Darren Sproles: 2013 Fantasy Football RB to Avoid

Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports

The New Orleans Saints have a lot to look forward to this year with the return of their head coach Sean Payton. With the return of Payton, you also get the return of the high-powered offense. Not to say they didn’t have it last year, but there’s something different about the way Drew Brees runs the offense under Payton as opposed to others.

With the high-powered offense also comes a lethal passing attack from one of, if not the best quarterbacks in the game. With a deadly passing game, one has to wonder what will become of the running game, and in particular Darren Sproles.

Sproles has seen very little time during the three preseason games the Saints have played this year. He only played in 13 games last year, and his rushing numbers took a big hit. He only had 244 rushing yards as opposed to 603 the year before. His receiving numbers also went down from 710 to 667.

It seems obvious the Saints are trying to get younger at the running back position. Currently, Sproles is third on the depth chart behind Mark Ingram and Pierre Thomas. With a three-back system, it doesn’t seem that Sproles will get a lot of carries out of the back field.

That means he will need to get his yards through the air. This is very doable with Brees leading the charge. However, Brees already has Marques Colston and Lance Moore as his primary receivers, with Nick Toon also in the mix. Throw Jimmy Graham in there at tight end, and now it seems even more questionable as to where his yards are going to come from.

Fantasy football is obviously based on a lot of variables that people can’t foresee like injuries or another player having a great game. With this in mind, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen. However, I would probably draft someone besides Sproles when my team is on the clock.