Summer Sleeper: New Orleans Saints
In our annual 32-part Summer Sleeper series, 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 Adam Thielen 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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Tommylee Lewis, WR NO
Super Deep Sleeper
I was first introduced to Tommylee Lewis when he starred opposite Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. Before coming to the Saints, he also starred in Lonesome Dove, Men in Black, Space Cowboys and a whole host of other movies that should have never included Batman Forever.
Wait, scratch that. That’s Tommy Lee Jones.
Now that we have things back in focus, we still need to do a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in New Orleans to find a young sleeper. After all, the bayou is no country for old men. The results of our search brings us squarely to young Tommylee Lewis.
Tommylee Lewis first burst on the scene last year after Bill Parcells convinced Sean Payton to take a chance on him. The 5-foot-7, 168-pound receiver made a huge splash in camp last year as a total unknown and was actually able to unbelievably make the team and play receiver in the last four games, posting 11 catches for 76 yards. He also had a monster 59-yard punt return in week six that showcased his speed and elusiveness. Parcells is apparently good friends with Lewis’ High School coach and has watched Lewis for years, leading him to believe Lewis has special talent. That alone should continue to pique the interest of dynasty owners. During Lewis’ career at NIU, his stats weren’t anything to write home about (he posted 172 catches, 1,680 yards and 11 touchdowns) but he proved to be a dynamic special teams player, scoring four touchdowns on kick returns (watch below). He also battled injuries throughout his collegiate career and that certainly skewed his statistics.
Fast forward to this year and Lewis is again making plays in camps and in preseason games. In the Saints season opener, Lewis posted ten catches for 124 yards and a touchdown on just 11 targets. While he wasn’t quite as effective in the Saints’ second game (one catch for seven yards), it’s clear the Saints are going to have a hard time cutting him. They need a punt and kick returner and you can make a strong case Ted Ginn and Alvin Kamara are both too valuable on offense right now to put on special teams. If Lewis can make the team again as a special teams ace, he’ll be one or two injuries away from real relevance. With a sleeper this deep, you just want them to have a chance.
When you look down the Saints depth chart at receiver, you see a lot of talent but you can also see opportunity as well. Michael Thomas is the clear alpha dog in the crew, that much is certain. Willie Snead should soak up a lot of the targets left by Brandin Cooks as well. Beyond that, there are questions. Ted Ginn can lift the top off a defense but has never been extraordinarily consistent. Brandon Coleman has potential but has never really put it together. Corey Fuller has struggled to ever make an impact on any team as well. With all that being said, it seems the Saints could find room for a player who reportedly works extremely hard and has never let his size stop him. His teammates are also big fans of his and there’s talk cutting Lewis would not be accepted well in the locker room.
Lewis is once again the talk of Saints camp and has likely served notice to other teams out there. If the Saints do indeed let him go, I’d expect him to get a chance with another NFL team. He’s admittedly a remarkably super deep sleeper but these are the players you look for and get excited about. While he likely doesn’t belong on a dynasty roster quite yet, Lewis is a player to have on your short list of players to watch over the next two weeks as camps begin to close and rosters begin to round into form.
After all, that’s what hard target searches are all about.
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Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
