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Pencil Vick as a starter now. He’ll be the opening day quarterback for the Jets.

It’s inevitable that the majority of NFL teams will need to utilize their backup quarterbacks at some point. Causes can range from injuries, blowouts, or even poor play. Stretches of backup quarterbacks on the field equate to an opportunity from a fantasy standpoint. Seventy percent of these situations usually are void of a fantasy juggernaut. Then there’s the quarterbacks capable of stepping right in and keeping the offense rolling.

Josh McCown did such a fine job that many wanted him to remain the Bears starter. Matt Flynn did not wow anyone with his on field demeanor but had a few games that he performed decent.

Everyone in the fantasy football world has their insurance 100 percent covered at running back and wide receiver. These dual starter positions usually get five to six players drafted on each fantasy team. Quarterbacks tend to be the forgotten insured position. People will draft their sure-fire starter and not give much consideration to the backup. After all they think they’ll be starting their starter all thirteen fantasy football weeks. Be prepared for any possibilities this season. Here are some current backup quarterbacks that likely will get their chance on the football field. They may even end up being a catalyst to help you win on your fantasy football team.

Johnny Manziel
I just wrote a piece on Manziel being a top twelve fantasy quarterback in the month of November. One thing you can count on from fantasy football owners is impatience. Some owners work the trade and waiver wire market too much. Chances are Manziel won’t be stashed away in the majority of fantasy football leagues. By late October I expect him to start. He’ll work his wonders for the month of November.

Michael Vick
Vick is being his own perfect public relations facilitator right now. Everything he states to the media has been politically correct. He stands behind and believes in Geno Smith. We all know that Vick is in New York to try and write a last chapter to his career. Being a permanent backup was the last thing on his mind. The book we saw on Geno Smith last year just has the makings for more early season disasters. New York may start Smith just to procure Vick’s health. He hasn’t been durable the last four years. Maybe bringing him in as starter in late September or October protects him for the rest of the season. Bottom line is that Vick will be on the field, maybe as early as week one.

Brandon Weeden
No one truly knows Kyle Orton’s plans. By bringing in Weeden, Dallas is showing their support to lean on Weeden as the backup. Cowboys fans know all too well Tony Romo’s injury history. Dallas’s organization has been quiet in regards to Romo’s health. Unless Dallas reshapes their offensive playbook, it’ll be a matter of time before Weeden steps onto the field. Their pass happy offense leaves quarterbacks vulnerable to big hits.

Thad Lewis
EJ Manuel missed time on the field on two different occasions last season. For the most part Manuel was a pocket passer. If he doesn’t learn to make quicker decisions with the football, he’ll have more setbacks in 2014. Buffalo kept themselves prepared with Lewis. Lewis shined in a couple of spot starts last year. Buffalo has a solid group of young receivers that was bolstered with the signing of Mike Williams and drafting of Sammy Watkins.

Shaun Hill
Hill seems like he has been in the NFL forever. Throughout his career he has been perceived as a solid backup. While in Detroit he filled in well when Matt Stafford went down. In St. Louis, fans and the media believe this is their year to make a move in the NFC. Sam Bradford is likely on his last leg if he can’t fulfill the first pick he was garnered. If the team struggles, Hill will become the starter, with assets galore offensively around him.

Charlie Whitehurst
Tennessee is making it clear to Locker he needs to become a more consistent quarterback. Some of the blame could go on the shoulders of an unsustainable running game with Chris Johnson. He is gone and the Titans did a fine job filling that position by signing Dexter McCluster and drafting Bishop Sankey. Locker is a veteran now and needs to start playing like one. Tennessee did the right thing by signing Whitehurst and drafting Zach Mettenburger.

Matt Moore
Miami burned an above average season with putrid losses. Most of their close losses were caused by single or multiple game killing plays by Ryan Tannehill. When they were winning though, he played a big part in their success. That’s expected for a second year quarterback. In his third season Tannehill must nix those mistakes. He has to show better control for an entire football game. If the play isn’t there, he must throw the football away. Miami’s team is very similar to last year. It’s one of the few teams in football that kept their roster at quarterback the same. Moore has been a fill in starter before in Carolina and in Miami during Chad Henne’s final season.

Kirk Cousins
RG3 supporters are all expecting him to answer to last years debacle with a bang in 2014. In college he responded by winning the Heisman two years after blowing out his knee. It’s going to take a complete 360 from RG3 to get back to his level of 2012. It may be in him, but there is no discounting his second major knee injury. Until he shows that same burst and speed, I won’t be a full believer. Washington sat him the last two games of last year as precaution, but who knows if he further damaged his knee the first fourteen games of the season. As has been the case the past two years, Kirk Cousins will be ready if need be.

