Summer Sleeper: Baltimore Ravens

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With less than a month before all training camps have opened around the NFL, we begin our annual series focusing on one sleeper from all 32 teams in the NFL.

These sleepers all have varying levels of “sleeperness”, but all merit a little more talking about than we had room for in the dynasty capsules for each team. Some of these players are deep dynasty sleepers who could merit a spot on your bench in a deep league, while others are players who may contribute a little faster than the deep prospects, but deserve more attention than they may be getting. By definition, a sleeper could mean something a little different to everyone, but we’re simply doing the best job we can to unearth one player from each team who fits the category in some way, shape or form.

We’ll never insult you with a comprehensive list of “sleepers” that includes such names as Demaryius Thomas, Chris Ivory or Stevan Ridley. You’re all too good for that.

While many of these players will undoubtedly fizzle, there’s more value in looking more closely at these deeper prospects and players. We invite you to keep an open mind and either or re-assess your value on those who may be rostered in your league or consider adding a few of these deeper prospects we focus on this Summer who are free agents in your league – after all, some are destined to pan out, too.

Feel free to add your own comments about our choice for the designated sleeper, or nominate one of your own!

Baltimore Ravens

The current Super Bowl champions look much different than from a year ago. Defensive stalwart Ed Reed has gone to rival Houston, soon-to-be Hall of Famer Ray Lewis is now a commentator on ESPN, and Anquan Boldin was traded to their championship rival San Francisco 49ers. The Ravens who relied on the arm of Joe Flacco may become quite a different team in 2013. While I expect them to run the ball a bit more with Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce, undoubtedly the passing game will be more involved as the defense has taken on many changes and might take a while to gel.  Wide receiver Torrey Smith and top tight end Dennis Pitta should be Flacco’s two best targets (now Pitta seems out for the year), but as the Ravens play in the defensive minded AFC North: the Baltimore offense will be forced to create mismatches anyway they can.  I expect a few more passing threats to be exploited and two of those are rookie wide receiver Aaron Mellette and fourth year tight end Ed Dickson.  Please keep in mind this sleeper article isn’t for the 10 team league owners with 18 roster spots, it is for the deep leagues that hold 53+ players and have 14+ teams.

Aaron Mellette, WR

Mellette is from a small school (Elon), but doesn’t play like a division three player. The seventh round receiver caught nearly a hundred passes (97) his senior year, had a little over 1,400 receiving yards and scored 18 touchdowns to gain enough notoriety to get a Senior Bowl invite.  In his only game against a big time college program, Vanderbilt, Mellette had 11 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown.  The former basketball player uses his skills to box out defenders as he likes to out-physical his competition using his 6′ 3″ 217 lbs size.  He has strong hands, can bust out a spin move or two and brings his tremendous leaping skills every time he is on the field.

While I’m not saying he is the second coming of Brandon Marshall, Mellette uses his strength and size advantage to fight for the ball in the air and took over most of the games he was in.  He finished his collegiate career with almost 4,300 receiving yards and had seven consecutive 100 yard plus receiving games to end his senior season.  This was basically only in three years of college production as he played sparingly as a freshman.  Getting picked in the back-end of the seventh round wasn’t a huge vote of confidence, but it was enough of an opening that Mellette is worth taking a gamble on.

With the loss of Boldin, the Ravens receiving corp is not a group of high-end fantasy options.  While Jacoby Jones certainly shined at times last year (the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl come to mind), he is not a consistent option.  Jones failed to catch more than 51 passes or have over 563 yards in a single season during his first six years in the league.  Jones may start the season as the WR2, but I doubt that he will finish there. And there is  third year receiver, Tandon Doss, who did not catch a single pass during his rookie season and finished the 2012 campaign with seven receptions for 123 yards on 17 targets.

The transition to the starting lineup for Mellette may not be instant, but the Ravens should be pass happy enough to let Flacco earn his huge off-season contract.  The rookie has a great chance to gain playing time within the first two months of the season.  According to myfantasyleague.com average draft position, Mellette is being drafted as the 22nd rookie wide receiver.  This is after Arizona’s Ryan Swope, who has yet to be cleared to practice due to numerous concussions, and Denver’s Tavarres King, who isn’t playing anytime soon with Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas, and Eric Decker in his way.  If you can grab Mellette and stash him, I would jump at the chance before he exceeds expectations in the preseason and beyond.  If the rookie wide receiver doesn’t pan out, you didn’t spend much to take a chance on him.

Ed Dickson, TE

dickson In 2011, the Ravens tight end situation was a bit complicated. Most fantasy owners preferred Dickson, because he was the two-way tight end that was always on the field. Dennis Pitta was the Joker tight end who did not do much after the catch or in the blocking game.  It seems like a lot changed from the 2011 season as Pitta emerged as a safety valve for Flacco last season.  Looking back in 2011, Pitta had 56 targets and caught 40 passes for 405 yards with three touchdowns while missing two games.  Then in 2012, Pitta’s targets increased to 94, and he caught 61 of them for 669 yards and seven touchdowns as he played in every game.  Unlike the 2011 season, Pitta was healthy for all of 2012 which could have been the difference in his playing time as well as Flacco’s increased trust in him.

Dickson’s 2011 and 2012 seasons were almost the complete opposite of his fellow Raven tight end.  In 2011, Dickson saw 89 targets and caught 54 of them for 528 yards with five touchdowns.  He was used primarily as a blocker in the run game and was not very dynamic as a receiver unless he caught the defense sleeping when he would run deep patterns.  However in 2012, injury struck and Dickson was forced to miss five games which limited his role in the offense.  The more physical tight end finished the season with 33 targets while only catching 21 of them of 225 yards and no touchdowns.  When you compare the numbers, Pitta did more with the targets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Dickson should be forgotten.

The Ravens offense needs more weapons and as previously discussed, the running game and defense can only do so much.  Per myfantasyleague.com average draft position, Dickson gets drafted as the 52nd tight end which is after the non-Gronk New England tight ends (Jake Ballard/ Zach Sudfield) and all the rookie tight ends.  Remember when he was healthy in 2011, Dickson was the TE17 in PPR leagues.  While I do not expect him to finish inside the top 20 this season, the Raven tight end should finish in the top 30.  This would be a steal considering his value, especially if Pitta fell to injury or if another Raven wide receiver failed to emerge and he becomes the defacto WR3.

If you have any fantasy questions that you need answered quickly, please follow me on twitter @AndrewMiley.