2018 Summer Sleeper: Baltimore Ravens

Levi Chappell

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 to 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.

The Baltimore Ravens have been one of the more active teams in adding new talent at skill positions in the off-season through free agency or through the NFL Draft. There will be a lot of new faces next season. It’s no secret they struggled on the offensive side of the ball last year, so we knew they would be in for some sort of makeover (‘Extreme Makeover… Joe Flacco edition’).

The biggest makeover came at the wide receiver position, where almost the entire group are new additions to the team, either through the draft or free agency. Michael Crabtree, Willie Snead, and John Brown were all added via free agency, and Jordan Lasley and Jaleel Scott were both selected in the NFL draft. Baltimore also drafted a couple of rookie tight ends in Hayden Hurst and Mark Andrews, and let’s not forget the new face of the franchise… Lamar “I’m a quarterback” Jackson (who they are lining up at different positions. What are you doing Baltimore?)

Many of those new players could be some sort of “sleeper”, but I ended up choosing a player who has been on the roster for a couple of years.

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Kenneth Dixon, RB

Category: Deep Sleeper

As I referenced above, the Ravens decided to address quite a few different offensive positions, but not running back. There are quite a few reasons why a team does not address a certain position either through the draft or free agency, but one is that they feel comfortable moving forward in the upcoming season with the backs on the roster.

As we all know, Alex Collins had a really good season for the Ravens and will be the starter moving forward, but teams love to see competition that can light a fire under a player, and raise the level of intensity. I fully expect Collins to be the starter, but he is not much of a receiving threat or three-down back candidate. In 15 games last season, he caught 23 passes.

I like Collins, but…

I believe that Kenneth Dixon is the most complete back on the Ravens roster. He can also be had at a relatively cheap price. In DLF’s June ADP he sits at 161. In 2016, he showed explosiveness and a good receiving ability in the limited opportunity he was given.

ADP Data from Dixon’s DLF player page.

It looked as though 2017 would be the year he was going to break out and become fantasy relevant, then a torn meniscus before the season started, a four-game suspension for PEDs, and an additional two-game suspension for substance abuse policy hit. His fantasy value has been slowly spiraling downward ever since. All of that to say, he comes with risk.

Every dynasty owner wants to find the best value possible and at ADP 161, I think the upside outweighs the risk. He hasn’t played a meaningful NFL down in almost two years, so many people have forgotten about him. Collins is a good early down back, and Javorius Allen is nothing more than a change-of-pace back, so if you are looking for the most complete back who could eventually fulfill the coveted “three-down” role, I would put my money on Dixon.

Many times when a player has a season-ending injury, suspensions, or both, people write them off. So lets not forget though that he is only 24 years old and has played 12 games. The Ravens are searching for play-makers wherever they can find them, and Dixon still has a lot left in the tank.

You will have to exercise patience with him but if everything goes right, Dixon could make an impact for the Ravens and for your fantasy team.

Follow me on Twitter @levichappell.

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levi chappell