4 Fantasy Football Sleepers for the Wild Card Round

A.J. McCarron, QB, Cincinnati Bengals

A.J. McCarron comes into the wild card round having thrown six touchdowns and only two interceptions in the four games he's played in relief of Andy Dalton. In what will be a rematch of the very game when we saw Dalton go down with injury, he will have the opportunity to take on a Pittsburgh Steelers secondary that has been exploited on multiple occasions in recent weeks.

Despite ranking a respectable 11th in terms of our Adjusted Defensive Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per play metric, the Steelers have allowed Ryan Mallett, Brock Osweiler and McCarron himself to throw for an average of 283 passing yards and 2 touchdowns in Weeks 14 through 16. They were largely able to shut down the Cleveland Browns' passing game in Week 17, but that is not something that would sway my decision one way or the other.

Despite McCarron's lack of experience, the Bengals will likely be forced to pass more than they may like in this contest, as the Steelers boast our fifth ranked rush defense. With DeAngelo Williams likely to be absent from the Steelers' lineup, we may see both teams airing the ball out plenty, which should increase the likelihood of a potential shootout. At his low cost on all of the varying sites, McCarron will offer you salary relief and a decent amount of upside relative to his price.