Look for unknowns to carry you to fantasy football glory
The fantasy football regular season ended with a resounding thud this year. Week 13 was littered with disappointing performances, suspensions and enough injuries to send any owner completely over the edge.
But these are the playoffs. It’s do or die, and whining about lost players is not an option. If we learned anything from Derrick Henry’s four-touchdown performance Thursday, it is that there are still plenty of ways to repair the damage.
With the injuries to James Conner, Matt Breida and Emmanuel Sanders coupled with Kareem Hunt’s suspension, the mainstream fantasy community has spent the past few days fighting over the likes of Jaylen Samuels, Spencer Ware, Jeff Wilson and Courtland Sutton. All are expected to fill significant roles for their teams in Week 14, possibly even longer. But your season isn’t over if you missed out on them.
While mainstream owners look for more-recognizable names to fill the gaps, you should be able to find some lesser-known players who may be able to give you a Herculean, or even Henry-esque, effort.
With everyone fighting over Samuels in Pittsburgh, veteran Stevan Ridley has been overlooked because he’s just not a sexy enough name nor does he qualify as a tight end on the Yahoo platform. Samuels, a former tight end in college, may be the more versatile player, but when head coach Mike Tomlin says he will use a committee-approach to replace Conner and Samuels himself acknowledges the upcoming game plan has specific packages set up for both him and Ridley, you should assume both will get work.
Ridley is much more of a between-the-tackles runner who should see plenty of early-down opportunities as well as short-yardage and goal-line situations. Samuels will handle the passing and third-down work. If you’re playing in a standard-scoring format, Ridley just might be the better option. Not to mention, if Pittsburgh wants to run out the clock against Oakland, handing the ball off to Ridley seems much more likely.
In Denver, though everyone is fawning over rookie Courtland Sutton, who now serves as the team’s No. 1 wideout, understand that Case Keenum is going to have to find alternative targets as well. Sutton will draw the stronger coverage, which will leave new slot receiver DaeShaun Hamilton and even tight end Matt LaCosse in more favorable one-on-one situations.
Sanders was the Broncos slot receiver before getting hurt and Keenum is trained to look in that direction. We also saw several extra targets go to the tight end after Demaryius Thomas was traded, so LaCosse should see some extra work as well.
The names aren’t popular and they certainly aren’t mainstream, but if those are your criteria for adding players, you’re probably not even in the playoffs. In fantasy, it is more about opportunity than it is about name recognition. Forget about who is popular. Use the players who will simply get the job done.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 4-6 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy sports advice and NFL player rankings.
