Sleeper Watch

The good news: the NFL regular season is almost here. The bad news: we’ll have to wait at least another six weeks before we can watch one of the league’s most exciting players, Michael Vick.

Vick was supposed to have a monster season, both on the ground and passing to Atlanta’s wide receiver corps, was was improved considerably this offseason through the addition of Peerless Price. Yet while Vick’s aggressive style of play and willingness to run promised excellent numbers, they also made fantasy owners worry about injuries… and pray that it wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, it did.

Now someoen else will have to fill in at quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. That someone is fourth-year QB Doug Johnson. At 6-2 he has good height for a QB and he’s still young at 25. The Florida product knows how to throw the ball and can go deep, but lack of experience could be an obstacle for him. And he’ll only play until Vick is ready to return, which could be as early as Week 5.

In six games last season Johnson had a very respectable completion rate of 64.9 percent, giving him a career mark of 58.9. He’s somewhat interception prone, but should have decent games if he can get in sync with Price and the other receivers. Don’t expect Johnson to approach Vick’s expected production, but he is worth a late round selection if you gamble on Vick in the middle rounds, and could also be a solid backup for the first weeks.