Saturday, February 1, 2014

2013 Fantasy Football Saviors

The key to winning fantasy football leagues often is through adding very productive late draft picks, stealing someone else's handcuffs or raiding the waiver wire. These Sleepers help round out a successful team with your top draft picks. While Peyton Manning and Jamaal Charles were fantasy MVPs, they alone did not win championships. The fantasy football saviors come from the list below and are found on many of the teams that finished in the money this year.

QB: Nick Foles (PHIL)
 - Foles showed flashes of promise in 2012 and should have been handcuffed to the injury-prone Michael Vick. If you did that, you were wise. If not, and you owned him, it was most likely a waiver wire addition. Foles produced Top 10 fantasy points and did so in only 12 games. He only yielded one dud game that he started, which was against Dallas in a game he left early due to a concussion. He was also solid during the fantasy playoffs; scoring 18, 33 and 19 points.
RB: Knowshon Moreno (DEN) - Before the season started, no one knew if anyone from Denver's backfield would be a primary ball-carrier. It was assumed that the rock would be shared between Ronnie Hillman, Montee Ball and Moreno, with goal line opportunities being given to Ball. Oh how wrong we were. Moreno had the 5th most points for running backs and had double digit points in 12 of his 16 games. With him being a late round draft pick, he was a true Sleeper.
WR: Josh Gordon (CLE) - Gordon was ignored is most league drafts due to three factors working against him; he plays for Cleveland, he was suspended for the first 2 games and Brandon Weeden was slated as his starting QB. However, Gordon made a statement in his first game back with 24 points. He narrowly missed being the highest scoring WR and did it in 14 games. He had double-digit points in 11 of his 14 games and scored 25, 13 and 13 in the fantasy playoffs.
TE: Julius Thomas (DEN) - It was hard to envision Manning being able to entertain his tight ends with enough opportunities to make them relevant with the wide receiving corp that he had at his disposal, but he did with great ease. Even with missing a few games during the season, Thomas was a late round draft pick that paid huge dividends. He was the 3rd highest scoring tight end this season.

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