Summer Sleeper: Buffalo Bills
With fantasy season right around the corner, we’re continuing our annual series focusing on a few sleepers from all 32 teams in the NFL. You can find all of the Summer Sleeper articles here.
These sleepers all have varying levels of “sleeperness,” but all merit a little more talking about here in the Premium Content section. 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” which include such such dynasty mainstay names as Toby Gerhart, Christine Michael or Cordarrelle Patterson. 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!
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Marquise Goodwin, WR
With Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods drawing most of the attention among the Buffalo wide receivers, Marquise Goodwin seems to have become mostly an afterthought entering his sophomore campaign. Granted, this Bills team is not going to resemble the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos or New Orleans Saints in terms of high flying fantasy juggernauts, but dismissing a player with the raw physical tools of Goodwin is a mistake.
Standing at 5’9” and 179 pounds, the player nicknamed “Flash” ran an eye-popping 4.27 sec 40-yard dash and a 132” broad jump at the 2013 NFL Combine. The Bills used a third round pick (#78 overall) to select the raw Texas Longhorn speedster. A lot of times the term “world class speed” gets thrown around carelessly, but he literally has world class speed. He’s a two-time Texas Gatorade Track and Field Athlete of the Year and won World Junior Championships in the long jump and 4×100-meter relay. He also captured the NCAA outdoor long jump title in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at Texas. Some people train to be fast and some people come out of the womb with God-given speed. Goodwin was born with it.
He spent the majority of his rookie season as a situational deep threat and screen pass specialist. He finished the season with 17 receptions on 32 targets for 283 yards and three touchdowns. His best effort came week 11 against Antonio Cromartie and the New York Jets when he hauled in six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. He also added 17 yards rushing. His touchdown was a thing of beauty as he beat Cromartie on a 43-yard go-route and he had absolutely no chance to keep up.
Unfortunately, he was unable to build on any momentum from this performance and only added one more catch on the season. Part of it was due to a calf injury and part of it was poor offensive planning from first year coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The Bills were mathematically eliminated by week 13 and should have been in full blown evaluation mode. Instead, they failed to get him into the game plan. He also got banged up in week 15 and week 16. Hopefully he’ll be able to learn to protect his slight frame in the pros.
This team has a young nucleus of interesting dynasty players. With Sammy Watkins playing all over the formation and Robert Woods being a solid up-and-coming possession receiver, Goodwin appears to have a clearer path to playing time this season as the team’s deep threat. These receivers will only go as far as the Bills’ quarterbacks will take them though. Specifically E.J. Manuel who the team hopes is their quarterback of the future and who showed promise during his rookie year when he wasn’t injured. As a team, the Bills only averaged 6.2 yards per attempt in what was mostly a dink and dunk offense ran through the team’s running backs. Now with a year in Hackett’s system under Manuel and Goodwin’s belt, they hope to be able to blow the lid off of defenses and the best option they have is, without a doubt, Goodwin.
According to Ryan McDowell’s July ADP data, he went undrafted in four of six dynasty drafts. I currently have him ranked as my WR79 in my dynasty rankings, but we have him ranked as the WR87 as a team. He loses a lot of value in PPR leagues because he might never catch more than 65 passes in a season unless he improves his route running as a pro. He does gain some value back in return yardage leagues, though. This team is still going to be a run oriented attack in 2014 so patience is critical. I’m not expecting him to become Mike Wallace all of a sudden.
If you’re looking for a deep flier and believe in the direction of this offense, consider Marquise Goodwin as a late round selection and end of bench WR6/7.
Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.
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