2012 Fantasy Football: The Dallas Cowboys That You Should and Should Not Draft
When it comes to fantasy football, a smart player will put team loyalties aside on draft day. However, it is nice to have players on your fantasy football team that you can root for and the Dallas Cowboys have a multitude of players that should be viable fantasy options, but some willD also drag your team down. Read on to find out which players could lead you to a championship in your fantasy league and who you should take a pass on drafting.
Tony Romo: Romo is a decent pickup, but only average value. His upside is that he’s at the top of the tier of QB’s he’s being drafted in, which means the best he will likely do is perform to his average draft position (ADP), and the worst is to perform below it. There is far better value in taking a WR like Brandon Lloyd at a similar draft spot as you would likely get Romo.
Verdict: only draft if he falls to you at a value spot.
Demarco Murray: He is going to be a huge boom or bust pick. Not only is his sample size small, but he only had good games against a couple of good run defenses. Also, for roughly half of his games his production was average. Not to mention Felix Jones and Phillip Tanner are nipping at his heels. Still, if he plays like he did last year against the Seahawks for all of this year, gets the bulk of the carries, and most importantly can stay healthy, he should boom. Players like Jimmy Graham offer far better value at a similar ADP, as with Graham in your line-up you should far out score anyone but the owner of Gronkowski at the TE position. Still, Murray is a good pickup at the turn of the first and second round.
Verdict: a QB like Cam Newton, or one of the top TE’s is a better pick, but failing that Murray is a solid option.
Phillip Tanner: sleeper alert, this article http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/07/12/fantasy-dynasty-slants-the-hillis-factor-2012-and-breakout-running-backs/ shows even though Tanner posted a poor YPC last year, he actually did quite well in terms of YAC (yards after contact), and that his low YPC was mostly due to poor blocking. Tanner deserves consideration in dynasty leagues.
Verdict: in deep leagues and dynasty formats he’s worth a stash.
Felix Jones: where he is going you can’t go too far wrong but nonetheless Jones is not a good pick if you want upside (which you should at this point in the draft). Jones will get you a few points most weeks but will probably only have a couple big fantasy games the whole year.
Verdict: avoid like the plague.
Miles Austin: Miles is an ok value for where he’s going but not spectacular. There are likely going to be guys still on the board with less question marks such as Steve Smith or Jordy Nelson, even RB’s like Reggie Bush or Frank Gore are decent options.
Verdict: only take him if he falls past his ADP a bit.
Dez Bryant: Dez’s issues are well documented, so I’m not going to repeat them all here. He is being drafted around the same round as players like Jordy Nelson (averaged 2nd most fantasy PPG of all WR’s last year), Frank Gore (a solid RB2) and Michael Vick (a potential top tier QB). So it comes down to whether or not you think history will repeat itself and injuries, poor conditioning, or whatever else will have Dez give you relatively pedestrian WR2 numbers. Or he will finally put it all together and be the beast (that we think) he can be. He is the classic boom or bust pick.
Verdict: draft at your own risk….
Jason Witten: Jason is coming off of a typical year with almost a thousand yards receiving and not as many TD’s as you might’ve hoped for. I have him ranked as the #7 fantasy TE this year, which is right on his ADP. In saying that, he is an AWFUL value. The difference in projected PPG between him and my #15 ranked TE is 1.2. That is an absolute pittance. If you miss out on either Gronk or Graham don’t bother drafting a TE until near the end of the draft where you can pick up guys like Brent Celek and Jared Cook who should be solid. Also a steal is Tony Gonzalez who’s ADP has him as the #11 TE off the board, but I have him projected as the #6 fantasy TE for 2012.
Verdict: not a good value at all.
Dan Bailey: Dan is a great fantasy option this year. He finished 5th in total points among kickers last year and he should place near the top 5 again this year. He should see plenty of field goal attempts this year since the Cowboys are blessed with an offensive line unable to power into the endzone.
Verdict: target him in all leagues.
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