Summer Sleeper: New York Giants
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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Orleans Darkwa, RB NYG
Category: Sleeper
There were lots of different ways to go in terms of sleepers with the Giants. In fact, the selection of Darkwa revolves just as much around my lack of faith and confidence in Paul Perkins as it does the merits of Darkwa. In short, the Giants aren’t running the ball effectively (and haven’t in some time) and someone has to step up this season. One could even go with Wayne Gallman here as he’s certainly another running back who could easily carve out a role. However, Gallman would cost you a decent rookie pick and is likely owned in your league, thus eliminating his “sleeper” status. Still, Darkwa is a very intriguing player in his own right, so let’s take a closer look.
Darkwa played at Tulane and rushed for 2,953 yards on 663 carries and scored 39 touchdowns over his four-year career with the Green Wave. Despite posting those respectable numbers, he went undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft. He was subsequently signed by the Miami Dolphins that Summer, logging just four carries for two yards before being jettisoned to the Dolphins practice squad. The Giants saw something in Darkwa and signed him to their active roster after placing Michael Cox on the IR later that same year. Darkwa appeared in seven games for the Giants in 2014, posting a modest 21 yards on five carries in spot duty.
Over the last two seasons, Darkwa has again filled in due to injuries or ineffectiveness and posted a total of 264 yards on 66 carries (good for a yards per carry average of four yards). He even started a game against the Vikings and posted 48 yards on 12 carries. Unfortunately, he was lost for the year in late November with a leg injury. If you ever want to question his toughness, consider the fact he actually played through that fractured tibia for part of the season, though.
The Giants depth chart at the position is clear as mud. Perkins is the de facto starter but he’s done nothing this preseason to show he’s ready to be the clear bellcow. Gallman was a fourth round draft pick but has also been pretty quiet in camp. New York also has Shane Vereen, but he’s clearly best suited for a pass catching role out of the backfield. It seems you read an article about once every month stating the Giants coaching staff has high praise for Darkwa – that just can’t be ignored, yet it has been in many dynasty leagues.
Over the span of the past month or so, Darkwa has split first team reps with Perkins at practice. He also rotated in with the first team in their second preseason game, indicating the Giants aren’t totally sold on just giving Perkins the keys to the castle. When you look at the ADP data of Perkins and Darkwa, you can see the massive difference as many dynasty owners are just assuming Perkins is going to take this job and run with it (for lack of a better term).
Darkwa is finally healthy and though his preseason stats are nothing to write home about (seven carries for 29 yards), it’s when he’s received the carries that’s significant. If the Giants viewed Darkwa as a depth player or one fighting for a minor role, he likely wouldn’t have received such a limited number of carries and certainly wouldn’t have received any of those with the first team offense. It’s clear the Giants aren’t sold on Perkins and while Darkwa is by no means guaranteed much of anything as Perkins will undoubtedly have the first crack at the job, the difference in the ADP of the two is truly staggering and screams possible bargain.
While Darkwa is certainly no sure thing and could easily turn into nothing, you could do worse on taking chances on running backs. He’s still only 25 years old, has a running back in front of him who hasn’t looked overly effective and could be in line for a good chance to prove his worth as soon as this year. There aren’t too many running backs out there who have a path to carries that looks this clear who can also be had so cheaply. While Gallman will undoubtedly get his chance as well, Darkwa shouldn’t just disappear. For a player you can get off the wire or extremely cheaply, it’s worth considering grabbing him. The third preseason game should be a key in determining just what the Giants may think of Darkwa. If he’s on your wire, you could certainly snag him, watch the game this and either keep him or drop him right back depending on what you see. I have a feeling you’ll be glad you did.
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Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
