Fantasy Football Sleepers 2012: Predicting a Breakout Player at Each Position

With the 2012 NFL season just over two weeks away, fantasy football preparation is in full swing.

If you want to look like a guru in your next draft, identifying and selecting sleepers is the best way to accomplish that.

It will impress everyone and help your team win a championship if you take a calculated risk on a prospect in the latter rounds that pays dividends during the regular season.

Let’s take a look at a guy like that for each position.

QB—Jake Locker

The Tennessee Titans are finally fully committed to their 2011 first-round pick and have installed Locker as the starter.

He seemed to get better and more comfortable as the season wore on last year and should be ready to put up some big games after having almost half a training camp as the No. 1 QB.

Locker might start out with a few rough games, but keep him on your bench, because this dual-threat signal-caller is a quick learner and could easily be one of the top young guns in the league.

RB—Toby Gerhart

With all the fuss about Adrian Peterson’s injury, it’s worth it to take a flier on his backup, former Stanford standout Toby Gerhart.

It’s looking like there is a chance AP won’t suit up for the Minnesota Vikings first regular season game, which means Gerhart would get a heavy workload and a chance to continue improving.

If you want to roll the dice on a solid No. 1 RB for a few weeks, go with Gerhart late in the draft and try to steal some early games against your opponents.

WR—Brandon LaFell

LaFell is the No. 2 receiver across from Steve Smith in what should be an absolutely explosive Carolina Panthers offense.

This team has three capable running backs (DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert), as well as a mobile QB in Cam Newton. That should keep defenses plenty honest and open up a lot of room for LaFell to get open.

With Newton maturing and getting more comfortable, he should have no problem looking at his other options aside from Smith. That puts the third-year man out of LSU in position for a monster season.

TE—Kyle Rudolph

Rudolph is reminding a lot of onlookers of a Rob Gronkowski-type player for the Minnesota Vikings.

He’s huge (6’5”, 260 lbs), athletic and has massive hands; all which add up to catching balls, especially in the red area, easy for the second-year pro.

Christian Ponder should make significant strides as a QB in his second season, but he doesn’t have any elite options aside from Percy Harvin to target downfield. Expect a lot of checkdowns and short passes to find Rudolph this year.