Summer Sleeper: Indianapolis Colts

Austan Kas Posted On July 20, 2017

We begin 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, 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.

In this series, I’ve been super fortunate to hit on a breakout guy in each of the last two seasons. First, it was Thomas Rawls in 2015, followed by Rob Kelley in 2016. I wish I could tell you I had some magical formula, but the truth is those were basically educated guesses (maybe all of fantasy is just educated guesses?). In each case, the player’s team had a somewhat unsettled depth chart at their position. Kelley and Rawls weren’t expected to get much run, but it wasn’t impossible — Washington had very few options at running back and Marshawn Lynch was getting older — to find a path to touches for either back. Then both players were able to take advantage of their chance when they got an opportunity.

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The Indianapolis Colts aren’t exactly “unsettled” at tight end, but they’ve lost Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen in consecutive years, so there’s been some turnover. Jack Doyle is heading into the 2017 season as the starting tight end, and his status within the organization is on the upswing, according to most off-season reports. With that said, the Colts have played a lot of two-tight-end sets in previous years, and Doyle has had more than 120 receiving yards in a season just once in his four-year career (last year’s 59-584-5 line was the exception). It’s not too hard to dream up a way in which backup Erik Swoope makes an impact at some point in the relatively near future.

Erik Swoope, TE

Category: Deep Sleeper

Swoope has the size (6-foot-5, 258 pounds) and athleticism (former basketball player) on which we can dream. Oh, and he’s part of a fantasy-friendly offense which doesn’t have a lot of red-zone options. That stuff alone puts Swoope on our radar, but he may have the talent to become more than a gadget player.

Swoope’s story is truly an incredible tale.

Amazingly, he didn’t play football at any organized level prior to the Colts signing him in May of 2014. Swoope was 220 pounds at his first team camp, nearly 40 pounds less than what he’s now listed at, and he immediately stood out as a promising talent.

Swoope spent 2014 and 2015 on the practice squad, but early in the 2016 off-season, Indy Head Coach Chuck Pagano said the tight end was making “tremendous strides.” Swoope got his first game action last season, hauling in 15 passes for 297 yards and one touchdown.

There was a report this off-season saying the “arrow is pointing up” on Swoope, but that much is pretty obvious. I mean, the dude didn’t play football prior to 2014, and he played in an NFL game in 2016. That’s just bonkers, and it’s a testament to his athletic ability, improvement and the Colts’ faith in him.

Another positive in Swoope’s — and Doyle’s — corner is the Colts not taking a tight end in the draft. With such a loaded class at the position, if Indy felt like it needed to add to its tight end group, it could’ve very easily done so. The fact they didn’t draft one — signing 29-year-old Brandon Williams as a depth piece instead — tells me they’re totally fine rolling with Doyle and Swoope.

So all Swoope needs to have happen to see significant playing time in the near future is a Doyle injury or for Doyle, who had 35 career catches to his name in three seasons prior to 2016, to underwhelm as the top option. Both of those aren’t too hard to fathom, although I do think Doyle is a solid player.

If Swoope does catch a few breaks, his ceiling is pretty high based on the situation in Indy. Across the last three seasons, Andrew Luck has thrown 86 touchdown passes in 38 games, and the team doesn’t have a ton of pass-game weapons tailor-made for red-zone production. Donte Moncrief, who might be good one of these years, is an exception, but T.Y. Hilton and Phillip Dorsett aren’t built to score a lot of touchdowns. Swoope could produce some useable weeks in 2017 even if Doyle plays 16 games.

In deep leagues and formats which place a premium on tight ends, Swoope is probably owned already. If not, you can fix that. In shallower leagues, ones in which it’s hard to hold onto depth pieces in a format where you start just one tight end, Swoope should likely be on the waiver wire. But he’s a player to monitor, and he’d be a must-add if Doyle gets injured or disappoints.

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