Fantasy Football Sleeper Focus – NFL Week 6 Sleepers
[Admin Note: This will be the first post in a new weekly feature here at Midwest Sports Fans as we expand our coverage of fantasy sports. Kurt Fraschetti is a regular contributor to Midwest Sports Fans on Cleveland sports topics, and will also be authoring the new weekly Fantasy Football Focus. In addition to his work on our site, Kurt is a professional fantasy and odds analyst at ProFootballInsight.]
__________
Welcome to the new weekly posting of the Fantasy Football Focus, brought to you by the professionals at ProFootballInsight. If you have any questions leading into the upcoming week and wish for them to be 
answered on our weekly Fantasy Sleeper Focus column, please email us early in the upcoming week to profootballinsight@live.com. Your questions to be answered and posted for that week.
If your league is deep, that being 12-plus teams, and you are looking for options that could or should still be on waivers, well look no further. Leading into Week 6, we at ProFootballInsight.webs.com like the following sleeper options:
TE John Carlson, Seattle Seahawks
Last week Carlson was completely overlooked in the Giants’ 44-6 routing of the Seattle Seahawks. This oversight was acknolwedged by the Seahawks and John Carlson should recieve his share of looks in Week 6. I do not recommend starting him over a proven TE, but if in need, he is due to again produce.
RB Deuce McAllister, New Orleans Saints
It;s hard to call Deuce McAllister a sleeper, but with his non-existence last year, and late start this year, he should still be available. The New Orleans Saints in the last two weeks learned the hard way about the importance of a bruising running game. The lesson was simple: pound Deuce McAllister at the opposing defense, your offensive playbook becomes extremely potent, and this leads to wins; abort the ground game and become one dimensional, this means loss. Deuce McAllister should get a steady dose of carries this week and all of the goalline run opportunities.
RB Tim Hightower, Arizona Cardinals
This rookie has done nothing but score touchdowns, and this trend should continue. Tim Hightower continues to be the featured goalline back for the Arizona Cardinals, and has only had one game thus far without a touchdown. He should have plenty of attempts against a thus far mediocre Dallas Cowboys defense and is only one Edgerrin James injury away from being a feature NFL back. He is a must-have on your bench at a minimum if available.
Some additional wisdom in closing:
AVOID ALL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS AT ALL COSTS
Laurence Maroney was always thought to be the featured back for this team once Cory Dillon retired. Sammy Morris turned into the goalline stud last year and was thought to be the same this year. With the loss of Tom Brady, Randy Moss has been worthless until last week. And Wes who?
Ben Watso
n is finally seeing the field after an injury made him a non factor so far this season. Matt Cassel will either score you -2 fantasy points or 18 fantasy points; just hope the coin lands on the side you picked that week. Where am I going with all of this? It’s simple: There is no consistency with this offense, and not enough of an identity to establish who will produce each week.
I guarantee you someone on this team will give you promising fantasy numbers each week, but no one will do it consistently. Do you really think Kevin Faulk will get two goalline touchdowns this week? I don’t, but at the same time would not be suprised if it happened. The only thing that I can gaurantee is that Bill Belichick will win any way possible and his best bet is to throw a different scheme at you each week, meaning different formations, players, alignments. You name it, it will be done. Until a player can package three consistent weeks in a row, if you have a more reliable option, play ‘em.
Good luck and get your questions in.
~Kurt Fraschetti
[tags]fantasy football, nfl, sleepers, new england patriots[/tags]
Tags: deuce mcallister, Fantasy Football, matt cassel, new england patriots, NFL, sleepers
---------------
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing with your friends:
Matt Cassel is a White Sox fan…awesome.
What about Derek Anderson, Braylon Edwards or Kellen Winslow? I’m assuming with how bad they’ve been all three could be considered sleepers now. Think they can get anything going against the G-men on Monday night?
Reply
Great question Jerod.
Unfortunately you can’t consider those three sleepers with the stats they produced last year. Usually a sleeper would be considered someone who is taken extremely late in a draft, or not at all. I am sure that none of the three you listed made it out of the fifth round in any league, period. I do agree that their slump this year makes them a difficult decision to start, but if they produce, it is expected and would not be a suprise to anyone.
Go Browns!
Reply
I’ll tell you who could be a sleeper if anything ever happens to Jamal Lewis: Jerome Harrison. He makes plays every time he touches the ball. He could be a 75% version of Felix Jones if the Browns coaches got him more touches. It will keep Jamal fresh for the stretch run too. His lack of consistent involvement in the offense this year has been my biggest frustration watching Browns games (well, other than DA sucking and Braylon dropping everything thrown his way, of course.)
Reply
Alright heres a question I got Sammy Morris and Derick Ward battling for a flex spot this weekend….who do you start? I need all the points I can get
Reply
Kaner,
This is difficult because neither of your options are doing anything significant at this point to produce. In Derick Ward’s last two games combined, he still did not have as many carries as Sammy Morris had last week. Ward is averaging about a third of Brandon Jacobs carries where Morris has recieved the most carries to this point in the New England backfield. Unless Jacobs sustains an injury, or the Cleveland Browns game turns into a complete blowout and the Giants decide to rest Jacobs while trying to run out the clock, Morris would be the likely start in this scenario. If your lucky “the genius” will place Morris back into his goalline role.
Reply
Not really about sleepers but having must starts at RB and WR I am stuck on my flex option, should I play Jamal Lewis or the philly wideout Desean Jackson, keep in mind I am in a point-per-reception league.
Reply
Ncanderson,
In order to give you educated advise, I would need to know the full scoring breakdown for your league. If you have a point per reception, is there a point per carry. What is your yardage scoring and are there any yardage bonuses, are Td’s worth 6?
Reply
Fraschetti, what do you see out of Donte Stallworth in (hopefully) his first action of the season this week? Considering the D they are playing and the struggles have had on offense, I wouldn’t start Donte this week. But for the rest of the season do you see him having any value?
Reply
Great question.
As a Browns fan, I could not wait until I had the chance to see Donte Stallworth on the field for the Browns. I felt that he was overshadowed by Randy Moss and Wes Welker last year. Stallworth showed big play potential every time he caught the ball for the Patriots.
As far as his fantasy value is concerned, he has yet to grace the football field this year. If you have an available roster spot to hold Stallworth to where he does not count against you, I would definately hold him. He is not however worthy of a start until you see two consecutive games of either a touchdown or at or near 100 yards recieving. The Browns offensive unit has entirely too much talent to be this lathargic all year. The addition of Stallworth should open up the entire field for the rest of the offense. It is fairly easy to double the Browns only deep threat in Braylon Edwards, use a safety with cover corner abilities on Kellen Winslow and stack the box on Jamal Lewis, all at the same time. When you add a Stallworth to the opposite side of Edwards, the defensive scheme to cover all four becomes much more difficult. Based on Edwards most recent rash of the dropsies, Stallworth may hold more value than Edwards if this continues. The entire offense will benefit from a “healty” Stallworth.
Reply
[...] those of you who followed my Fantasy Football Sleeper advice when in a bind last week, you should be enjoying your decisions. The closing to my [...]
[...] am going out on a limb now and telling you exactly opposite of what my advice was last week. Even though I could not have been more right last week by telling you to sit your New England [...]