Fantasy: Dynasty League Viewer’s Guide to Super Bowl XLV

Are you looking for a reason to tune in to this potentially epic Super Bowl matchup between two storied franchises?

In what could be our last glimpse of live football for some time (thank you labor dispute), there are plenty of players to take note of in dynasty fantasy football leagues.  I am not talking about the obvious players like Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger, but players who have shown flashes of big play ability in a limited role.

If you are curious where these players rank in my most recent dynasty rankings, click here.

Pittsburgh Steelers

WR Emmanuel Sanders – PIT

The Packers and Steelers have shown us that you don’t have to spend first round selections to find premium wide receivers, and Emmanuel Sanders is an example of this.  Sanders was the 82nd pick in the 2010 draft and slated to fill the slot role in the offense due to the departure of Santonio Holmes.  While Sanders bided his time, and often competed with Antonio Brown for one active game day roster spot in the beginning of the season, he flashed some ability with 77 fantasy points in 13 games and his targets per snap rate of 11.82% is eerily similar to Mike Wallace’s from 2009.

And Sanders’ playing time steadily progressed as the season went along; he’s played in 52% of the offensive snaps in the postseason and is entrenched as the third wide receiver.  Sanders is tied for the team lead in wide receiver targets with 9 in the postseason, and his targets per snap ratio (12%) is greater than Wallace and Hines Ward.

Sanders’ situation for next season (Antonio Brown also, more on him in a bit) largely depends on what Ward’s role will be in the offense if he doesn’t retire.

WR Antonio Brown – PIT

Antonio Brown has been one of the unlikeliest playoff heroes this year.  No one expected the 195th selection in the draft to contribute much this season.  Brown slid to the sixth round despite declaring for the NFL as a junior from Central Michigan.  Scouts knew that Brown had speed and play-making ability but wasn’t given the opportunity to showcase it often in the short passing attack of the Chippewas.  Given the circumstances, his 10.82 yards per catch and 0.59 touchdowns per game in his final two seasons might have led us to what we are seeing now in the playoffs.

Brown didn’t get much of an opportunity to play this season and only saw significant time from Week 14 forward.  What we can see is that when Brown is on the field, Roethlisberger is looking his way often.  Here are Brown’s targets per snap in the regular season and playoffs:

While we only see a slight regression in the playoffs, it is interesting to point out that Brown has the highest target rate per snap of any wide receiver in 2010 (Demaryius Thomas was second, 22.16%).  This metric will regress back to the norm with an increase in playing time and opportunities in 2011; however, it makes Brown a player to roster especially if Hines Ward retires or continues his decline in performance.

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Don’t be surprised if you see either Antonio Brown or Emmanuel Sanders making a big play for the Pittsburgh offense on Sunday as most of the attention will be focused on stopping Mike Wallace and Hines Ward.

Green Bay Packers

QB Matt Flynn – GB

Although Matt Flynn only saw mop-up duty in the Atlanta playoff game, he made a name for himself around the league with his Week 15 start at New England.  Flynn ran the offense effectively (+1.7 PFF) on the day and almost led the Packers to the upset win.  Flynn doesn’t have the arm strength of Rodgers but showed he could be a solid NFL starter.  With a shortage of quality quarterbacks around the league, expect Ted Thompson to field trade offers for Flynn this offseason.  Flynn has no chance to unseat Rodgers, but could be a winning lottery ticket for your dynasty team if he is traded.

TE Andrew Quarless – GB

While we expected Andrew Quarless to pick up some of the offensive slack due to the season-ending injury to Jermichael Finley, it just never materialized for him this season.  Quarless flashed some potential at points, but was never a major cog in the late-season surge by the Packers.  In fact, Quarless was only targeted 7.99% of the time when he was on the field – a statistic that has remained the same in the playoffs at only 7.0%.  Quarless is not without talent but should only be viewed as an insurance policy for Finley owners going into 2011.  If Finley returns to form, you can leave Quarless on the waiver wire.

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Andrew Quarless will see the most playing time out of the Green Bay tight ends at around 50% of the plays but expect Aaron Rodgers to focus on getting the ball to his play-making wide receivers.  If Matt Flynn is in the game for anything other than kneeling out the clock, things have gone very badly for Green Bay.