RADIO
Imagine if you had to draft a fantasy football team but could only pick players from the 10th round on. That's the exercise I undertook once again. Last year, I put forth my All-Sleeper Team based on a submission to an expert ranker platform and this will be a reprisal of that column updated for 2021.
All preseason long, the RotoBaller team has been providing analysis on the best draft sleepers for 2021 fantasy football. There is no shortage of players beyond the top 100 that could be considered sleepers. It comes to the point where identifying sleepers isn't as hard as narrowing down the list to find the best draft targets.
This isn't really a team you'd want to field on a weekly basis because they won't all pan out. The intention is to provide a list of the best sleeper candidates at each position so you know who to look out for in the later rounds of fantasy drafts.
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Criteria
For this exercise, there is a specific set of criteria to determining who qualifies as a sleeper per FantasyPros.
"Each expert submits 13 sleepers at the following positions. For positions where multiple sleepers are entered (QB/RB/WR/TE), the expert must rank-order their picks.
- 2 QB
- 4 RB
- 4 WR
- 2 TE
- 1 DST
We define Sleepers as players that fall outside of specific Expert Consensus Rank cutoffs. All experts have access to the same player selection pool that corresponds to the following:
- QB: outside top 15 ECR
- RB: outside top 45 ECR
- WR: outside top 55 ECR
- TE: outside top 15
- DST: outside top 10 "
Among the many players I'm targeting in the mid-to-late rounds of fantasy drafts this year, here are my top choices at each position.
Pierre Camus' 2021 All-Sleeper Team
Quarterback Sleepers
Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins
How ironic is it that the same people who are ready to call Tua a bust after half a season's worth of NFL action are pumping up Josh Allen as an MVP candidate... Recall that Allen had a 10-12 TD-INT rate and 52.8% completion rate as a rookie. Tagovailoa did much better with an 11-5 TD-INT rate while completing 64.1% of his passes. Just like Allen got Stefon Diggs to boost the receiving corps, Tagovailoa now has Will Fuller and former college teammate Jaylen Waddle at his disposal.
That aside, he's going to be farther removed from his devastating hip injury and have a full offseason of participation in an offense designed around his strengths. There won't be that pesky Fiztmagic guy lurking on the bench either. Anybody still denying that Tagovailoa is a strong breakout candidate is simply putting on blinders or is part of Bills mafia.
“Fully healthy this year, I’m told (Tua) has had an exceptional training camp. Greater comfort within the offense, greater comfort in the playbook.” Plus an emphasis on taking shots downfield. #Dolphinshttps://t.co/5bzr14uiaP
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) August 12, 2021
Justin Fields, Chicago Bears
OK, we get it, he won't be starting Week 1. If Andy Dalton has his way, Fields won't even get on the field this year. The chances of that happening are pretty slim. Fields looked sharp in the last preseason game, completing 7 of 10 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown, and seems poised for a rookie. His scrambling ability provides the type of upside that many pocket passers drafted ahead of him don't have. There's risk in selecting a player who is currently a backup but fantasy is all about the second half of the season anyway.
Running Back Sleepers
Rashaad Penny, Seattle Seahawks
Stay healthy. That's all Penny needs to do to pay off handsomely for fantasy teams. The former first-round pick missed two games in 2018, six games in 2019, and all but three games in 2020 after recovering from a torn ACL. The team declined his fifth-year option, which indicates he may not be in the team's future, especially after they re-signed Chris Carson to a two-year deal. If anything, that should serve as motivation for him to prove to Seattle or another team that he can be a productive NFL runner.
It's not as if they made any additions to the backfield through the draft or free agency, so Penny will be the RB2 behind Carson, who isn't the picture of health himself; Carson missed four games last season. By all accounts, Penny is in great shape and may be in store for his most productive season... if he can stay healthy.
"I'm the lightest I've ever been... I feel way faster." - Rashaad Penny
Health aside, Penny won't be much of a factor as a receiver. He's only caught 17 passes in 27 career NFL games. His upside is limited but as a deep sleeper, his rushing upside is hard to match.
Giovani Bernard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
So Gio Bernard is the new James White? Sounds good to me. Ronald Jones will likely lead the team on early downs and Leonard Fournette will mix in on occasion but Bernard is already looking like the established pass-catcher in this backfield. He did that job pretty well in Cincinnati the past eight years, averaging three receptions per game. He should see more action than before in the Bucs' offense that funneled 119 targets toward RBs last year.
Qadree Ollison, Atlanta Falcons
Like Jones above, I already stated my intent to target Ollison in the late rounds as a running back flier. He didn't see the field in the first preseason game but may have solidified his grip on the RB2 job after Javian Hawkins carried five times and gained a total of two yards. The entire second and third-string offense of Atlanta was anemic with the RB group generating 46 yards on 16 touches. Ollison put in a lot of work in the offseason relearning how to run, as detailed in ESPN. Falcons running back coach Desmond Kitchings took notice:
"His body, he's leaner, so he's showing a little more explosiveness in this training camp. He's a physical runner anyway, so these padded practices, he's been able to show that."
