Summer Sleeper: Green Bay Packers
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 Packers’ offense has been one of the best in the league for years. Because of that, it’s relatively easy for most dynasty owners to figure out where the majority of the production in that offense will come from. With an elite fantasy quarterback, an RB1 who most consider to be one of the best in our game and a pair of wideouts who will once again vie for their place among the top-ten receivers in fantasy along with an up-and-coming second year pass catcher, the Green Bay offense may not have room for a sleeper to make his mark in the next couple years. Nevertheless, the Packers have a few worth noting including running backs Rajion Neal and John Crockett as well as wide receivers Ty Montgomery, Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis. There’s one more to add to that list, however.
Kennard Backman, TE GB
Category: Super Deep Sleeper
Kennard who?
He may be the Rip Van Winkle of sleepers as most dynasty owners are probably not familiar with Backman, but that’s what this series is for – to introduce unknown players who have upside, even if realizing that upside may not be all that likely.
Backman isn’t very well known because he played his college football at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and he certainly didn’t dominate the competition.
A three-year starter for the Blazers, Backman posted numbers most would consider to be modest. Never reaching 40 catches or 400 yards in a single season, he wasn’t looked at by most as an NFL prospect worth drafting. Ted Thompson didn’t agree, however.
Despite averaging just 10.2 yards per reception in his time in Birmingham, Backman proved with the Blazers to have a knack for stretching the field in certain situations. His impressive 4.66 second 40-yard dash at his pro day (which would have made him the third fastest tight end at the combine had he been there) proved he has the foot speed to beat linebackers and even some safeties in the seam – that undoubtedly turned the head of Thompson and the rest of the Packers’ front office enough to spend a late sixth round draft pick on the tight end.
While in college, Backman flashed upside on a regular basis. Because he played with subpar quarterbacks throughout his time on campus, he was forced to make off-balance catches in traffic often. Displaying the agility to catch passes thrown behind him and the leaping ability (35 ½” vertical) to outjump defenders for the ball, he has the hands and athleticism to overcome his somewhat small stature (6’-3”, 258 pounds) compared to other NFL tight ends.
So, if Backman is such a talented pass catcher, why do so few have him on their fantasy radar?
Well, although he has potential to be a contributor for the Packers at some point due to his skills at the point of the catch, he also has some glaring holes to his game. First and foremost, Backman’s blocking is considered by most to be well below average. While many fantasy owners don’t necessarily care about a tight end’s ability to block pass rushers or execute a cut block on a backside running play, coaching staffs absolutely do. So unless he improves that part of his game, it’ll be difficult for him to find the field early in his career. Secondly, although he is a talent with the ball in the air and has very good quickness and speed, Backman is far from a polished route runner. Running routes that lacked sharpness and explosion while playing in Conference USA, he’ll need to improve his technique as a route runner to be successful on Sundays.
Fortunately for Backman, all of his deficiencies can be taught and he landed in the ideal situation to improve while possibly getting a chance to contribute early in his career.
The primary reason Backman qualifies as a sleeper, albeit a super deep one, is the same reason each of the group of receivers I mentioned at the top of this article d0 – they play with the best quarterback in the league.
Despite having two of the best receivers in the league in Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb as well as a budding star in Davante Adams to spread the ball to, Aaron Rodgers has shown throughout his time in Green Bay that he can turn any player on the field into a fantasy contributor. That leaves just one thing for Backman – finding a role in the offense.
At this point, the tight end depth chart for the Packers doesn’t appear to feature a true game changer. The duo of Andrew Quarless and Richard Rodgers split time a year ago and combined for 49 receptions for 648 yards and five touchdowns. While neither put up very impressive stats, it was Rodgers (drafted in the third round a year ago) who showed flashes down the stretch as a potential playmaker at the position. Even so, the position is far from out of reach for Backman especially if he proves to have the one thing most important at the position to the Packers’ coaching staff. The ability to stretch the middle of the field.
Overall, the most fantasy relevant tight end on the Green Bay roster is easily Rodgers. In fact, a case could be made that he’s a sleeper in his own right with the upside to crack low-end TE1 numbers if he builds off his late season progress from a year ago. After him however, it’s likely not worth owning another Green Bay tight end in leagues that only require a single starter at the position and features roster sizes of 25 or less.
In two-tight end leagues that feature extremely deep rosters or a taxi squad where fantasy owners can develop young talent however, Backman is absolutely worth having on your radar as training camp kicks off and his upside is much more worthy of a roster spot than the limited potential offered by Quarless.
While it will likely take a year or two for Backman to improve his all-around game to the point that he’d become a fantasy producer, the Packers have been in desperate need of a seem stretcher at tight end ever since Jermichael Finley left. Any player with the potential to fill that need in an Aaron Rodgers-led offense should at the very least be monitored by all dynasty owners – even if he’s a long shot.
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