Summer Sleeper: Cincinnati Bengals

Eric Burtzlaff Posted On July 25, 2015

bengals

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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Denarius Moore, WR CIN
(Deep Sleeper)

Did he say Denarius Moore? Yes…

Denarius Moore is a Cincinnati Bengal. And why the heck should that even be on anyone’s radar? They have so many weapons with Jeremy Hill, AJ Green and Tyler Eifert, right?

It’s a solid question after Moore put up an abysmal 115 yards on 12 receptions in 10 games last year with the Raiders. While not being publically injured, it was quite clear the current Raiders’ regime liked what they saw in Andre Holmes much more than what they saw in Moore. He rode the pine all year, and the dynasty community turned on him.

What you might have forgotten is that Moore was a very promising prospect on the Raiders squad under then freshman Raiders head coach Hue Jackson, when he was selected in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He went on to put up a silently impressive freshman campaign playing 13 games for 618 yards and five touchdowns. Fun irrelevant fact: He beat out his sophomore name-nemisis, Demaryius Thomas, for fantasy points in 2011. Moore finished as a high-end WR5 (overall PPR WR51) as a rookie while missing three games. While Thomas soared into stardom in 2012, Moore proceeded to continue his steady WR4/5 campaigns in the following years. See the chart below:

moore

On top of the fantasy points that he put up while being a steady WR4/5 for those years, he had horrendous quarterback play with the likes of Terrelle Pryor, Matt McGloin, Jason Campbell and an injured Carson Palmer. While it’s worth it to mention Hue Jackson was fired in 2011, the following staff used Moore very similarly in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he fell out of favor with the coaching staff and was finally benched.

Why am I going through all this history for you?

He’s reunited with his freshman coach at his new job in Cincinnati on a squad that isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with wide receiver talent. Let’s run through the depth chart for Cincinnati real quick:

AJ Green, Mohammad Sanu, Marvin Jones, James Wright, Brandon Tate, and our target, Denarius Moore

By walking in the door, Moore has taken the WR4 duties and should be a lock for a roster spot due to his return skills. Moore wants to play for Jackson and get his career back on track after his awful 2014 season – Hue is just the man to do that and has already shown faith in his skills. Last year, Sanu showed to be nothing more than a flash in the pan before fizzling out. Jones showed immense promise prior to getting injured and the rest of the crew were just a couple of guys.

I am not saying Denarius Moore is going to be a stud in 2015. I’m not even saying he’ll be the WR3 on his own team. I’m not going to even say he’s a WR4 in 2015, but I do think he has WR4/WR5 upside like he had the three consecutive years prior to being a dumpster fire last season.

Moore is currently NOT being drafted in DLF’s June ADP. He’s a 26 year old wide receiver who runs a 4.43 and showed consistent WR4/5 numbers in the three years prior – that’s a pretty incredible fall from grace.

I view him as a smart stash in deeper dynasty leagues and you can get him in the final round of your startups or off your wire. There are a lot of weapons in Cincinnati and suspect quarterback play as well, but Moore has succeeded with much shakier quarterbacks in the past. At his current cost, you need Moore to merely have a glimmer of upside to roster him. I think I’ve proven he’s worth another shot – with a 26+ man roster, I’ll be the guy with Denarius on my squad.

Other Bengals Sleepers honorable mentions:

Tyler Eifert (Sleeper) – While the secret is out in the dynasty community, Eifert is still worth a buy if someone is still low on him.

Gio Bernard (Getting Hated on)– Public Service Announcement: Just because Jeremy Hill is incredible doesn’t mean the Gio doesn’t have the talent to be an NFL RB1. Also, it might be worth mentioning he’s a free agent in 2017.

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