Chuck Cook- USA Today Sports
With the regular season finally underway, you’ve probably spent an entire year obsessively researching every nook and cranny of each NFL player so that you can realize your ultimate dream in life: to take home the trophy in your fantasy football league and earn a whole year of bragging rights. Your brain is probably fried from hearing all the experts’ opinions about what round approximately is it appropriate to draft a quarterback, which running back will have a break out season, and how early is it to draft the Seattle Seahawks‘ defense.
It’s no secret that everyone wants to be regarded as the brilliant mastermind who drafted a sleeper pick that begat gold all the way to championship success. Consequentially, you’ve probably already heard about sleeper picks like Jake Locker and Devonta Freeman, but here is one player who I will classify as one of “The Sleepiest of the Sleeper Picks.” Keep in mind, there is about a 85 percent chance that this picks will award you little to no success at all, but it is that remaining 15 percent that I’m remaining faithful to. Like you, I also want to be regarded as a mastermind, and there’s no quicker route to that moniker than if this particular pick pans out. So, if you are in one of those leagues with 62 people, not counting your mom and her Oprah book club friend, it may be a wise decision to roll the dice on Lorenzo Taliaferro.
Other than Paul George‘s recent injury, I can’t think of anything uglier that I’ve seen in sports than the Baltimore Ravens‘ rushing attack last year. Time after time, Ray Rice extended his arms for a hand-off and ended up on the turf only milliseconds later. Bernard Pierce was even worse, face-planting in whatever time half a millisecond is. The Ravens drafted 226 pound Lorenzo Taliaferro in the 4th round of the 2014 NFL Draft, and for good reason. Talifaerro was named Big South Conference Offensive Player of the Year last season, and he has already impressed during the preseason. Although he fumbled a reception during a matchup against The Dallas Cowboys, Taliaferro rushed for 71 yards on just 13 carries against the San Francisco 49ers in his preseason debut game.
With Rice only missing two games due to suspension, Taliaferro may not see much of the field this year, but in light of Rice’s off-field issues and the 2013-14 campaign of Pierce, one can gamble on the rookie, even if your league isn’t well over 60 members. Taliferro especially makes sense if you are playing in a Dynasty league.
Kellan Miller is a Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellanMiller, on Facebook, or Google Plus.
