Fantasy Football 2014 Doubletake: Two Writers Talk Skill Position Sleepers

Aug 24, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Markus Wheaton (11) scores a touchdown past Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Neiko Thorpe (38) in the second half at Heinz Field. The Chiefs won the game in overtime, 26-20. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

Just a few more months and these June fantasy football articles will start to mean something — I promise.

NFL Spin Zone editor Joe Soriano and I were talking about fantasy football recently and decided to tackle one of the most popular topics in fantasy every year — SLEEPERS. We all want to be that guy who lands the player everyone else passes over and leads his team to the title. Those players rarely come from the quarteback position, mostly because there aren’t a lot of quarterbacks who fly under the radar. For that reason, we focused our efforts on running backs, wide receivers and tight ends.

This is what we came up with:

RUNNING BACKS

Joe: I’m going to start with Mark Ingram at running back. I was definitely against the Saints decision to trade up for Ingram in the first round of the draft, and he’s generally been a disappointment thus far. Ingram was involved in some trade rumors last year, but he actually showed plenty of flashes with dominant performances against the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys (to name two). Destroying the Sean Lee-less Cowboys certainly isn’t impressive, but being the best source of offense a couple of weeks earlier in a loss to the Carolina Panthers and their front seven is very much impressive.

Pierre Thomas is still there and Travaris Cadet is making some sleeper rounds, but I think Ingram is the biggest sleeper to watch for in the Saints offense. It’s a pass-heavy attack and three strong games isn’t much of a sample, but I’m willing to roll the dice on Ingram as a deep sleeper.

J.P.: It’s still early, so this will likely change, but I really like Terrence West, the Cleveland rookie running back drafted in the third round out of Towson. He’s a 5’9, 225-pound wrecking ball with breakaway speed, has good hands out of the backfield and has all the tools to be a three-down workhorse in the NFL. He has everything the Browns thought they were getting in Trent Richardson, perhaps with a bit more lateral quickness.

Right now, it looks like the only threat to beat out West for a high volume of carries is Ben Tate, who has yet to prove he can stay healthy enough to carry a feature back workload. If nothing else, monitor the Cleveland running back situation throughout the Summer and as camps start up.