches for 19 yards. Hopefully all the sleepers will exceed expectations this week!
This week there are 4 teams on bye, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Houston. That along with the fact that many big name players are injured, leaves owners needing a spot start. This is where sleepers will come in handy!
Quarterback
Sam Bradford, St. Louis Rams.
Bradford has been anything but a safe fantasy play this season. He is likely on the waiver wire in your league and a perfect bye week replacement candidate. He has shown flashes of brilliance this season, mainly weeks 2 and 6. Where he topped 23 fantasy points in standard leagues each week. This week he verses the Patriots who have allowed a league leading 16 touchdowns through the air. The Rams D should keep them within range and the Pats have only allowed 3 rushing touchdowns this season. So it will be up to Bradford to get the win. He will have to play well, and the match up favors him. Expect Bradford to throw for around 300 yards and a couple of scores. Interestingly enough in a standard 4 point passing touchdown league, Bradford has either finished under 13 points or over 23 points. Expect him to finish upward of 15 fantasy points this week.
Other Sleepers: Christian Ponder, Brandon Weeden, Matt Hasselbeck.
Running Back
Alex Green, Green Bay Packers.
Fantasy owners have grown tired of Greens poor play. He has yet to top 7 fantasy points since becoming the starting halfback. But this is the week to start him with confidence! Green goes against the Jaguars, who have allowed 8 rushing touchdowns this year, the 4th most in the league. They have allowed a running back to score a touchdown in every game this year, and 2 more for backs through the air. That along with the fact that they give up around 129 yards per game to halfbacks should leave owners feeling great. Green has seen plenty of carries as the starter, seeing at least 20 in the past two games. Expect around 20-84-1 from Green this week, with the potential to add on even more.
Other Sleepers: Jamie Harper, Shane Vereen, Montario Hardesty.
Wide Receiver
Chris Givens, St. Louis Rams.
Givens is starting to emerge as the deep threat wide out for the Rams. As stated earlier the Rams have a great match up this week going against the Patriots who allow a league leading 16 receiving touchdowns. Week after week the Patriots secondary gets burned and Givens has posted over 50 yards receiving each of the last 4 games. The only issue is that over that span he has only pulled in 1 touchdown and has maxed out at 85 yards. However in each of those games he had a 50-yard catch. Expect around 3-73 with the potential for a deep touchdown play.
Other Sleepers: Santana Moss, Ryan Broyles, Davone Bess.
Tight End
Joel Dreessen, Denver Broncos.
I was going to go with David Thomas but it appears as Jimmy Graham is good to go. So instead I will go with the other backup tight end in this game and that is Joel Dreessen. While Tamme remains the starter, he has been outproduced by Dreessen every week since week 1. Dreessen will not see a ton of targets, but he is a big red zone threat and has 3 touchdowns in his last 4 games. However he did see a season high 7 targets in his last game. In what should be a shoot out against the Saints, who have allowed 12 touchdowns through the air this season. Expect around 4-37-1 from Dreessen this week.
Other Sleepers: Logan Paulsen, Brandon Myers.
DST
Raiders
The Raiders did a good job of getting to the Quarterback last week as they recorded 3 sacks. The Raiders have allowed 18 touchdowns in just 6 games this season, which is tied for the 10th most in the league. The good news? They have only allowed 6 rushing touchdowns, compared to 11 through the air (one touchdown was against the offense). This week they play the Chiefs who have been very effective on the ground, and anything but that through the air. So they should have a good chance this week of containing the Chiefs and potentially making a big play or two.
Other Sleepers: Dolphins, Browns, Chargers.
So here are this weeks sleepers! Good luck this week!