2018 Summer Sleeper: Denver Broncos

Bruce Matson Posted On July 13, 2018

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 quarterback carousel of Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, and Paxton Lynch netted the Broncos a last-place finish in the AFC West last year. The team is looking to turn things around. They have one of the better defenses in the NFL and they are now led by Case Keenum who won 11 games for the Minnesota Vikings last season. Even with an aging roster, there’s still a lot of optimism circulating the city of Denver.

In the last two years, the Denver Broncos averaged 3.85 yards per carry as a team. C.J. Anderson surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the first time since high school. As we all know, he’s no longer with the team and he will be competing for touches in Carolina’s backfield.

Denver drafted Royce Freeman, a highly-touted running back prospect out of Oregon, in the third round this season. He is favored to finish the year as the team’s feature back. They also have Devontae Booker on the roster still. He is looking to put something together. But if anything, he will be the team’s receiving option out of the backfield.

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DE’ANGELO HENDERSON, RB DEN

Category: Deep Sleeper

The Broncos drafted Henderson in the sixth-round of the 2017 draft. He is a short compact running back with the speed to break off long runs. He might be short in stature, but his 32.6 BMI nets him in the 91st percentile amongst running back prospects. Due to being 5-foot-7, he is usually concealed by his blockers, making it easier for him to find the running lanes.

In college, he had three straight 1000-yards seasons for Coastal Carolina. He finished his career averaging 6.43 yards per carry. During his senior year, he eclipsed the 100-yard mark seven times. Henderson has the college production to make him a very intriguing running back prospect.

During the preseason last year, he looked like the best running back on the roster. Even though he was playing against the second and third string defense, he still displayed the characteristics of a back who can get it done at the NFL level. He ran with a lot of pop behind his pads and he even reached the open field on a few runs. His performance during the preseason made him a deep roster stash in all dynasty formats.

It’s 11 months later and Henderson is long forgotten. He might even be collecting dust on your waiver wire. The recent addition of Freeman took the wind out of his sails and now at best he’s projected to be the third best running back on the roster. Booker and Freeman are going to battle it out for the starting job. Freeman should eventually earn the feature back role, but it could be a timeshare between the two backs during the early stages of the season. This scenario doesn’t look good for Henderson.

Football is not linear like a mathematical equation and there are a lot of variables that can impact a team and a player’s career. The injury bug enjoys biting Devontae Booker and the odds of him being able to handle a full workload isn’t good. Royce Freeman is a blue-chip running back prospect. He should acclimate quickly to the NFL game, but that’s not always the case. Injuries are also common for younger players because they’re transitioning to the NFL game which increases their probabilities for injury. A lot of things can shuffle the depth chart, and next thing you know, Henderson finds himself as the team’s primary back.

Even if Henderson stumbles his way into the lead role, I wouldn’t expect him to hold it for more than a few weeks. However, he’s talented enough to make an impact in fantasy if he ever gets a sizeable workload. This would provide dynasty owners the opportunity to sell him while his value is at its highest point.

He’s an asset that you can buy at a palatable price and then possibly resell once he gets the opportunity to prove himself. I wouldn’t suggest stashing him for the long-term, because he’s a late round pick and he could easily fall off the map if he gets cut during camp.

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It’s not smart to invest heavily in third-string running backs unless their price point is severely discounted. Henderson’s ADP has experienced a significant nosedive since October of last year. His 236.33 Dynasty ADP suggests he’s virtually free in startup drafts and should be rather easy to acquire during trade negotiations. For the most part, Henderson can be considered a throw-in piece in larger trades. There’s also a good chance that he’ll hit the waiver wire in some leagues.

If anything, he’s a good hedge for Royce Freeman owners. In the off chance Freeman gets hurt or falls flat on his face during his rookie year, then Henderson can help mitigate the risk. If Freeman was a car, Henderson would be a dirt-cheap liability insurance policy. The caveat to acquiring him as one of the team’s handcuff running backs is that there’s a chance that his workload won’t increase enough to make him a fantasy relevant option. This adds some risk to his dynasty stock, but even if this happens it’s still a no-lose situation because he’s borderline free.

Depending on league and roster size, you might want to take a look at Henderson. Like I previously mentioned, he’s dirt cheap and has enough talent to make something happen if he gets the opportunity. When it comes to stashing players at the end of your roster, you want to find players who can gain value quickly if they get the opportunity to showcase their talents. He’s a player you can easily flip during the middle of the season to a contending team for extra capital. If you have the space on your roster and he’s easily obtainable, then I suggest pulling the trigger on Henderson.

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Bruce Matson

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

I'm a financial counselor for a hospital in South Central Ohio. I graduated from Muskingum University with a bachelor's in business while minoring in Economics and Accounting. I won my first fantasy football title with Jake Plummer as my quarterback.