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Thus far in Johnny Manziel’s career he has been a spectacle on and off the field. His journey to a media sensation has been stirred to new heights on the professional level. High profiled athletes are always out and about in nightlife Vegas scenes and other major areas.

In fact a week before Manziel was glorified for being in Las Vegas, St. Louis Rams, Michael Sam was there. Both have been getting major attention from the media, but Sam has the spotlight in a different way. I’m 100 percent sure that Manziel and Sam were not the only two NFL rookies that have ventured to Vegas in the past two months.

What it comes down to for Manziel is living up to his draft pick. By falling to the 20’s he is in the range of several quarterbacks over the last five years. Former Cleveland Brown quarterback, Brandon Weeden, was selected 22nd a few seasons ago. Tim Tebow was the 25th pick, Joe Flacco 18th, and Brady Quinn 22nd.

Only one of those four quarterbacks has had success. Quinn has bounced around as a third string backup. Tebow’s story is well documented, and Brandon Weeden was a failure in two seasons in Cleveland.

The high impact fans and the media are labeling Manziel needs to be toned down. Cleveland’s front office is doing their best to calm the media down. By stating that Manziel won’t be handed the job and has a lot of work ahead of him. It’s the way any organization needs to handle a drafted player, but Cleveland is putting it out there for the media’s eyes.

Without a doubt the media pressure will continue to build and inevitably Johnny Manziel will be on the football field in 2014. How will this help your fantasy football teams? Assuming Manziel doesn’t start right away, he’ll likely be thrown into the fray in mid to late October. This is usually when a poor team looks for one last chance. At four or five losses they’d only be a few games away from playoff elimination.

Rookie quarterbacks have shown strong promise before in fantasy football impact. Even Brandon Weeden had his share of 300 yard games. The list extends from RG3, Luck, Locker, Kaepernick, Vince Young, and even Tim Tebow. New quarterbacks on the field tend to cause disruption for defensive schemes and coordinators.

Scouting preseason film and college film is completely different from an NFL game plan. It typically takes defenses a handful of games to adjust to the new starting quarterback.

Therefore, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Manziel catapult himself as a top twelve fantasy quarterback in November. This could be crucial for fantasy teams looking for a new spark at their quarterback position. Manziel has had his critics for his skill to throw the football. His craftiness should allot for him to create on the run and spread the football around. I see no reason to discount his skill set from college to the NFL.

It didn’t stop Colin Kaepernick, Vince Young, Mike Vick, RG3, Tebow, and other scrambling quarterbacks initially.

Place Manziel on your draft lists. He’ll reward you like he did in college against the spread.

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Once upon a time an injury coming out of college did not harm an athlete. NBA team doctors knew about Greg Oden’s injury history. Team’s do a thorough job and surely knew his back and knees were in poor shape. Even in college he had issues. Yet, the size and talent was too much to pass up for the Portland Trailblazers.

Oden’s plight as the number one pick was unfortunate. His comeback attempt this past season looks like it may be his last on the NBA floor. His knees are so bad that he couldn’t even practice on a regular basis for the Heat. Yet the Heat saw an opportunity to perhaps squeeze a little bit out of Oden for playoff basketball. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Nerlens Noel saw his sure-fire position of a number one pick crash to sixth last season. No longer were teams willing to say will wait on your future based on injury recovery.

Joel Emblid and Julius Randle could find themselves dreading the injury bug. Their soon to be million dollar pockets could be missing an extra number in front of the comma. Randle states that his foot injury from high school has healed fine. Rumors state that is not true. Around the NBA teams will let their medical technology give them the answer versus Randle’s.

For Emblid it is unforunate. The spotlight was already on him in the last phase of Kansas’s season. In contention to make a strong run in March Madness, Emblid was not able to go with a back injury. Now another development has occurred just a week before the NBA draft. It appears that Emblid has fractured his foot.

The injuries for Emblid aren’t debilitating to consider his career in jeopardy. Luckily they haven’t involved main ligaments in his knees. But being injury prone is surely a label attached to him now. Teams are not going to go out on a limb to draft him at number one. Cleveland or a team willing to trade up has likely cancelled those thoughts.

Now Emblid’s future rests on how far he will slip in the draft. It’s a sad situation for an athlete that has worked his butt off to get in this position. Two to three years ago he was just beginning to play the game. He came to Florida to finish high school without a clue that he would rise to the level he is at now.

