With Baltimore's new 46 alignment, Ed Reed is going to play CF, and Demps will be in the "extra LB" position that was occupied by doug plank in the bears D - main responsibilities are run stuffing and rushing the QB. Plank led the bears in tackles as a rookie from this position. Demps was already around 20-25th playing the normal role of a SS in baltimore's D last year. It seems to follow that he could make the jump to top 10 with the opportunity for LB like tackle and sack numbers - I just got demps at #353 and S27 in my current 16 team draft - seems like he's greatly undervalued based on possible explosion in his numbers this year and beyond if the ravens stick with the 46.thoughts?
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Will Demps - Elite Safety this year? (1 Viewer)
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Renegades of Funk
Footballguy
Agree completely. He is a free agent for my upcoming auction draft and he is someone I am targeting as being undervalued. I saw an article a couple weeks ago that said the same thing regarding Reed playing more centerfield and Demps playing more in the box.Edit to add: I think more like top 15 or so. Ray Lewis will eat up a lot of tackles, but Ray is getting older so maybe he starts slowing down.
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Bob Henry
Footballguy
Demps is near the top of my list of players who I expect to outperform their draft position or improve their fantasy production greatly. I can't classify him as a sleeper because he should already be a known commodity for most folks with IDP experience. With the scheme changes and assignment switches between he and Reed, I suspect that Reed will be overvalued and underperform and Demps will make a lot of owners look like they know something their blackeyejoe league mates didn't. That's not to say Reed won't be a good player, but he'll be among the first IDP players selected in most leagues which is a risky pick IMO. Reed is an incredible player but I expect a 25% decrease - give or take a few - in tackles in 2005. His value will hinge on how many turnovers he forces and if he's able to return a few for TDs like he's done seemingly every year he's been in the league. Ed Reed, to me, is like a throwback to Rod Woodson even though Woodson didn't play safety until his twilight years. He was as much of a sure thing to return a TD or two every year as I've ever seen in the league next to Deion.. only Rod put up good tackle numbers and loved to lay the wood on guys.
Renegades of Funk
Footballguy
With a better understanding of the 46 from a recent article posted here I think Demps may be gold. Looks like he is going to be more like an ILB. Top 10 is definitely possible and top 5 wouldn't surprise me.
Get him while you can.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
I got him late in Z30. Not because I knew what I was doing, just because I thought that using a late round IDP pick on a Raven seemed smart. 
Vibe Raiders
Footballguy
I picked him up about three weeks ago. I don't know if he will explode or not but it is safe to say his stock has went up ...and Reed's numbers should drop some.
Weiner Dog
Footballguy
Make sure you double-check the scoring system for you league before drinking the Demps Kool-Aid.If your league awards heavily for tackles, Demps could most definitely finish Top-20. However...if your league is geared more for big plays (INT, sacks, PD, etc), then Demps may have a difficult time cracking the Top-40.For reference, I see Demps scoring very similar to Donovin Darius. Both players are/will be "in the box" safeties with little pass-coverage responsibility.
Weiner Dog
Footballguy
There's no doubting that Demps blitzing opportunities will be increased this year. However, this newfound opportunity unfortunately creates a "give-take" paradox. Unless your name is Ronde Barber, high sack totals for DB's usually translate into low INT and PD numbers (and visa versa). More alarming, sacks for DB's are terribly unpredictable.In 46 career games, Demps has only four INT's and 3.5 sacks. IMO, he has proved over the past three seasons NOT to be a big-play guy. Maybe he'll shock the world and the Ravens' occassional use of the 46 D will change this...maybe Demps is simply surrounded by too many other top-shelf athletes on the Ravens' crazy D...maybe Demps is simply not a big-play guy. I guess we'll know in six months.
On a side note...I was mildly suprised that Ronde Barber became the first EVER 20-20 guy in the NFL last year (ie. 20 career INT's and 20 career sacks). I would have lost a case of beer betting on the number of DB's supposedly achieving this feat. I know the NFL didn't start calculating sacks totals until 20 (or so) years ago, but I still assumed 1/2 dozen DB's would have achieved this. I guess not...
