Tis the season of everyone trying to get an edge in their fantasy football draft. Strategies are analyzed to the death and picked apart one by one until you land on one that you are comfortable with going into the season. One of the most popular draft strategies this season seems to be waiting on taking a QB. The idea is that if you can't get one of the top two or three guys (Rodgers, Luck, Peyton), you are better of waiting since the projected spread between QB 4 and QB 10-12 isn't that large (most projections have these QB's being about 30 points apart from the highest scoring to the lowest scoring, essentially 2 points a game).
At this point, there are even question marks with the top guys such as Peyton's age or Rodgers' weapons being injured, making the wait on QB strategy even more alluring. This year, Eli Manning is one of the poster-boys for the late round QB strategy. He's generally being drafted as the 11-13th QB off the board at the major fantasy outlets (ESPN, Yahoo, CBS), meaning that he is sitting right in the sweet spot of backend starting fantasy QB.
Editor's Note: to read about more 2015 fantasy football draft sleepers, be sure to check out our running list of ADP values that can return draft day profits and help you dominate your leagues.
One of my favorite columns every fantasy football season is Matthew Berry's 100 facts. Berry uses a couple thousand words to lead into that article and explain what exactly it is trying to convey and accomplish. Paraphrased for brevity, these facts are not necessarily meant to tell you to pick player A or avoid player B, but rather give you some information and let you make a decision on your own. So, without further ado, 13 facts about Eli Manning and the Giants offense:
- 2014 was Eli Manning's first season in new offensive-coordinator's Ben McAdoo's west coast system adopted from the prolific Aaron Rodgers led Green Bay Packers teams.
- The west-coast offense is predicated on short timing routes meant to get the ball into the receivers hands.
- Eli Manning completed a career high 63.1% of his passes last year to go along with his 4,400 yards and 30 TD's in his first year under McAdoo.
- Eli Manning has started in 167 consecutive regular season games - the guy simply doesn't leave the field.
- That's the longest active streak in the NFL and third longest in history.
- Eli Manning is currently being drafted as the #13 QB (on ESPN).
- He's being drafted behind Matthew Stafford, Ryan Tannehill, Cam Newton, and Tony Romo.
- Eli Manning was the #9 QB last season.
- He outscored all four of the previously mentioned QB's in 2014.
- Odell Beckham was a top 5 fantasy wide receiver in 2014.
- Odell Beckham only played 12 games in 2014.
- Full time QB's with top 5 WR's have averaged a finish of QB 6 in fantasy points over the past three seasons.
- No full time QB with a top 5 WR has finished worse than QB 12 in that same timespan.
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