NFL Fantasy Power Rankings '12: How You Can Find This Year's Victor Cruz

What's the key to winning an NFL Fantasy championship? You'd hope that if your first-round running back stays healthy, you would win, right? 

Having played in many leagues, you notice an unexpected trend on teams that finish high, score well, or take home the virtual bragging rights. They usually had a breakout player who absolutely nobody heard of, who, by Week 14-16, is all of a sudden a top-five option at his position. Sometimes they are runners, but more often than not, they are receivers.

You'd better be paying attention at the back end of your draft if you want to find the key to your title hopes.  

In 2011, we had Victor Cruz. In 2010, it was Brandon Lloyd. In 2009, Miles Austin came out of absolutely nowhere to lead countless owners to Fantasy championships who picked him up on a whim. All were waiver-wire or late-round additions. All of them posted top-five numbers at their position, and performed well down the stretch.

It's hard for me to stand here and say someone who's on-average, undrafted in mocks will be the next Cruz with any hard evidence, like a Stephen Hill of the Jets. However, here are three intriguing choices that you can pick up in the middle to later rounds, who I believe have that breakout potential and WILL lead you to a fantasy title. 

Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers

A huge mistake many fantasy footballers make is focusing too much on last year's high production for a single player. The worst way to do this is to chase touchdown totals. This can work with running backs, but is a death wish for those drafting wideouts. Just ask those poor souls who drafted Braylon Edwards too high in 2008. 

Antonio Brown is literally the opposite of that, and severely undervalued in preseason ranks. He had 123 targets last year. That's 10 more than his more highly coveted teammate, Mike Wallace, who has also still refused to sign his franchise tender and could hold out.

He had 1,108 yards, good for top-15 in the league. Watching the Steelers last year, when Big Ben needed a reliable target, he looked for Brown more and more down the stretch. If Wallace does indeed hold out, Big Ben will rely on Brown more than ever. And those TD totals WILL rise. 

Early mock drafts have Brown going in the sixth round. For someone who could see close to 150 targets in an increasingly airborne attack, this is absolute madness.

Malcom Floyd, San Diego Chargers

Yeah, Philip Rivers had a down year in 2011. But the Chargers are still a fantasy-friendly offense. I mentioned Brown's value would uptick if the Steelers' No.1 wideout wasn't around for the start of 2012. Now that Vincent Jackson has chased the money to Tampa Bay, Rivers' most familiar target outside of Antonio Gates (dealing with a myriad of age/injury problems) is the 6'5'' Floyd.

As Philip Rivers' No.1 target, and go-to deep threat, V-Jax was a perennial top-10 wide receiver and top-30 pick. There is little doubt that Floyd can be productive when given the chance; when VJ held out in 2010, Floyd put up 717 yards and six TD's in just 10 full games. That prorates to a full season of about 1,147 yards and 9-10 TD's.

In that same mock, he's going as the 95th pick. Reservations may be held by drafter's for the fact that San Diego picked up Robert Meachem, who is 6'2'', 210 pounds, and has some deep-threat skills while producing well at times for the Saints.

I wouldn't worry if I'm getting Floyd this cheap. Philip Rivers threw for 4,600-plus yards with 27 TD's in a "down year." There's lots of receiving yards and TD's to go around.

Pierre Garcon, Washington Redskins

Like Floyd, Garcon is a big, fast target who was recently given $43 million to be RG3's downfield threat. That's more money than what other No.1 wideouts—Stevie Johnson and Marques Colston, for instance—got paid. I'm not saying a fat contract equals big production, but that gives you a sense of how much Mike Shanahan wants to use him in Washington's bootleg-heavy scheme that's not afraid of tossing the deep ball. 

Yes, there are questions about Garcon's hands; They were a problem even when Peyton Manning was putting the ball straight into his chest a few years back. And no matter how talented RG3 is, you'd be correct to point out that relying on any rookie QB to make fantasy magic isn't the best move.

But let's remember Garcon's comically frequent drops came mostly when he was a rookie or second-year and was charged with learning Peyton's hopelessly complicated two-minute drill and being his premiere deep-threat. That's tough, no matter how perfect the spiral.

And even RG3's worst doubter can't say with a straight face that he's worse than the combo of Curtis Painter/Dan Orlovsky. Oh, and Garcon produced almost 1,000 yards and six TD's in a miserable Colts offense with no run game and those two clowns at QB.

Deep threats take two to three years to blow up, and a shiny new arm in RG3 and an offense that will rely on him could be the situation Garcon needs to take the next step. Citing the same mock again, I'm willing to take a late seventh round choice to find out if he can do so.