With preseason game teasing us before we finally get some real football, the next best thing to turn our attention to is fantasy football. Draft lobbies everywhere are opening up as we speak and soon everyone will be wheeling and dealing for the best players available that they can add to their squad. With that said, some players are simply more valuable than others at their respective positions, so I’m going to tell you which ones you need to draft above all others. Over the next week, I’ll be bringing you a series of breaking down the top players at every important fantasy position in 2014, and I’ll also throw in a sleeper for each position, just cause I love you.
Let’s bring on the quarterbacks!
1. Peyton Manning
Can you even argue anyone else for this top position? Manning scored more than 400 fantasy points last year (leading all players) and seems poised to put up another amazing year, with most of his weapons returning from last year and newcomer Emmanuel Sanders coming over from Pittsburgh in free agency. Peyton seems bulletproof for fantasy owners and the only real concern that should be in the back of your mind is injury. After two neck surgeries, it’s no secret that Peyton is on the back end of his career with some even speculating that if he would have hoisted the Lombardi trophy last year he just might have walked away. However, the Seahawks beat his brains in and now he is back for at least one more year and while the neck injuries still linger in our minds, Peyton has shown he can still get it done more than any other quarterback in the game even at his ripe old age.
2. Aaron Rodgers
There’s no doubt that if Peyton Manning was somehow kidnapped by aliens and taken to another planet, that Aaron Rodgers would be the best quarterback on the face of the earth. However, Peyton is still in our atmosphere so Rodgers slides in at the number two spot, but don’t be fooled, he is right up there with Peyton and I wouldn’t be totally shocked if he ends up putting up more fantasy points than our top ranked QB as long as he stays healthy. I talked about the returning weapons that Manning has to play with, well Rodgers might be the only one in the league with even more targets to throw to. Jordy Nelson has proven himself worthy of the big pay day he just received and I would bet money that by the end of the year Randall Cobb will be the best offensive weapon in Green Bay. Along with those two studs, don’t sleep on tight end Andrew Quarless who has been thrust into a starting role in Green Bay and could be a breakout fantasy star this year in the same way Julius Thomas was last year in Denver.
3. Cam Newton
The one-man offense comes in at the number three spot for 2014 and for good reason. Not only does Cam have enormous big play potential with a cannon for an arm, he has legs that can create just as many problems for a defense. Cam’s favorite target dating all the way back to his rookie year is now gone as Steve Smith heads to Baltimore, but the Panthers organization seems to have found him quite a replacement to be the number one option in rookie receiver Kelvin Benjamin from Florida State.
Fresh off of a national championship win, Benjamin will be expected to jump right into a similar role in Carolina, and will be the star of their receiving core. If you draft Newton, it will be a very wise decision to make sure you also get Kelvin Benjamin. He is a must have.
Along with KB, Cam will have Greg Olsen as his safety valve, which is a damn good last option to throw to and his biggest impact won’t even come throwing the ball. If you’ve watched the Panthers at all, since they drafted Cam Newton then you know he is the go to ball carrier in the red zone and at the goal line. Cam isn’t your typical running quarterback who is small and quick and takes hits, he is a Mack truck and is really the first of his kind. He will get a number of designed runs near the goal line this season and he will be the ultimate touchdown vulture.
4. Drew Brees
Brees has slipped the past few years in fantasy rankings but if you are able to draft him you should absolutely pull the trigger. Brees is still an elite level fantasy quarterback with an elite level receiver in Jimmy Graham. Graham might as well be a receiver and not a tight end and if you can pair him with Brees in your league, your team will have a hell of a core.
Brees may have lost a few targets but as we’ve seen in this league, the top level quarterbacks have a knack for making stars out of whoever they happen to have on their roster at that time. With Brees’ deep ball accuracy and tendencies for big plays, he will be just fine with the targets he has as long as they have hands. He may not necessarily be a first round worthy player as the first three players on this list are, but he is on the next tier down and could easily have a year just as good as our top three.
5. Andrew Luck
It was only a matter of time from when he was drafted that he put himself on this list and Andrew Luck has officially arrived in the world of top fantasy quarterbacks. He has shown a bit of the ability that elite quarterbacks have in making their receivers into stars and he now has a legitimate number one option in T.Y. Hilton who seems to have become his new favorite target.
Hilton is also a typical big play, over the top receivers and when he gets behind a defense, Luck always seems to find him. Throw in the newly acquired Hakeem Nicks along with the return of Reggie Wayne and all of the sudden Andrew Luck has a very nice collection of toys to play with this year. Not to mention Coby Fleener, Luck’s old buddy from Stanford, and Da’Rick Rogers could both be great pickups in the later rounds of your draft. With all those weapons and the talent that we all know Luck has, you can see why he lands in the top five for 2014. It might not be too long before he lands himself in the top three in the next couple years either.
Sleeper: Robert Griffin III
It can be easy to forget just how good RG3 was in his first year in the NFL, but he was the best rookie quarterback in a class that included Andrew Luck which is hard to pull off. Griffin has had injury trouble the past two seasons but he still has an immense amount of talent and has a re-loaded offense around him in Washington. Don’t forget, this guy did win the Heisman at Baylor. Now a healthy RG3 is armed with Desean Jackson with a chip on his shoulder (which should scare all of us) and Jordan Reed who could be next in line in the freaky athletic mutant tight ends that we have seen in the NFL recently. And don’t forget one of his biggest weapons is his speed and ability to scramble to make something out of nothing, something only a few in the league can truly do. If Griffin stays healthy he will be a huge steal this year and will surely be a top pick next year.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
