I haven’t been a fan of the Baltimore offense for many, many years. Yeah, Jamal Lewis had his HUGE season a few years back, but aside from that (and Todd Heap), there hasn’t been much to chew on coming from the Ravens’ offense, fantasy-wise.

For some reason, I keep holding out faith that Derrick Mason and Steve McNair will rediscover their magic. I think both will have better fantasy seasons now that Willis McGahee is in the Raven backfield. But the SLEEPER to discuss here isn’t McNair, Mason, McGahee, Heap or Mark Clayton (who is getting a ton of love this off-season). It’s WR Demetrius Wililams.

Williams has drawn praise from OC Rick Neuheisel in camp, and the Ravens will find a way to get the downfield threat on the field for more than just third-and-long. He has great size (6′2″, 197 lbs.) and awesome leaping ability.

He wrapped up his rookie campaign with a couple of solid fantasy showings (Weeks 15 and 16) in limited action. With increased playing time nearly assured, Williams is a must-have for dynasty owners and could become a hot commodity in redraft leagues, especially those that give bonuses for longer TDs.

Time to update my blog to reflect another type of sleeper I will start highlighting: the dynasty sleeper. This is different from a short or long-term sleeper, as discussed in my initial post, in that it may not even be THIS season where you really start to see what this player is capable of.

To kick this off, let’s throw a bone to the IDP league owners out there. Let’s chat about Victor Adeyanju, a defensive end on the St. Louis Rams.

First, let’s take a look at a blurb from his scouting profile:

“Athletic, high-motor defensive lineman with high upside. Needs to develop more moves at the NFL level to disengage from blockers. Needs to continue development, but explosive and should be a starter before long in the NFL.”

His strengths included: athleticism, change of direction and explosion (perfect for an impact DE in the NFL). While his areas for improvement were: quickness off the ball and techniques/moves. The latter is certainly an attainable skill, which will be honed by Rams’ DC Jim Haslett and line coach Bill Kollar.

He has a few dings left over from the end of last season, but so does James Hall, who he will be vying for playing time with. Hall is older and has far less upside than Adeyanju. With sack artist Leonard Little on the opposite side, Adeyanju could certainly start wreaking havoc on opposing offensive lines as soon as this year. And with Little’s penchant for getting into off-field trouble, Adeyanju could quickly become the Rams’ premier defensive lineman.

One thing to certainly keep abreast of, however, is Adam Carriker, who the Rams drafted in the first round in this spring’s draft. Carriker has the bulk and flexibility to play inside, but could also see time at end. According to several depth chart resources, Carriker’s already penciled in at nose tackle for the Ram defense, but again, this is a situation to monitor if you’re a Adeyanju owner or suitor.

Well kids, it is that time of year. Barnes and Noble will somehow have to find an extra display shelf for the multitudes of fantasy football magazines that are currently overtaking the storerooms.

And once again we will be lured into spending $10 chunks for information that will be for the most part useless by the time draft day comes. Most of it was written in April and May. How relevent can it be. Why do we do it?

A lot of it is sheer boredom. We know that the information will be of little use, but at least it gives us a base of factual information, and some peoples opinions. Thats about it.

The other day, I was in Barnes & Noble to see what the first wave of fantasy mags were like. While I was perusing, I noticed a businessman standing there also, and he already had about five magazines in his hand. Basically most of the mags that were available at the time.

So I put The Huddle bug in his ear, told him I was an award winning writer for the best fantasy site on the net, told him to get only a few magazines to look at, and as an added bonus, I advised him to avoid drafting Shaun Alexander this season.

Now that my friends, is a pay it forward moment. I helped that poor guy avoid three disasters within two minutes, and even magaged to sqeeze in a shameless and false self promotion.

I saved him from continuing to buy every fantasy mag that comes out over the next month which may have seriously jeopardize his kids college education funds, and filled his head with a dizzying array of opinions and projections, which as mentioned previously is basically useless in a few weeks.

I turned him on to the Huddle, further enabling my job security and likely helping him win his local.

And the Shaun Alexander thing is just an opinion. He will be heading up my Players To Avoid list this season.

The guy put back a couple of the magazines, got out a pen and wrote down thehuddle.com on the back of a card, and thanked me for saving his fantasy season.

I walked out of the store with one magazine in my hand and a warm feeling in my heart for helping another human being.

Immediately after that I thought to myself, “You dumbass. Why didn’t you put on the stupid routine and try to weasel your way into his league?”

Sort of an “I coulda had a V8″ moment.

I mean, helping people is nice and all, but it is even more fun to take their money and humiliate them. I mean, that is why we buy the magazines in the first place.

Unfortunately a lot of the choices you will find at the newsstands will do just that. Take your money and humiliate you, after they fill you with useless information and charge you for the privilege.

Do like I do. Read a few magazines, but chalk them up as entertainment for the most part. There are a few good ones. And a whole lotta bad ones…………………..

I’m pretty sure this guy will be on many fantasy footballers’ radars, but just in case…

Let’s talk about Eric Johnson. He’s now the starting TE for the Saints. We all know about Drew Brees, Marques Colston and the double-headed RB team of Deuce & Bush. But Johnson could be the best VALUE of the bunch. Why? Because in leagues that require a TE (most, I’m guessing, do these days), after everyone grabs the higher-tier guys like Gates, Heap and Shockey, there will be those that reach for guys like L.J. Smith and Randy McMichael. Guys like that MAY certainly have solid seasons, but why not wait a few rounds and take Johnson?

Johnson proved that he can play back in 2004 with the Niners when he hauled in an impressive 82 catches (with a 10.1 per catch average) for 825 yards and a pair of scores. Keep in mind, too, that the Niners’ QBs threw a grand total of sixteen TDs on the year. With Drew Brees now tossing him the pigskin, that TD total could easily triple, if not better. Brees obviously feels comfortable throwing to his TE (see: Gates).

With Reggie Bush so involved in the passing game, and the probable continued reliance on the young Colston, Johnson may only have 60 or so catches, but should still be in the 700-750 yard range, and haul in 6-8 TDs.

The Titans have signed Chris Brown to a one-year contract worth $1.8 million, retaining him in a very prudent move. LenDale White seems intent on eating his way out of the NFL and Chris Henry is just a very raw rookie who never did much in college other than display all the characteristics you want in a running back while at practice and then did very little when facing any opponent. Brown may not be the best back in the league but he is the best one on the Titans roster now and having that opportunity to regain the starting role is why he opted for Tennessee over the Bears where he would only back-up Cedric Benson. This gives him one year to show something in the hopes he can parlay that into a better contract as a 2008 free agent.

Problem here is that just being the best back on the team doesn’t mean he will post appreciable stats this year. There was a reason why he was benched for most of 2006 and he’s never proven to be durable enough to last an entire 16 game season either. The Titans did almost nothing to help the passing game and allowed Drew Bennett and Bobby Wade to leave so the running game won’t get much help there. By now, the Titans go against a tough schedule with apparently little more than Vince Young trying to pull out wins all by himself. Since that mainly means Young running the ball, the defense will remain just as close to the line of scrimmage as last year if not more so.

Both White and Henry will get some playing time which will cut into Brown’s action and with his upright running style, it has to be assumed that Brown will just get himself injured yet again if they use him too much. A prudent move by the Titans? Definitely. A good draft pick by a fantasy team? Probably not.