Summer Sleeper: San Francisco 49ers

Jacob Feldman Posted On August 1, 2015

49ers

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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The old saying the bigger they are, the harder they fall definitely seems to be true when it comes to the San Francisco 49ers. A few years ago they were viewed as a perennial powerhouse. They had the hot young quarterback, the punishing defense and a powerful running game. Sprinkle in a lightning rod of a head coach and you had a team you knew was going to be exciting for years, if not a whole decade!

Then this past off-season struck and the giant came tumbling down, starting at the top. The coaching staff has seen almost a complete turnover. Jim Harbaugh is now the Michigan head coach, Greg Roman and his power rushing attack is now working for Rex Ryan in Buffalo and the mastermind of the fearsome defense, Vic Fangio, is now working for the Bears.

It isn’t just the coaching staff either. Career 49er Frank Gore has traded in the red and gold for the white and blue of the Colts. They also allowed former first round pick Michael Crabtree to walk away in free agency. The defense has been rocked with one retirement after another, most of them surprising. They also lost their starting right tackle to retirement and let one of the better guards in the league sign with a division rival. This is just the start of it. There are suddenly an awful lot of holes on a once solid roster, but this means there is room for some young players to step into the spotlight and show what they can do.

Bruce Ellington, WR SF
Category: Deep Sleeper

For years the 49ers have featured one of the weaker receiver groups in the league. The free agent addition of Anquan Boldin a few years back definitely helped, but it was still a very shallow group. They have traded Michael Crabtree for 2015 free agent Torrey Smith, which is definitely an upgrade, but there is still a lot of room for someone else. Boldin will turn 35 early in the NFL season and the rest of the depth chart behind him and Smith is very wide open.

The big question is who it is going to be stepping up behind the pair of veterans. 2013 rookie Quinton Patton hasn’t been able to put things together through his first two seasons in the league, managing only six catches in two years even with the limited talent in front of him. Some people are looking to the talented but extremely raw DeAndre Smelter, but I don’t think he is going to be ready. He has a lot to work on and hasn’t been able to do much while recovering from his ACL tear. In a few years, I think Smelter could be a solid player for the 49ers, but I don’t think he’ll do much this year. My pick for the young receiver to own on the 49ers is being drafted well behind Smelter and even Patton in several leagues. I think you need to go out and look at Bruce Ellington in your leagues.

If you have been around the DLF website for a while, you know every year I take the time to do a statistical analysis of the combine performance for receivers in order to answer the question of exactly how their athletic ability fits into the NFL. From the 2013 draft class, the analysis was an overwhelming success and pegged Odell Beckham Jr. as the top receiver from an athletic standpoint. Care to guess who was third on that same list, ahead of players like Mike Evans, Allen Robinson and Jordan Matthews? That’s right, Bruce Ellington. (For reference, Jeff Janis was number two when it comes to athletic ability from the draft class.) That’s quite the accomplishment when you consider he’s only 5’9” and height is one of the main elements of the formula! In fact, if you go back and look at how they performed, Ellington was almost identical to Beckham on each and every drill at the combine. We are talking about a player with elite athletic ability. It is too bad it comes in a 5’9” frame.

Ellington struggled with injuries in 2014, missing some time with a sprained ankle at the start of the season before re-injuring it mid-season as well as suffering a hamstring injury late in the year. Even with missing a lot of time on the practice field and a few games as well, Ellington did flash from time to time. He only had six catches last year, but two of them went for touchdowns. He also chipped in with six rushes and another touchdown. So all together that is twelve offensive touches for three scores, which was fifth on the whole team. Not bad for such a limited number of touches!

Ellington is definitely undersized, but his height, weight and build are almost identical to the great Steve Smith, Sr. Not only does he look like a carbon copy physically but he plays the game an awful lot like the future hall of famer. Both are fearless and won’t back hesitate to go up against bigger defenders, even over the middle of the field. Ellington’s primary weakness is his route running. He has been working on it, but it will continue to be the defining factor in just how good he can become.

While it is foolish to say anyone will be as good as a future Hall of Famer just because he fits the mold, I think Ellington has the talent to be an extremely good player in the NFL. I expect him to be starting opposite from Torrey Smith when the 2016 season begins if not at some point this year. Boldin can’t keep going forever and he showed signs of slowing last season. Ellington is a lot more explosive and can be a playmaker for the offense. There is always the question of how much the 49ers will throw the ball and he needs to stay out of the training room, but I put Ellington’s ceiling as a low end WR3 this year with eventual WR2 upside in the coming years if Colin Kaepernick progresses. Definitely worth the price considering he is going to be a waiver wire addition in a lot of leagues. Get him now before training camp rolls around.

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Jacob Feldman

Honorary Contributor at Dynasty League Football

Jacob is a high school math teacher by day and a father at night. This doesn't leave too much time for sane thought, so occasionally words like "icky" will slip into his writing. It is all a part of the fun!