As a lot of you know, I love to play video games. (And if you didn't know, hi, my name is Adam. I love video games, comic books and Star Wars. In other words, I never really had a chance of being cool.) And while I'm a Madden enthusiast, I really love the NCAA football game. Even if EA had to discontinue production a few years ago. Actually, that worked out pretty well. Because the final year of the NCAA game featured the LSU team with Odell Beckham Jr., Zach Mettenberger, Jeremy Hill, Freddy Blue and Jarvis Landry. That team was loaded (and why it didn't win a national title, I'll never figure it out, well, other than three losses to Georgia, Ole Miss and Bama).
So when I restarted the dynasty, I went to LSU as the offensive coordinator (I'm a dork). The guise being to get ODB the Heisman Trophy. I even went through and fixed his ratings, because the NCAA crew kind of short-shrifted him.
(Sorry if you've seen this before. I talk about it a lot. I mean a [expletive] ton.)
The funny thing here, though is that as I played more with this team, I really became fond of Landry, too. He's pretty amazing. I found that out because I got OBJ injured during our regular season as I threw him the ball way too much. It forced me to lean on Landry. And yes, it does feel kind of weird talking about a video game season like it's a real thing, but you clicked on an article about fantasy football so I don't think there are going to be many judgments handed out. No matter what, if it's fantasy or video games, Andrew Siciliano will give us condescending dirty looks in the commissary.
But fine, we can talk a little bit about Landry in the realm of fantasy football. He really did have a rather productive season for the Dolphins as a rookie. He snatched 84 receptions for 758 yards and five touchdowns, which is pretty good. It just gets kind of dwarfed because not many people pay attention to the Dolphins and he didn't have a meme-worthy catch. Actually, that's not true. Not sure if you caught this sick grab against Arkansas a few years ago. If that catch had happened during a prime-time game against the Dallas Cowboys, we could be talking up Landry as the next big thing in the NFL.
But we should be looking at him as a huge sleeper for the upcoming fantasy season. The Dolphins have added some impressive pass-catchers during the offseason. Jordan Cameron brings a solid presence in the middle. Kenny Stills is one of those receivers who can really take the top off the defense. This is actually good news for Landry's fantasy prospects in the coming season. I know a lot of people will wonder if there will be enough targets to go around, but I don't see that being a problem. Having more talented playmakers around him only makes him more dangerous. I mean, this is a guy who was so well thought of, everybody said to bench him in Week 15 against the Patriots because the game plan was to saddle him with Darrelle Revis. Landry finished the game with eight receptions for 99 yards.
So I like him a lot this coming season. Ryan Tannehill clearly likes him plenty, as he went his way a lot during the receiver's rookie year. I expect that to trend up this year. He's a definite must-have in PPR leagues. But he's going to be productive enough to be a WR3 in standard leagues, too. He's also a pretty decent-sized guy who really could be an asset inside the 10-yard line if the Dolphins could figure out a way to use him down there. Which I believe (maybe stupidly) will be the case. I would expect an increase in touchdowns this year.
Baseball Sleeper of the Week
Carlos Rodon, P, White Sox
He's more of a keeper-league guy. I play in this league where we hoard prospects. Damn, I have Joey Gallo on my roster as I wait for him to make it to the bigs. So Rodon was somebody I recently stashed on my club because I have four dudes on the DL (including Yu Darvish, who I might need to eventually cut bait with at some point). So I have him on my roster because he could end up as a part of the Sox rotation by the end of the month. He was solid in the spring, but you know these teams will keep dudes down in the minors for a few weeks to begin the year before they start. So he will be an impact guy if you have the chance to wait. But if you're in one of those leagues where you shuffle pitchers off the wire, he's not going to be worth it to you.
Daily Fantasy League golfer
It's The Masters' week. Seriously, this has been a pretty amazing week for sports. You had Opening Day. The men's and women's championships in college basketball. And The Masters. I hope you got in your daily league lineup. If you read this in time, Webb Simpson is a nice, cheap option this week. He's playing pretty well. Plus he gave away a badge this week to The Masters via Twitter.
Follow Adam Rank on Twitter @adamrank. He surprisingly answers a lot of questions.