When it’s all said and done next week, Emblid should still remain a top ten pick. When the dust clears maybe this is a better result for Emblid. The mindset from the fan base and team that drafts him is recovery. Let Emblid recover and practice his way onto the court.

After all he is just 20 years old. In all likelihood he would have had a tough time dealing with being the number one pick. Now people will have the mentality that he is injury prone and fell in the draft.

The Greg Oden factor could end up being exactly what Emblid needed at the beginning of his career.

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The lure of a new contract or a team looking to cut salary cap dollars creates new opportunities. These players sometimes are high priced commodities and others are just roster depth acquisitions on new teams. Time on the field is worth the attention of fantasy football participants. Here are some athletes to keep an eye on for your fantasy football drafts. Their new situations should bode well in transitioning fantasy football points for you.

Quarterbacks: Mike Vick and Josh McCown
Free agent quarterbacks have not made much noise for the fantasy football world in quite some time. McCown comes to the Buccaneers after surprise production filling in for Jay Cutler in Chicago. No one truly knows what the Jets plans are for Vick or how much Vick has left in the tank. It is arguable though that both could surprise on the fantasy radar. Vick has had a history of strong results and McCown did so just last year. The talent is around both to have watchful eyes in 2014.

Running Backs: Toby Gerhart (Jacksonville), Ben Tate (Cleveland), Knowshown Moreno (Miami), Rashad Jennings (New York Giants), Chris Johnson (NY Jets), Darren Sproles (Philadelphia Eagles), Maurice Jones-Drew(Oakland Raiders), LeGarrette Blount (Pittsburgh)
Rookie contracts tend to take running backs into their third or fourth seasons. For those that are top dollar players, they almost certainly get resigned on their original drafted team. Most end up hitting the true free agent market after their second deals are expired. By then their value is on the decline. Teams look for a veteran fill in back such as Chris Johnson, Knowshown Moreno, MJD, Sproles, and Blount. All of these guys have backup role type of fantasy football value. Their value will be spiked based on the touchdowns they can get and not yardage.

Then you have the unheralded rookie contract backs that outperformed. Toby Gerhart did so in spot starts for Adrian Peterson. One has to wonder if Gerhart will end up being the next Peyton Hillis. Rashad Jennings had short stints in both Jacksonville and Oakland, but is still a fresh young back for the Giants. Ben Tate was arguably the top free agent signee and the Browns assured themselves of a solid back for the next couple of seasons.

You won’t find any top fifteen fantasy running backs in this group. Instead lower tier second running backs and regular fantasy backups. From the tandem back veteran group I would give Maurice Jones-Drew the highest upside. One the Raiders are likely tiring of Darren McFadden. Secondly, the Raiders have produced solid second tier strength backs over the years (Jennings/Bush). From the young crop of backs Jennings offers high intrigue. The Giants backfield is up for grabs. Coughlin being the old coach he is, could roll with a prominent back for a decent amount of carries. If Jennings ends up being the feature back, he could spark a move into a fantasy starting backfield.

Wide Receivers: Desean Jackson, Eric Decker, Hakeem Nicks, Emmanuel Sanders, Golden Tate, Mike Williams, and Steve Smith
Out of all the main free agent position signees, wide receiver, has the biggest gap of high chance of return on investment. Drafting any of the aforementioned receivers is going to be a big risk. Even DeSean Jackson should pose as a red flag. He is in a pass friendly offense. But the same could be said all his years in Philadelphia. At times he would disappear even in the high passing offense with McNabb, Vick, Kolb, and Foles.

Golden Tate, Mike Williams, and Steve Smith are bottom tier bench fillers. A possible fifth or sixth spot on your team, with no patience if they don’t produce. All the years for Steve Smith as a number one receiver seem to have taken a big toll on him. I’d be surprised if he came close to 750 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Williams seems to be in trouble to make the Bills roster, and has had questionable character issues off the field. Sanders needs to show timely chemistry in the Broncos offense in a crowded position.

That leaves Eric Decker and Hakeem Nicks. Nicks could show a flash or too like he did as a Giant. But his injury history seems to have relegated him to a second or third option on an offense. Decker is the intriguing prospect. Can the Jets get their moneys worth? Signs are pointing that Decker likely was a system receiver in Denver, and that the Jets quarterback issues will weigh him down considerably.

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Graham is the only fantasy position ranking that won’t move in 2014.

