Let "sleeper" dogs lie

Admit it, every year as the fantasy football season approaches we all have our guys that are going to be the sleeper picks of the century. I drank the Wali Lundy kool-aid last year, I admit it. But how many of the sleepers really pan out. I would tell anyone that would listen that I was hearing info that Travis Henry, the perceived #3, was actually going to be the starter in Tennessee. But even my brother-in-law dismissed me and put his fortunes in the hands of Chris Brown. OUCH! My uber-sleeper last year was Cedric Cobbs (who??). He was a machine at Arkansas and single-handedly beat Texas one year. He was 3rd on the depth chart in Denver due to an ankle injury. That injury was what opened the door for Mike Bell. Being that Shanny would consider putting me in for a game to prove just how great of a running game he has, I started to see the potential. A couple years ago I laughed at the idiot that drafted Rueben Droughns and 4 weeks into the season I was throwing trade offers at him. So last year Cobbs was my sleeper darling. My last two picks in my draft were Travis Henry and Cedric Cobbs but since I didn't have a defense for week one and I had Alexander and Corey Dillon or Thomas Jones for the beginning of the season I decided that Henry was the expendable one because Cobbs was starting to get reps with the first team, and we all love Denver's running game, so there is no way I am going to get into a bidding war for a guy I just drafted and released. As we are all now aware, the results didn't turn out to well but I did undress the last place guy that picked up Henry by later trading him Randy Moss after his only good game.

My point here is that a sleeper is never going to be your #1 guy. I have had some undrafted players become starters (Rudi Johnson and Dominick Davis 2003), but never the guys I drafted late (actually you'll learn of a stud later). Some of these "sleepers" are memorable: you have heard about the RBs last year but did I mention I thought Billy Volek would blow up, before he was traded to become San Diego's clipboard carrier. How about Tatum Bell every year he's been in the league? Could this guy at least tell you what week he's going to actually play well? The only beacon of hope comes from a few years back when I was able to snag McGahee with the last pick in the draft and watched him, Manning and Tomlinson lead me on a second have run to the championship.


The receivers are a whole other level of futility. Last year Michael Clayton was going to burst back on the scene in a big way. And remember Troy Williamson? Yes he still plays in the NFL. He was going to flourish as the #1 guy in Minnesota. What was your favorite Williamson as the #1 moment? Sorry Barreiro, I stole that but you'll never read this anyway. Receivers are tricky because even high picks may tank it on you. But there is hope because powerhouse team I had a few years ago with Manning, Tomlinson and McGahee also had my first ever draft pick from those hated Packers...Javon Walker. That sleeper WR was a great pick because he was big piece of my acquisition of Tomlinson. I finished that season with three rookies out wide: Roy Williams, Lee Evans and Michael Clayton. Those three suited me just fine, but I digress.

The point to all this is that it isn't as cool to say that I drafted Travis Henry as it would have been to say I properly defended my championship. I worried more about wowing people with my keen eye for the late round gem than I did with picking the guys that will carry the bags. So don't be a dumb ass. Put together a list of guys that you know will deliver and never overrate a guy that no one else even knows is in the league because he'll still be there when the drafting's done.

Since my league isn't insane enough to have our draft this early I am not in a position to share my 2007 sleepers just yet. But have no fear because after the draft I will make my predictions known so if you were unfortunate enough to have drafted one of my gems you will still have time to drop them. Go Patriots!