Who's your Sleepers?

[vidae]

Originally Posted by Scotty D

Well I don't know about all that but Denarius Moore is going to beast all over the NFL next year.

No, no he won't.

[EvilNixon]

DHB missed 1 game, and Hue Jackson completely ignored him in two others. He could have had 1300 yards last year.

[tjsunstein]

Randall Cobb is going to explode on offense, in my opinion. Not sure how much of a sleeper he is but I think he emerges as the #3 reciever behind Jennings and Nelson.

As for defense, I like Sam Acho to record double digit sacks for Arizona.

[mdmgrand]

I few suprises that I have:

- Carolina will make the playoffs... not as a wild card either. I believe in a division that will beat itself up, in addition to playing the equally matched NFC East. I cannot see an NFC South team getting above 10-6. The Panthers improved their defense, which was a bottom ten defense in almost every aspect, with Kuechly and Alexander in the draft and also the return of Beason and Thomas Davis. Also they added Mike Tolbert. His presence in addition to Newton, Williams, and Stewart will most definitely allow the Panthers to lead the league in rushing, and control games through the clock. I can see a 10-6 season with this team.

- Darren McFadden (if he stays relatively healthy) will lead the NFL in rushing and get over 2,000 yards from scrimmage. I see 1,500 Rushing Yards and over 500 Receiving Yards.

- I really believe that the New York Giants will not make the playoffs this year. I see that division being tough from top to bottom again, with Philadelphia winning and Dallas coming in second. Philadelphia went 5-1 in the division last year, and 5/8 losses came by a touchdown or less.

- And just for the sake of it, I will list my Playoff predictions... This will include my thinking of minor injuries and some good players missing time, but obviously no one can predict an injury that cripples a team's chance...

NFC:
1) San Francisco
2) Philadelphia
3) Green Bay
4) Carolina
5) Chicago
6) Detroit

(I really do believe that three NFC North teams will make the playoffs, they drew the NFC West and the AFC South as the divisions they must play. These two divisions will provide two hard matchups in the 49ers and the Texans. And the Vikings will probably give each of these teams two wins. Whoever wins the Week 16 game with the Falcons will probably be the winner of the last playoff spot.)

AFC:
1) Denver
2) New England
3) Baltimore
4) Houston
5) Buffalo
6) Kansas City

[RaiderDiehard]

Gimme some more Cobb love. The heir apparent to Driver in the slot over there in GB. Expecting him to factor in close to Antonio Brown production.

Yeah, I'm setting the bar high.

[K Train]

Originally Posted by ChiFan24

I'd say it's more like Cutler, Peppers, Urlacher and Briggs. But yeah, you're mostly right on.

yeah i think the bears could definitely live without forte, people underestimate michael bush and his studliness, he wont offer what forte does in the passing game but he will out class him on the ground

[RaiderDiehard]

Originally Posted by K Train

yeah i think the bears could definitely live without forte, people underestimate michael bush and his studliness, he wont offer what forte does in the passing game but he will out class him on the ground

Absolutely not. Bush has seemingly lost his explosion year after year. I've watched enough of the guy over the past couple of seasons to classify him as a slightly above average runner, and not much more.

The Bears would dearly miss Forte. Accounted for nearly half their offense last season (have to double check).

[K Train]

I think bush will be fine playing in chicago, forte has always been an excellent receiving back and he had a great year running the ball last year for the most part, but he has been known to be a painfully average runner on occasion

[FUNBUNCHER]

I look for Chicago to have a Detroit Lions type passing offensive explosion in 2012. Their offense isn't going to based around their ground game, running the ball will be complementary to Jay Cutler throwing deep to Marshall/Hester/Jeffrey.

Bush will be fine in that Bears offense if the passing game takes off.

[Caulibflower]

Originally Posted by K Train

yeah i think the bears could definitely live without forte, people underestimate michael bush and his studliness, he wont offer what forte does in the passing game but he will out class him on the ground

Bush is actually a really good receiver. If you want a real sleeper for this thread, you might just throw out the possibility of Michael Bush making Chicago forget about Forte. They're actually pretty similar. Forte's quicker, but Bush is bigger. Neither runs real violently for their size, but both are big, strong and deceptively fast and smooth. Don't think the Bears will be losing much in terms of receiving ability at the position going from Forte to Bush.

Bush might've been a first-round pick if he hadn't broken his leg his senior year (He was tearing **** up at the time), and he certainly would've gone second - same as Forte. And you've gotta remember he's been sharing time with Darren MacFadden. Forte's basically been a 4.0 yard per carry guy most of his career anyways - a lot of the press he receives is for how big of a load he carries, not because he does it spectacularly, necessarily.

