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Fantasy Corner: a growing need for 1.21 Giga-‘Watts’

ESPN’s list of their top-100 players dropped on Tuesday, and revealed Texans’ Defensive Lineman J.J Watt as the “greatest player in the NFL.”

Watt has dazzled the league over the past three years with his insane defensive prowess, as well as his downright freakish athletic nature. He has become famous for batting down footballs at the line of scrimmage and giving the old Dikembe Mutombo finger-wag to the opposing team’s quarterback. There is simply nothing that J.J Watt cannot accomplish on the field.

He is starting to do the unthinkable. Watt is starting to phase out Peyton Manning as the face of the NFL with regards to their deal with Papa John’s. Many thought Papa John’s would be Manning’s dying rock. They believed he would give up his diminishing chase for a second Superbowl ring before handing over the keys, or should we say cheese rather, to the Papa John’s franchise.

It has taken an athlete of Watt’s caliber to receive the sort of attention he is getting, which makes that number 1 ranking very well earned and deserved.

While last week’s edition of the Fantasy Corner was devoted towards answering a question, this week we are going to ask an important one. Why can’t we draft individual defensive players like a J.J Watt or a Richard Sherman on our fantasy teams?

That make everyone’s draft more fun. Instead of being relegated to drafting second string running backs or fifth option wide receiver, studs on the defensive side of the ball could be taken in the later rounds.

In Watt’s case, you have to like his odds of scoring multiple touchdowns when you have four combined games against the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Plus, Watt is now a prominent piece in Houston’s goal-line offense, making him even more of a threat to score. It would be awesome to role J.J Watt out in say your FLEX position a week where a couple of your key guys are on a bye.

Here is an idea, why can there not be a second FLEX position in everyone’s lineup created specifically for defensive players? You could even make it so each week your league has a mini draft where you select a defensive player you deem most likely to score. To make it as easy as possible, only give that player points if they score a touchdown.

As stated last week, fantasy football has gotten more serious over the past few years. However, the underlying premise of the game is for everyone to simply have fun. Fantasy football is not work to most people; it is more so another form of entertainment. So why not have the most fun you can?

Defensive players would add a more interesting dynamic to your fantasy team each week, and they should be considered more in leagues run by Yahoo or ESPN.

Do not underestimate the impact the current ”greatest player in the NFL” can have on your fantasy squad.

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