It truly was not that long ago where tight ends use to be an after thought on fantasy football draft day. You had the Shannon Sharpe’s and Ben Coates of the world and then everybody else. Heck, there was even a time when certain fullbacks could be drafted for fantasy value (Larry Centers/Mike Alstott). It seems as the use of a fullback faded teams started to realize the value of a new breed tight end.

Slowly other NFL teams began to seek out a capable versatile pass catching tight end. Now we are at where we are today. A true top to bottom league with high end tight ends. This translates into a much more interesting position filler. Here is a look at June’s top twenty tight ends.

1. Jimmy Graham- His contract squabbles with the Saints is all financial. Once September comes along the Saints will be using the former U basketball player as a continued aerial assault killer. Graham’s basketball skills have truly helped transform his skills on the football field. Last year was amazing to see the repetition of throws Brees would throw his way. Yet he still would haul in a whopping percentage of them.

2. Julius Thomas- Last season was a make or break year for Thomas. Denver had kept him on through his struggles and believed in him. Finally last year he was able to breakout. At the same time he rose to fantasy football stardom. Continued growth from Thomas will keep the Broncos right where they’ve been. Deep into the post season.

3. Jordan Cameron- Even though Cameron’s quarterback is in question, I’ll still keep him as a top three tight end. He showed enough through the gauntlet of quarterbacks last season. This year he’ll have one of two options. Brian Hoyer, who he fared extremely well with last year, or rookie Johnny Manziel. Consider Cameron’s chances of a one year wonder non-existent.

4. Vernon Davis
5. Rob Gronkowski
6. Jason Witten
7. Charles Clay
8. Jermichael Finley
9. Martellius Bennett
10. Jordan Reed
11. Dennis Pitta
12. Eric Ebron
13. Antonio Gates
14. Zach Ertz
15. Coby Fleener
16. Garrett Graham
17. Tyler Eifert
18. DeLanie Walker
19. Dwayne Allen
20. LaDarius Green

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Cashing in on great performances under the spotlight is nothing new. Who can forget cornerback Larry Brown from the Dallas Cowboys? He had two interceptions that were right to him from Neil O’Donnell in the Super Bowl. He won MVP and combined that fortunate night to a big payday with the Oakland Raiders.

In the NBA, Robert Horry made his living in the playoffs. Year after year he would shine once late April, May, and June arrived. In the regular season though he was a below average player. JJ Barea flourished as a Dallas Maverick which in turn led to his big contract for Minnesota. And now Patty Mills seems to be the latest in line to get an unexpected profitable contract in a few weeks.

He was one of many catalysts for the Spurs that ignited their sizzling offense. With the Spurs ball movement working to perfection, Mills was often wide open for three point shots. Yes he did make them, but the fact is he was wide open 90% of the time. Mills did help his cause by playing sound defense and causing a few offensive fouls.

I’m just not sure Mills is going to warrant a big contract. He shined for the Spurs in relatively a small scale of minutes. The bulk of these minutes either came against the Heat’s second unit (nothing to write home about) or against the Heat’s first unit with a big lead in hand. Most of those big leads the Heat’s first team was gassed. Spoelstra was just trying to seek out a counter run with his starters in the game.

Jeff Van Gundy did a fine job pointing out that Mills is realistically 5’8 and not 6’0. This was even more evident when the Spurs were on the floor for their NBA title. While standing next to all of his teammates including Tony Parker, Mills looked much shorter than six feet.

A lot of teams are going to be giving Mills a call to detract him from San Antonio. Poppovich and the Spurs likely won’t be able to match any big offers, and are prepared to let him go. Just last summer, Mills was in Las Vegas for the summer league with a roster spot up in the air. His conditioning and work ethic in the offseason is what propelled him past former first round pick Cory Joseph.

Starter’s minutes might not be the best thing for Patty Mills. Undersized he would be vulnerable to a nightly beating. Also, he never really gave the Spurs a spark as a passing point guard. The Spurs moved the ball well as a team not individually. It’ll be a part of his game we have not seen on the professional level, if he is capable of running a team as an individual.

You can compare the Spurs to Duke in college basketball. They get the best out of all their players but a transition to a new team doesn’t always pan out. Duke has always received a label of sending bust athletes to the NBA. San Antonio typically does a good job in keeping their talent, but they’ve had a few leave as part of trades or free agents.

The last to do so that played well as a Spur was George Hill. To say Hill has not lived up to his trade value for Indiana is an understatement.

Mills agent and Mills should seek the best contract he can get. But at the end of the day I don’t see Mills capable of being an every day starter.