Cast off by many fantasy managers who saw him do very little the past two years, he could surprise people in 2021.
Ty Johnson, New York Jets
He isn't a shiny new toy at a position where youth is all the rage, but Johnson has been the most effective Jets running back this preseason. While Michael Carter is getting more love from drafters with an ADP of 79 and Tevin Coleman is going at pick 168, Johnson is all the way down at 211. It will be a running back committee initially but one of these players may separate himself from the pack. Carter is the fantasy favorite but Johnson has just as good a chance and costs nothing by contrast.
Wide Receiver Sleepers
Russell Gage, Atlanta Falcons
Opportunity. That’s a recurring theme among sleeper picks because without the opportunity to see touches and targets, all the talent in the world won’t generate fantasy points. Gage now has that opportunity to seize the WR2 role in Atlanta’s offense, which could be quite lucrative. Matt Ryan has been at the helm for 13 seasons with an average of 572 pass attempts per season. He’s gone over 600 attempts each of the last three seasons, including a league-leading 626 in 2020. That has generated 297.3 passing yards per game. Now, subtract Julio Jones and his 95 receiving yards per game…
Nobody is claiming that Gage will be the next Julio or see all those vacated targets but he will get a sizable chunk of what’s left since the Falcons didn’t add another wideout, opting to draft TE Kyle Pitts instead. Gage has increased his receiving yards per game by 22 each of the past two seasons and could easily do so again. That would put him at about 70 Y/G which is approaching top-20 WR status. Even with tempered expectations, he is a steal at his current ADP as WR60.
Marquez Callaway, New Orleans Saints
A late-preseason replacement to my All-Sleeper team, it would be foolish not to include Callaway. We've seen what he has done in exhibition action, hauling in five catches for 105 yards with two scores, including a highlight-reel diving grab. The announcement of Jameis Winston as starter is also a boost to his value. Callaway barely qualifies as a sleeper anymore but for our purposes here he still does.
Elijah Moore, New York Jets
Moore has been drawing rave reviews all preseason, which doesn't surprise me. His college film shows a dynamic playmaker with the ball in his hands with a knack for getting open. He has 4.4 speed and no fear going up against bigger defenders. The development of Zach Wilson will be key but Moore has the talent and opportunity to become the Jets' WR1 of the present, not just the future.
Bryan Edwards, Las Vegas Raiders
Training Camp Buzz: Jon Gruden compares second-year WR Bryan Edwards to Terrell Owens: "He looks like one of the number one wideouts in the league"https://t.co/Kfy6ZVymj6 pic.twitter.com/X6nk7yGwd5
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) July 31, 2021
Terrell Owens? That's not just a lofty comparison but an extremely premature one since Edwards has all of 11 catches in the NFL. His rookie season was marred by injury and inconsistency so he looked like another Raiders draft bust, of which there have been many in the Mike Mayock era. Edwards could reverse that trend, though. He totaled 3,045 receiving yards in four years at South Carolina going against top-flight SEC opponents. At 6'3", 212 lb, Edwards has ideal size for a pro wideout. He's got the tools, he just needs to (say it with me) stay healthy.
Tight End Sleepers
Gerald Everett, Seattle Seahawks
Last year, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett accounted for 48% of Seattle's total target share. No other Seahawk even reached double-digits. The only notable additions the team made to bolster their receiving corps were rookie D'Wayne Eskridge and tight end Gerald Everett. Drafted in the second round back in 2017, Everett was intended to be a pass-catching TE but never truly grasped a major role with the Rams because Tyler Higbee stood in the way. Everett did see his reception total climb each year, up to 41 in 2020. He has a chance to play a bigger part in a new offense now and is tied to one of the best QBs in the league in Russell Wilson.
Dan Arnold, Carolina Panthers
The former receiver turned tight end somehow turned out to be the third-leading receiver in Arizona last year with 438 yards. He outgained Larry Fitzgerald and every other receiver other than DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk. He now moves to a slightly lesser passing offense albeit one where he could see more usage. The Panthers aren't as deep at receiver and Sam Darnold may rely on his new TE quite a bit.
Team Defense Sleepers
Cleveland Browns Defense
On most counts, Cleveland was a mediocre defense in 2020. They ranked 20th in turnovers forced, 15th in sacks, 17th in net yards per pass attempt, and 12th in rush yards per attempt on defense. They made some big additions in free agency and the draft to improve this unit. Among the most notable are safety John Johnson and cornerback Troy Hill from the Rams, S Karl Joseph, CB Terrance Mitchell, DE Takkarist McKinley, DT Larry Ogunjobi, DT Malik Jackson, DT Sheldon Richardson, LB Anthony Walker Jr., and DE Jadveon Clowney. Then there are draft picks Greg Newsome and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. That's... a lot of new faces. It may take a little time to gel but this could be a fearsome group.
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