Summer Sleeper: San Diego Chargers

Andrew Lightner Posted On August 10, 2016

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 Tyler Lockett or Carlos Hyde, 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 Willie Snead 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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Branden Oliver, RB

Category : Sleeper

Most of you likely remember the name Branden Oliver, an undrafted rookie from Buffalo, who bursted on to the scene of fantasy relevance in 2014. But between the Chargers spending a first round pick on Melvin Gordon and the great season by Danny Woodhead, Oliver quickly became a forgotten man and an afterthought in the dynasty community. Allow me to take a look back on 2014 as well as 2015, then give you my reasoning why Oliver deserves to at least be a player you monitor for 2016.

Going into the 2014 season, the San Diego Chargers had high aspirations for their running game. The three headed monster of Ryan Mathews, Donald Brown and Danny Woodhead was supposed to carry the team (pun intended). Instead, the trio of running backs were derailed by injuries. Mathews suffered a knee injury in week two that forced him to miss half the season. Woodhead broke his fibula in week three, forcing him to miss the rest of the year. By week four, Brown was the last man standing. Then Brown suffered an injury of his own, when he got a concussion in week five against the New York Jets.

Enter Branden Oliver, the unknown rookie running back. Against the Jets, Oliver opened eyes when he rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown while adding four catches for 68 yards and a second touchdown. 34 fantasy points later, Branden Oliver became a waiver wire darling in fantasy leagues. He didn’t disappoint in the following game against the Raiders by hitting the century mark for the second consecutive week. After back to back standout weeks, Oliver found many bumps in the road the rest of the season; something that shouldn’t come as a surprise for a player that wasn’t even a third stringer to start the season. Plus, Donald Brown found his way back after missing a few weeks, and so did Ryan Mathews late in the season, which cut into Oliver’s early workload. Still, he went from undrafted to leading the team in rushing his rookie year with 582 yards. He also added 36 catches for another 271 yards.

Fast-track to the 2015 season, and the aforementioned Oliver quickly became an afterthought in the dynasty community, thanks to the arrival of highly touted Melvin Gordon. On top of the Chargers drafting the running back from Wisconsin, Danny Woodhead was healthy again. While Oliver found relevancy the season prior due to injuries of players surrounding him, the feel good story suffered a season ending injury of his own in 2015. As if Oliver’s dynasty appeal didn’t sizzle out enough to start the 2015 season, his season ending injury was surely the nail in the coffin.

What may not be well known to most, however, was that there was a small light shown before Branden Oliver’s injury. Overlooked by almost all (myself included) was Oliver’s involvement in the two games before he suffered his toe injury that ended his season. In week six against the Green Bay Packers, Oliver had 11 touches (seven rushes and four catches). In the following week against the Oakland Raiders, he had 15 touches (nine rushes and six catches). Both of those weeks Branden Oliver scored double digit fantasy points; and yes, Gordon and Woodhead were healthy and played in both games. So while Oliver was a forgotten man by the dynasty community in 2015, there was at least a small glimmer to show that he would not be a forgotten man in the San Diego Chargers organization, even with Gordon and Woodhead in the fold.

So why do I think Branden Oliver is a player we should monitor? For starters, we have seen him have success in the NFL, even if only in small amounts. At least, we have evidence he can play at the professional level. One thing in particular about Oliver I really like is his proficiency in catching the football. Running backs who are capable of catching passes out of the backfield are able to give cheap fantasy production, which is especially valuable for owners who focus more on other positions (like wide receiver). And while I personally think the idea of ‘handcuffing’ is vastly overrated in dynasty, there are a few exceptions.

Branden Oliver presents a unique case to where he may actually be a handcuff in two different ways. If Melvin Gordon were to get hurt, it’s likely that Oliver would quickly find himself getting a decent amount of carries while Woodhead remained his pass catching specialist role. However, if Danny Woodhead were to suffer an injury, Oliver seems like he would be a primary candidate to receive the bulk share of Woodhead’s role due to his ability to catch the ball. So in a sense, Oliver could be a viable handcuff to two running backs. Even with a healthy Gordon and Woodhead, Oliver could still find a niche role on the field. We saw a small sample of this last season before Oliver got hurt. To further this point, running backs coach Ollie Wilson had this to say in regards to Oliver (and losing him to injury last season):

“We missed Branden because he is a consistent player. He wears (defenses) down. He is strong. You see a pile and think the ball is stopped, and then you see him come out of it drive it back for a few more yards. His lower body is really strong, and he has great balance. When guys hit him, they think he’s down, but he’s not because he’s so strong and plays with a lot of leverage. We missed him last year, and it’s been good to have him back out there. He’s smart, and he’s still learning the game. He is going to have a big role for us this year.”

There are worse options at running back for the ends of dynasty benches, especially in larger roster formats. At the very least, Oliver should be a player you monitor, as he could be one injury away from once again becoming a household fantasy name.

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