Summer Sleeper: St. Louis Rams
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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Kenny Britt, WR STL
Kenny Britt and Hakeem Nicks have seen their NFL careers intertwined from day one. Aside from being selected back-to-back at the end of the first round of the 2009 draft, both came out of the gate on fire their first few seasons before suffering a spate of injures and never fully regaining form. But whereas Nicks injuries have sapped him of all his physical talent, Britt seems to have been more or less written off despite having retained much of the athleticism that made him a big deal in the first place.
Most of us are familiar with what Britt did early on in his career. From 2009-2010 (over a 28 game span), our subject racked up 84 receptions, 1,476 yards, 12 touchdowns and 17.6 YPR, a figure that would have ranked him fourth in the NFL last year among receivers with 50 or more targets.
Then the issues started.
The off-season following Britt’s sophomore campaign led to a number of run-ins with the authorities, including a real life police chase, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. But with 271 yards and three touchdowns to go with 14 receptions in the Titans first two games of 2011, he looked poised to breakout among the NFL’s elite. Unfortunately, that came to an end during season’s third game as Britt tore his right ACL and MCL.
In the time since, the former first rounder has been hit with a DUI, had a second surgery on the already repaired knee, battled hamstring and ankle issues, underwent surgery on his left knee and served a suspension for the DUI. Oh, and he has only managed to top 100 yards three times in 42 games.
So, how in the heck do I call him a sleeper?
It is very rare to find a player with an ADP hovering around 200 who has the combination of physical talent and opportunity of Britt. He is locked in as a starter and will battle Brian Quick for the number one job in St. Louis. With Quick recovering from a brutal shoulder injury that the Rams are now saying was career threatening, Britt stands a great chance of holding that role at least for the early part of the season. If Austin Davis was still the quarterback for the Rams, I’d yawn, but with Nick Foles at the helm, I’m a bit more optimistic.
Foles is an interesting case himself. A rookie with the Eagles in 2012, his seven game audition in relief of an injured Michael Vick went fairly well. Tabbed as the starter after another injury to Vick the following season, Foles absolutely exploded in Chip Kelly’s offense by hanging 27 touchdowns versus only two interceptions. Entering 2014 with massive expectations, Foles ended up largely disappointing before breaking his collarbone and ceding his starting gig to Mark Sanchez for the remainder of the year.
Even if he isn’t the 2013 version of himself, Foles is a massive upgrade over the guys who threw passes in St. Louis the last couple seasons. Davis, Shaun Hill and Kellen Clemens started 25 of 32 games to the per game stat line of 19 completions on 30 attempts for 213 yards, 1.1 TD and .92 INT. Even if we remove his spectacular 2013 in its entirety, Foles career per game numbers are 23/38 for 257/1.3/1.
The addition of Foles alone is enough for me to be cautiously optimistic for Britt and the rest of the Rams’ offense, but St. Louis didn’t stop there. Aside from selecting potential stud Todd Gurley, they also added multiple offensive lineman through the draft. None of this makes the Rams a future juggernaut, but when Britt’s asking price is WR83, it’s hard not to get at least a bit excited for the potential return on your investment.
Let’s play pretend for a moment and give Britt a modest 10% increase in efficiency to go with ten more targets than he had last season. This would get us to 59/921/4 with 175 PPR points. That sort of season gets us into the WR3 conversation. Not bad for a 17th round pick, eh?
This is the fifth article I’ve written for the Summer Sleeper series. Of all the other players I’ve covered (Dion Sims, Corey Washington, Cole Beasley, Niles Paul), Britt has both the highest ceiling and, perhaps, the best shot at true fantasy relevance. I’ve been quietly targeting him and think you should, too.
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- How to Win Without Watching Football - July 22, 2021
- 2018 Summer Sleeper: Chicago Bears - July 9, 2018
- NFL Draft Aftermath: Winners and Losers from the AFC North - June 18, 2018