So in short, count me among those who thinks it's quite plausible that Michael Bush could pretty seamlessly step in for Forte if Forte decides to hold out.

[_YL_]

Originally Posted by vidae

Oh lawd.



The Chiefs DBs hope they throw it that much.

Pass interference # 26 automatic first down. Get use to it. Huge down graded from Carr to Routt.

Far as Sleepers mine would be D.Moore

[vidae]

Originally Posted by _YL_

Pass interference # 26 automatic first down. Get use to it. Huge down graded from Carr to Routt.

Far as Sleepers mine would be D.Moore

Romeo Crennel, huge upgrade from whoever you had as a DC with Routt there.

Routt was a great #2 when Nnamdi was there, and he suffered as a #1. He won't be asked to be a #1 here, he will be the #2 to Flowers. He will be just fine. You'll see how a DB is really coached up.

[Scotty D]

Originally Posted by vidae

Romeo Crennel, huge upgrade from whoever you had as a DC with Routt there.

Routt was a great #2 when Nnamdi was there, and he suffered as a #1. He won't be asked to be a #1 here, he will be the #2 to Flowers. He will be just fine. You'll see how a DB is really coached up.

You can polish a turd all you want but its still a turd at the end of the day.

[vidae]

Originally Posted by Scotty D

You can polish a turd all you want but its still a turd at the end of the day.

Hey, they all can't be as good as Chris Houston, but we'll try to make do.

[Matthew Jones]

Originally Posted by vidae

Hey, they all can't be as good as Chris Houston, but we'll try to make do.

They really can't:

Houston:

45/86 (52.9%), 585 yards, 4 TD, 5 INT, 5 PD, 65.9 rating (2 penalties)

Routt:

48/94 (51.1%), 532 yards, 9 TD, 4 INT, 10 PD, 82.4 rating (17 penalties)

Chris Houston: underrated?!

[vidae]

Yeah, give me Routt on a Romeo Crennel coached defense over Chris Houston 100 times out of 100. It doesn't shock me that Routt was awful in Oakland because everyone is awful in Oakland.

[Scotty D]

All I was saying is that you are overestimating the impact of Romeo Crennel.

[RaiderDiehard]

Routt isn't all that much of a drop-off from Carr. Just sayin'.

Neither is Routt a turd. He's an aggressive corner who suffered mightily last season under the guidance of an incompetent asshole named Chuck Bresnahan.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Scotty D

All I was saying is that you are overestimating the impact of Romeo Crennel.

I don't know, buffets around Kansas City are raising their prices.

[scottyboy]

Originally Posted by RaiderDiehard

Routt isn't all that much of a drop-off from Carr. Just sayin'.

Neither is Routt a turd. He's an aggressive corner who suffered mightily last season under the guidance of an incompetent asshole named Chuck Bresnahan.

Didn't you hear? When Carr signed with the Cowboys he became a top 5 CB in the league.

Same with Asante now that he's a Falcon.

[bigbluedefense]

Routt isn't that bad at all. And when evaluating Carr, I noticed he did get help up top a lot, he's good, but he wasn't asked to sink his hips and cover interior routes all that much, he was put in a lot of Cover 2/3 looks where he defended the sidelines.

Carr is good, but his skill set is exaggerated. He's not the second coming.

Routt on the other hand gets killed more than he deserves. They ran a ton of cover 0 man in Oakland, he was left on an island a lot more than Carr was. And he actually covered pretty well for the majority of the time. He just held way too much, but with 0 coverage, what would you rather have, him hold or him get beat and give up a touchdown?

In KC he won't be on that island nearly as much and will be effective.

[Pat Sims 90]

My Sleeper for the Bengals is whoever ends up as the #2 WR between Armon Binns, Brandon Tate, Mohamed Sanu or Marvin Jones. Teams will be more focused on Green and Gresham.

[FUNBUNCHER]

Carr and Routt are both more reliable than D Hall. When he gets to face the QB, Hall is a ballhawk. But when he was to turn his back and run with a WR, he's barely a starting caliber corner.

I think Routt has a career year in KC.

[vidae]

Originally Posted by scottyboy

Didn't you hear? When Carr signed with the Cowboys he became a top 5 CB in the league.

Same with Asante now that he's a Falcon.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Brandon Carr, but that made me laugh too. I loved seeing those lists with Carr being top 5.

[Giantsfan1080]

I somehow found out Branon Carr's email address yesterday because of what I do at work. If he does something good against the Giants I will spam the crap out of him.