Forgive the partial hijack,but both here in the Thread, and elsewhere, I'm seeing plenty of opinion that AP is going to suffer a down year, and I'm not necessarily seeing it...
Adrian Peterson may bust in 2017, but predicting a bust in 2016, I'm very interested in hearing more, especially if it has to do with anything besides 'age bias'. I was invested heavily in Peterson both last year (good), and 2014 (ugh), and watched most of his 2015 snaps, and in my opinion, Peterson's struggles in 2015 had to do with either peripherals, or circumstances beyond his control, and still: 327/1485/11 , 30(36)/222/0 ... when one takes into consideration the injuries to, and resulting struggles of, the O-Line, it's truly remarkable what stats he was able to generate...but then when one considers that he had a year off in 2014, and, well Norv, maybe it's not so surprising after all...and all signs point to another monster Season upcoming: that same O-Line, already considered to be one of the most dominant run-blocking lines in the NFL, is fully healthy, and added Alex Boone and Andre Smith. I'm not a Bridgewater guy, but that O-Line shared the blame for some of his struggles as well. Now he's got a Season under his belt, and significantly better weapons on the other end at his disposal (a fully seasoned Diggs, a shiny new toy in Treadwell to go along with utility-knife Jarius Wright looks a helluva lot better than Mike Wallace/Cordy Patterson/Charles Johnson...and speaking of CJ, recent news unveils that he played the season with a rib he cracked up against the Chargers in September, and wasn't the same the rest of the Season. Well he's fine now, and Treadwell/Johnson + Diggs/Wright is versatile and deep, and Rudolph underused/underrated has nowhere to go but up...well, look at Norv's history coordinating an offense...that entire group, collectively, acts as facilitators for Norv to exercise his will through his RB...
...I'm an old man (48) who's been playing FF for a long time (1993), and back in the 90's, it was certainly nice to have some Cowboys on your roster, but you didn't pay a premium for anyone but one Emmitt James Smith III. It's what Norv does. Couple that with a RB who's a complete 'Last of the Mohicans' throwback, and you've got an OC who forcefeeds the ball to his bell-cow, and a bull who'll eat everything you put in front of him, and still be crying for more. In Norv's world, the RB always performs at a premium level. The better the supporting cast, it just amplifies the RB production. Think a healthy and fired up AP is going to cede any carries inside the 10 to Asiata? I think not. Sure McKinnon is coming along nicely as a fresh set of legs who appears to be a more proficient receiver than AP at catching the ball, but with a healthy and fired up AP, we're going to get RB1 stats from rushing yards and TD's by themselves, and anything he contributes PPR is just icing on the cake. 32/250/? is some pretty sweet icing to a cake who's ingredients include a premium # of rushes, premium yprush, and premium TD scoring.
Add in a defense that's setting up to be an upper-tier unit, which is going to provide plenty of positive field-position opportunities for said offense...the hits just keep on coming!
AP remains a divisive Player for some, due to his 2014 personal issues. 'Age bias' isn't entirely irrational, but it's not necessarily entirely rational either. It happens, but it's not entirely predictable. Emotion-driven bias, however is completely irrational, and, knowing human nature, it's entirely possible that there are irrational FF Players who are rooting against AP because of his misguided issues with child discipline. I hope my drafts are full of them. I'll just stick to the football facts which, when taken together, render my opinion that AP will have (another) career Season...
...and I welcome being persuaded otherwise, because it almost looks to good to be true!
Contributing to the Thread:
QB: Breakout: Derek Carr; Sleeper: Matt Ryan; Bust: Eli Manning/Jameis Winston
Comment: Matt Ryan a sleeper? Currently ranked as #19 QB...Year 2 of Kyle Shanahan offense, Julio healthy, 1-2 punch at RB (see below), emerging Tamme and 2016 Sanu being just better enough than 2015 Roddy to keep defenses from 3x Julio, a new toy TE who looks to be a Red-Zone factor and a defense that can't stop anything lead me to believe Ryan slots well within the Top-12 (QB1).
RB: Breakout: Lamar Miller; Sleeper: Tevin Coleman; Bust: Matt Forte
Comment: Miller almost critically underused in Miami, could be critically overused in Houston. Everything Coleman needs to improve can be accomplished in 1 offseason - he's both more physically gifted and football talented than Freeman. Jets RB stable of Forte/Powell/Robinson is a 3-headed monster. Buying Khiry everywhere in Dynasty.
WR: Breakout: Michael Floyd/Donte Moncrief; Sleeper: Michael Thomas; Bust: Keenan Allen
Comment: I conjecture Floyd/Moncrief to the the WR1's in their respective high-octane passing O's. I haven't been as high on a rookie WR in a long time. Talent/Opportunity/QB-Offense/Supporting Cast. Chargers O-Line woes, running game questions; Woodhead/Benjamin/Gates/Henry hurt targets and TD's.
TE: Breakout: Ladarius Green; Sleeper: Will Tye; Bust: Jimmy Graham
Comment: Risky play predicting a breakout from a player switching Teams, but I think Wheaton/Coates both will improve enough this year to create plenty of space, Green is going to see looser coverage by default, and Big Ben is going to absolutely rip seams with Green up the gut. Tye beats out Donnell on talent alone, and the Giants O-Line and lack of a consistent rushing attack (and an astounding lack of understanding of how to properly employ Shane Vereen) is going to force Eli to either bomb to Beckham or dump to Tye, and the Tye targets will prove to be very efficient for both completion percentage and converting 1st downs and scores. I think Jimmy is a square peg/round hole guy in Seattle, and that deal was a disaster. Plus, that injury was just brutal, and may have relegated him to the ranks of the ordinary moving forward. Sad, very sad.