PFF Fantasy: Six defensive sleepers worth picking
In today’s PFF Fantasy spotlight, Eric Yeomans has his eye on a few defensive players that are worth picking — this is, of course, if your fantasy league is mature enough to recognize the other side of the ball. Let’s face it, a football team without defense is a fantasy indeed.
With a lot of people drafting this week and the preseason about finished, things are coming into focus.
Here are Eric’s picks for six IDPs you don’t want to be sleeping on during your drafts.
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Rolando McClain – Just because he’s a rookie doesn’t mean you should avoid this tackling machine. McClain should be an absolute beast, filling in for Kirk Morrison. The Oakland system allowed Morrison to amass over 90 solo tackles, and 115 total tackles for the last five years straight, and McClain should have no problem picking up all of those numbers.
Dan Connor — Jon Beason has moved over to the weakside LB spot, opening up the MLB spot for Connor to grab. I’m not going to say that Connor will match Beason’s production from the position, but he could come pretty close. Despite only playing 88 total snaps last year, Connor registered an overall positive rating between the outside and inside linebacker spots of a 1.5. Nothing special, but evidence that he is a plus LB who will now be getting all of the snaps at the MLB spot. Don’t sleep on Connor.
Patrick Chung – Chung, the 34th overall pick last year, put up a positive 2.2 rating while seeing 194 snaps last season. This year he looks like the favorite for the strong safety job in New England, and could put up top-10 DB production for a very cheap price. Just make sure you’re the one to grab him, and don’t be scared to put up the extra $1 if he gets nominated late.
Mathias Kiwanuka – Osi Umenyiora came back healthy last year, and a year removed from that may make people want to invest in him this year. But Kiwanuka is still the man to own from the Giants after Justin Tuck is off the board. Kiwi posted a PFF positive rating of a 3.4 to go along with his 3 sacks, 14 QB hits, 26 QB pressures, 41 solo tackles and 50 total tackles, after a lowly -6.0 rating the year before. So be sure that you don’t get suckered in to taking Umenyiora over Kiwanuka at DE, as the latter should be an every down player this season, and a much better buy than the name brand.
Lofa Tatupu – Tatupu missed most of last season after tearing a pectoral muscle in Week 6. Just make sure you don’t forget about the solid production you can get from Lofa, especially with his college coach Pete Carroll in town. A return to 80+ solo tackles and 110 total tackles isn’t out of the question. Tatupu has been a positive play the last two years, with a 0.9 rating in ’08, and a 3.2 rating in ’09, he fits the bill of an every down, positive rating LB that gives you solid vslue.
Aqib Talib – A bit of a post-hype sleeper, Talib was an absolute beast over the last four weeks of the season once the Bucs moved back to the Tampa-2 scheme. Talib is a skilled DB, as evidence by his positive 7.2 rating last season, and a 2.4 rating the year before. This guy is so skilled that Ronde Barber predicts that Talib will break all of his franchise records when it’s all said and done. It’s usually tough to recommend drafting a team’s “shutdown corner,” but in the case of the Bucs, the defense will be on the field often, and Talib will see enough balls thrown his way that he shouldn’t be able to help but post solid DB numbers.
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