Break It Like Beckham

The time may be here. The sleeper you have been waiting for at wide receiver is ready to go. Odell Beckham Jr. is practicing for the Giants.

Beckham had a tumultuous off season after being taken with the 12th overall pick in this years draft. Friction within the organization and a hamstring injury had left his value at nearly nothing. But in week 5, Beckham is back at practice, and ready to fill out your bench as a super secret sleeper for fantasy football.

The Giants have a new offensive coordinator this year in Ben McAdoo. Previously with the Green Bay Packers, McAdoo has installed a new offense for the Giants. After a bumpy week 1, Eli Manning has looked fantastic throwing 8 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions in his last 3 games. The McAdoo offense features lots of passing from Manning which will benefit Beckham once he hits the field.

A key to Beckham's success will be the ability to stay healthy. If he is on the field, you can expect production in what could be a high powered offense styled after the highly effective Packers. Standing 5'11 and weighing 198 at the combine, Beckham is not a huge receiver, but he is certainly fast running a 4.43 40 yard dash. His senior season he caught 57 passes for 1117 yards and 8 touchdowns. add to that the possibility he may see some jet sweep and end around plays to gain you some rushing yards, and the possibility that he will be used on return plays, and Beckham has some additional opportunities to score for you in fantasy.

The upcoming schedule for Beckham and the Giants looks rather enticing. For the rest of the season the Giants only play 3 top 10 pass defenses. Two games against the Eagles (257.5y/g) and the Cowboys (271.2 y/g) are some juicy match ups. The only difficult match ups as I see them are at Seattle in week 10, and home against San Francisco in week 11.

I would call Beckham a definite speculative add. Cutting a starter is not warranted here, but if you are carrying a second QB and your main guy went through his bye already, or if you have a player that is sitting on your bench and you don't know when you would play him, drop that zero and add our new hero.

Strategy Scoop: Streaming

This is the first in what I hope to be a long running series where we examine some strategies for helping you win your fantasy leagues year after year. This week we look at roster moves and the streamer.

I am a streamer. I stream lots of positions. Kickers, defenses, tight end, and even in one league quarterbacks. One thing I have learned over the years is that I am usually not alone. There are others out there. Other players fighting every week for the players that I want to stream. How do you defeat this? Planning ahead.

This year it has become very obvious that there are some bad teams. Oakland and Jacksonville are among these teams. A habit I have gotten into is looking ahead two to three weeks to see what match ups are coming up. You will often find that there are some good match ups involving a team like Oakland, and that a team will have a decent game coming this week. with this you can grab a team that will likely do well for you this week, and be set up for the following week as well with likely the best match up of the following week.

Thinking ahead like this will allow you to get a jump on your competition and stay a step ahead of the curve. I suggest that you keep tabs on your favorite two or three selections and maybe carry two defenses, constantly churning one of them per week to grab the best match up for the next week. This will also allow you the flexibility to have another selection made in case your favorite team to play a defense against will be playing a good defense and will already be owned.

If you think ahead and keep one step in front of your competition, you will be set up for success at a position that can sometimes make or break a week for you.