Weekly Twitter Observations

Luke Wetta

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Each week I will be walking through the Twitterverse extracting some of the best commentary from trusted fantasy football minds. Twitter can be overwhelming with the amount of information that streams live, but it also proves to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to communicate. In 140 characters or less, you can learn something about a player you may have never thought of from trends, stats or analysis. Here’s who’s being tweeted about the most this week.

Bishop Sankey, RB TEN

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Bishop Sankey’s stock was high the second the Titans made him the first running back off the board in the 2014 NFL Draft. He was expected to be the clear “workhorse” running back for the Titans. After a not so stellar preseason where fumbling problems were cited from multiple sources in camp and his yards per carry not averaging more than four per tote, the excitement has dwindled. The unheralded Shonn Greene has managed to do enough as Nick Whalen (@_NickWhalen) pointed out, “I think Greene’s played better than expected, he’s a huge sleeper in redraft. Great OL in front of him, GL work too.” Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) also noted, “Best guess early-on is Greene gets ~12 carries, Dex gets passing down work, Sankey mixes in on both. Eventually, Sankey steals lead job.”

So, the overwhelming sentiment is that Sankey may not be ready to carry your team right away, but many still believe Greene will not hold off the rookie for long. Carlos Hyde found himself being drafted most commonly as the top dynasty running back this season and even Jeremy Hill has been making a late push as a potentially more viable fantasy asset. For those of you who invested already I will offer these words from John Paulsen (@4for4_John), “Seeing a lot of hand-wringing about Bishop Sankey. Keep the faith. They didn’t make him #1 RB off the board to back up Shonn Greene.” Sankey is unlikely to provide Eddie Lacy type of return year one, but a solid offensive line and enough opportunities will still make Sankey a likely candidate to finish the season as the top rookie running back in fantasy.

Cody Latimer, WR DEN

With all the other big name rookie receivers making multiple amazing catches that showed up on Vine accounts across the nation, Cody Latimer remained mostly forgotten this preseason. The Broncos’ second round pick has picked up steam lately brought on by another concussion to Wes Welker. Latimer is a bigger receiver with average speed, but he does have the best quarterback in the game throwing him the ball. Cody has been ranked and drafted around the #10 rookie wide receiver off the board this season with players like Kelvin Benjamin and Donte Moncrief even going ahead of him. Speaking in redraft terms, Sigmund Bloom (@SigmundBloom) mentioned, “Draft Latimer instead of leaving him on WW (waiver wire) because Broncos likely use him early in RZ Welker or no Welker. Cat will get out of bag soon enough.” Local and national reporters covering the Broncos have echoed the thoughts of Latimer being a red zone option for Peyton Manning. Denny Carter (@CDCarter13) commented even before the latest Welker concussion that, “I don’t think Cody Latimer will require an injury to Sanders or Welker to make his way into Denver’s starting lineup this year.” So while Latimer is conceivable buried behind other more proven targets, Russell Clay (@FFRussellClay) made a great point saying, “Cody Latimer is probably going to be extremely valuable by next offseason, doing very little on the field. By next year at this time, the hype train will be full steam ahead and will probably gain 3-4 rounds of ADP by 2015.” For me, Latimer appears to be the perfect buy low, sell high candidate. Manning will make him look good when he plays and Welker is unlikely to be with the Broncos next season being a 34 year old UFA receiver with concussion worries and wanting another $6-8 million per year.

Mark Ingram, RB NO

Mark Ingram has been a redraft favorite of mine all season grabbing him in the later rounds. In dynasty I also find him undervalued as only a 24 year old running back in a fantastic offense. Ingram didn’t crack 100 rushing attempts last season due to an early foot injury, but he did average nearly five yards per carry when he got the rock. Expanding on that stat even more, Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) noted, “Going back to Week 15 of last season, Mark Ingram is averaging 6.1 yards per on his last 65 carries in a Saints uniform.” Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) also commented, “I really like the way Mark Ingram has been running the ball this preseason. He looks leaner & more explosive.”

Ingram is the starting running back on a team that carried the ball 391 times last season. Pierre Thomas looks to take on most of the receiving duties from the position and I just don’t see Khiry Robinson getting more touches than Ingram. Ingram is also only 24 years old, same as Robinson, and Thomas will be 30 years old next season. I would expect the Saints to re-sign him after this season keeping him in a great situation. Drew Brees actually led the Saints in rushing touchdowns last year, which is something unlikely to be repeated with Ingram leading the way in 2014.

Dwayne Bowe, WR KC

What do you do with the clear number one wide receiver on a team who is suspended the first week of the season and his coach is telling reporters his finger is “shot?” Enter Dwayne Bowe. Eric Olinger (@OlingerIDP) weighed in stating, “I’m comfortable with Bowe as a WR3 in PPR leagues this year. This Chiefs D isn’t going to dominate and Bowe should be a 5-6 catch guy.” Rich Hribar (@LordReebs) also mentioned the Chiefs receiver saying, “Bowe is a 220 pound WR guaranteed 100+ targets available in the double digit rounds. Not saying he’ll win your league, but I’ll bite there.” The DLF team currently has Bowe ranked as the 58th overall wide receiver in dynasty and his ADP is coming in around the mid-50’s as well. At his current position there is not much risk as Eric and Rich stated, but his contract could be voided by the Chiefs due to his drug suspension and with a $14 million dollar cap hit next year he may not be around beyond this season. Long-term there is not much fantasy value in Bowe, but he is likely to return solid numbers in 2014.

That’s what’s tweeting this week. Make sure you follow all your DLF favorites on twitter.

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luke wetta
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