The Best Fantasy Player and Fantasy Sleeper: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Buccaneers Best Fantasy Player:

You would think with a Pro Bowl Quarterback and a Receiver who amassed over 1,000 yards last season that our Best Fantasy Player would be one of those two guys… You my friend would be wrong. The Bucs Best Fantasy Player is its DEFENSE. If your league doesn’t draft defenses, well, move on to the next paragraph describing the Sleeper Pick If you’re like the rest of us keep reading:

Last season the Bucs had several new faces on Defense in starter roles: S Tanard Jackson, DE Gaines Adams, and LB Barrett Ruud. The team still ranked #1 in Yards allowed per game. Ranking #2 in Rush defense and #3 in Pass Defense, that entire unit has a year under its belt. Sure we lost CB Brian Kelly to the Lions in the off-season, but Phillip Buchanon stepped in nicely for him last season and Rookie 1st Round Pick Aqib Talib should prove to be a nice pick-up as well. Last season our leading sack getter (Greg White) had 8 sacks, we should vastly improve upon that with a more experienced DE in Gaines Adams (6 sacks) and DT in Jovan Haye (6 sacks). Our depth has also been improved with a healthy S Sabby Piscitelli, newly acquired DE Jimmy Wilkerson, and a battle tested LB in Quincy Black. The only achilles heel of the defense tends to be our Run Defense, but even then its nothing to get overly concerned about.

Lastly if you’re a numbers man, just consider that Pro Bowl QB Jeff Garcia averaged a putrid 10.31 points last season for Fantasy Players, Aaron Rodgers is expected to average 12.5 points this season. Although Joey Galloway was above average last season (8.14 Fantasy points per game), he’s been nursing a sore groin and shoulder this off-season and has yet to play a down in the Pre-Season (and won’t). With that said, I don’t feel comfortable suggesting anyone draft him without a clean bill of health, checkout last seasons Wild Card Playoff Game against the Giants for proof (Galloway was non-existent with a banged up shoulder).

Buccaneers Sleeper Fantasy Player:

This player used to be known as Mr. August, as he turned in stellar Pre-Season performances for three straight years. We now know him as RB Earnest Graham. Last season he averaged (11.98) Fantasy Points per game, that led our team. He didn’t even start the season as our feature back. This season he will be the feature back and I expect him to vastly improve upon last season as the line he’s running behind has another year’s worth of experience (and newly signed Free Agent C Jeff Faine). As the season wore on Graham produced more and more and I think that is a tale tell sign that he is primed for a good statistical and productive Fantasy Football Season.

Good luck with your Fantasy Seasons and if you’re interested in Tampa Bay Buccaneer Football be sure to head over to BucEm.com for more Bucs news and info…