It’s been a couple of years since Steelers relied on their defense. The Steel Curtain ruled in the seventies, it took Steelers to Super Bowl 2011, but is no more. Last season the rusty Steel Curtain was ranked in the bottom half of the NFL, which is great news if you’re into Daily Fantasy Football.
Instead Steelers rely on their offense to win games. The black-and-yellow team from steel-city had the most explosive offense last season, with three potential MVP’s in the line up. They should be even more potent this year if their star players are not injured like last year.
QB Big Ben Roethlisberger played 12 games.
RB Le’Veon Bell played 6 games (and got injured in the last one of those).
WR Antonio Brown played all 16 games.
More importantly they only played one game together last season, game 3 away against Rams with one of the best defenses in the league. They lost 6-12, but the fantasy production was still very nice.
Le’Veon Bell 20 points (7 receptions and 132 yards)
Antonio Brown 22 points (11 receptions and 108 yards)
Imagine those guys production on a good week with a couple of TD’s to go with the party!
Injuries are a big part of the NFL and therefore a big part of Fantasy Football. We all had seasons lost “thanks” to a key injury, and that’s part of the reasons why Daily Fantasy Football is growing like grass fire. If one of your players in your Daily Fantasy Football team goes down that Sunday is an almost certain loss, but then there is always next week..
A team with less injuries than others clearly posses extra value for fantasy players. Pittsburgh Steelers could be such a team this year. They are experimenting with Mobile Virtual Players. These MVP’s are robots that are used in training to mimic and replace players. This deducts tackles and hits and therefore injuries – at least in theory.
Each MVP robot is controlled by an individual human via a joystick. Sometimes a player with good cardio is said to have a good motor, well the MVP have a real motor and never gets tired. It’s also surprisingly fast with a 5,40 over 40 yards.
Head Coach Mike Tomlin says: “It’s an awesome piece of football technology.”
The MVP is still in its testing phase, but the plan is to have the robots available to any team interested by next season. If the MVP robots do cut down injuries, which they should, then we have an extra fantasy value with the Steelers this upcoming season.
Let’s look at the players:
RB Le’Veon Bell
Is the number one fantasy player this year. Will be expensive, but worth it. A good cornerstone to build your fantasy team around, both in regular Fantasy Football and Daily Fantasy Football.
Comes with an unwarranted injury flag. His injuries haven’t been of the wear-and-tear kind like Arian Fosters, but the unlucky kind. I don’t see an extra injury risk and will embrace the discount I’ll get.
I expect record-breaking numbers!
Don’t forget the reserve DeAngelo Williams. Filled in beautifully when Bell was out last season and won some fantasy championships. A valuable handcuff.
WR Antonio Brown
The consensus number one fantasy wide receiver this season. Some even have him before Le’Veon Bell in the overall ranking.
An exceptional route-runner that no team has found an answer to. There is nothing but a bright blue sky on the horizon.
You could argue that it’s a negative that super-talented Martavis Bryant is suspended one year (illegal substances) to draw away some attention. But one the other hand he would take away production too.
Antonio Brown is as bulletproof you can get in fantasy football. The only problem is that you won’t find any value with him. If you have fantasy dollars over you can’t go wrong with him, but on the other hand he will not separate you from the bunch.
TE Ladarius Green
Has always had a lot of potential, but has never bloomed. Perhaps because he always had to play in the shadow of future Hall of Famer Antonio Gates? This season we have an experienced player without being the normal worn down and chronically injured Tight End in a new and good situation. Sounds promising to me.
Steelers TE Heath Miller flew under the fantasy radar and produced very well given his modest price tag the last two years. Ladarius Green is more athletic and should be able to produce even better results.
The TE position is tricky. There is a big injury risk so investing too much could spell disaster. But there is a big drop off after the best ones and since the position have a high standard deviation and often is highly TD dependent you must do right at TE.
Ladarius Green is currently ranked as a low-end TE 1. He has a good floor on a game-to-game basis and a high upside, and should provide you with good value.
He is a perfect candidate for Daily Fantasy Football in the beginning of the season when he still will be undervalued.
QB Ben Roethlisberger
Big Ben has always flown under the radar. This is especially true this year coming back from an injury.
The team is using the MVP robots in practicing to minimize the injury risk.
Big Ben has the consensus number one fantasy RB in Le’Veon Bell.
Big Ben has the consensus number one fantasy WR in Antonio Brown.
Big Ben has the consensus number one and two players in all of fantasy football.
And he has a very interesting upgrade at TE in Ladarius Green.
But most of all Steelers has a crappy defense that couldn’t stop anyone last year. Give me Big Ben in shootouts all season long please!
Big Ben Roethlisberger is consensus ranked as the number 6 QB. I’m sure he will finish top 3 and wouldn’t be surprised too see him finish with the most fantasy points of all.
Bell and Brown are expensive, but with Big Ben you get them all. You should really try to get Big Ben on your team. With so many emerging QB’s you’ll get excellent value with Big Ben every given Sunday in Daily Fantasy Football.
