by Austin Barimo

It’s natural in fantasy football to look for what one would call “sleepers” late in your draft, especially when you are playing in a deep league, whether that is one with 12, 14, or 16 teams. This is especially true when it comes to the position of Wide Receiver.  Since most leagues have you starting either 2 WRs and 1 WR/RB a week, or just 3 WRs outright, if you decide to draft 4 WRs in the first case or 5 in the 2^nd, may be smart to look for a sleeper with that last pick.  After all, unless one of your starters gets injured or you already have two receivers with the same bye week, why not take a shot at a guy who many might not expect to be a “playmaker” in terms of fantasy value, but who you feel could contribute to your team? This year, one such player at WR could very well be Oakland Raiders WR Louis Murphy.

Let’s start out by stating the obvious: I never would be stating that last sentence at this time last year.  Not only was Murphy a rookie at the time, but he had JaMarcus Russell as his quarterback. And as the numbers show, Russell only completed 120 passes in 12 games during the 2009 season, for an average of 10 completions in total a game. As I can attest to seeing due to having Zach Miller as my starting TE and therefore had to drop him for a new guy 4 weeks into the season, it seemed as if Russell couldn’t ever complete a pass. That basically made it impossible to even think about having any Raider WR on your fantasy team’s bench.

Luckily, however, the 2010 season looks much better. Russell is out, and former Redskins QB Jason Campbell is in his place. While I will not sit here and say Campbell is a top-of-the-line fantasy QB, I will say he is certainly much better than Russell was. In 2009, Campbell completed 327 passes in 16 games, for an average of 20 per game. In other words, that’s 10 more completions per game! I don’t expect Campbell to suddenly become an amazing QB, but I do feel he will consistently complete a decent number of passes per week, whereas Russell’s numbers were simply awful last season.

This is where Murphy comes in. When Campbell throws the ball, which he certainly will do, he quite obviously has to throw it someone! Last season, with Russell and Bruce Gradkowski talking the majority of snaps at QB, do you know who had the 2^nd most catches on the Raiders? No, not 2009 1^st round pick Darrius Heyward-Bey, who finished tenth with just nine catches by the way. The correct answer is Louis Murphy! While Zach Miller led the team with 66 catches, Louis finished 2^nd with 34 catches for 521 yards. Louis also led the Raiders in receiving touchdowns. Not bad for a 4^th round draft pick playing with a horrible QB!

With Campbell seemingly firmly entrenched as the Raiders starter at QB this season and with Louis having a year of NFL experience now under his belt, I fully expect Murphy to put up even better numbers in 2010, so long as he stays healthy.  So if you’re deep in your fantasy draft and are looking for a potential sleeper at WR, keep Louis Murphy in mind.  He might just end up helping you win your league.

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