Who Could Be Your Fantasy Football Sleeper This Week?

Okay, I've figured out that I need to expand my reach for a "sleeper" for fantasy football each week beyond the Minnesota Vikings. Two reasons. . .first off, outside of Adrian Peterson, there really isn't anyone in the Minnesota offense that you can really risk starting on a week-to-week basis (not even Percy Harvin, at this point). Second, since this is a Vikings' site, most of you probably own any Minnesota Viking that might be available in most fantasy leagues anyway, so we need to widen our scope.

So, as this week's fantasy sleeper, I'm going to give you a guy that should be able to help you out at the wide receiver position this week.

Remember a couple of years ago in the draft when everyone thought that Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree was the consensus best wide receiver in the draft? The Oakland Raiders needed a wide receiver, so when their turn to pick came up and Crabtree was still on the board, the silver and black naturally selected. . .Maryland's Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Well, so far this season, Heyward-Bey has 16 catches for 263 yards and a touchdown, while Crabtree only has 11 for 123 and no scores. Not to say that Heyward-Bey is the lock to be the better wide receiver over the long haul or anything like that, but for this year it appears he's the better option.

Surprisingly, according to Yahoo!, Heyward-Bey is only owned in 42% of all of their fantasy football leagues. . .but not in the official DN league anymore. (That's the advantage of doing this sort of thing, I guess.) But if you need a wide receiver this weekend, check the waiver wire and see if Darrius Heyward-Bey is available.