Summer Sleeper: Atlanta Falcons

Paul Perdichizzi Posted On July 28, 2015

falcons

We continue our annual 32-part Summer Sleeper series where DLF scribes identify a lightly-touted player on each NFL roster who may be worthy of your consideration. Our subjects all have varying levels of “sleeperness,” but each merits a bit of in-depth discussion here in the Premium Content section.

To help everybody along, we are going to be categorizing our sleepers under one of three headings:

Super Deep Sleepers – Players who aren’t roster-worthy in 12-team leagues, but are still worth keeping an eye on.
Deep Sleepers – An end of the roster player who is more often than not on the waiver wire in 12-team leagues.
Sleeper – A likely rostered player who makes for a good trade target. Their startup ADP puts them out of the top-175 or so.

Because we aren’t going give you the likes of mainstream sleepers like Allen Robinson or C.J. Anderson, most of these players will undoubtedly fizzle. All we are asking is for you to keep an open mind and perhaps be willing to make room for one of these players on your bench. You never know when the next Alfred Morris is going to spring up. Feel free to add your own thoughts about our choice for the designated sleeper, or nominate one of your own in the comments below.

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Justin Hardy, WR Atlanta (Sleeper)

When Atlanta drafted Hardy out of ECU in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL Draft, he immediately became a name I was going to monitor closely throughout the rest of the off-season. While most mid-round picks are not expected to play a significant role in the offense early on, I believe Hardy has a chance to due to his advanced route running, change of direction skills and college production. In his junior season he had 114 receptions for 1,284 yards with eight touchdowns and this past season he improved those numbers to 121 catches for 1,494 yards and ten touchdowns. The two major negatives on Hardy are his size and speed. At 5’10”, 192 pounds, scouts question if he can win on the outside or has the long speed to be a vertical threat. While I think those concerns are justified, I believe he will make his living in the slot and become the third option in the Atlanta offense as soon as this season. With the departure of Harry Douglas, there is an opportunity for Hardy to play significant snaps and be a contributor right away. With an elite number one receiver in Julio Jones, a franchise quarterback in Matt Ryan in place, and an aging number two receiver in Roddy White, Hardy has a chance to step into a great offense and quickly establish himself as a focal point of the pass offense in the coming years. Hardy would be a name I would be targeting to get on my rosters in all PPR leagues this summer.

Leonard Hankerson, WR Atlanta (Super Deep Sleeper)

When Washington drafted Hankerson out of Miami in the third round of the 2011 draft, they had high expectations. At 6’2’’ 211 pounds, Hankerson had the size, speed and build teams look for in their receivers. During his four years in Washington, unfortunately, Hankerson never lived up to his potential, as injuries often slowed him down and led to him missing major parts of seasons. At only 26 years old, Hankerson is still young enough to turn his career around. What makes him an interesting deep sleeper is his familiarity with Shanahan from their days together in Washington and the depth chart in Atlanta. As I have discussed above there is opening for the number three receiver this season and to potentially move even further up the depth chart next season if he can finally stay healthy and put it all together. The reports from the off-season have Hankerson looking good and being ready to compete with Hardy for the number three receiver role. Since he has never been able to stay healthy long enough, the jury is still out on whether or not Hankerson can turn into a productive NFL player. Hankerson makes for an interesting name to monitor during training camp and all of the preseason to see if he is worth being picked up to stash on the back end of your roster to see how it plays out in Atlanta.

Jacob Tamme, TE Atlanta (Deep Sleeper)

Tamme is a 30-year old veteran, with seven years of experience but finds himself on the deep sleeper list entering the 2015 season. Tamme has only caught over 50 passes twice in his career, once for Indianapolis and once for Denver, both with Peyton Manning as the quarterback. Now after signing a two year deal with the Falcons this offseason, I believe Tamme could approach those numbers this upcoming season. His competition to be the pass catching tight end is very limited, with only red zone specialist and blocker Levine Toilolo and often injured Tony Moeaki on the depth chart with him. Another factor favoring into Tamme producing this year is the hiring of Kyle Shanahan, as the new offensive coordinator. Shanahan has a track record of getting good production from the tight end position during his stints as the offensive coordinator with Houston, Washington and Cleveland. If Tamme wins the starting job, I would not be surprised to see him flirt with mid to late TE2 value in deep dynasty leagues.

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