2018 Summer Sleeper: New York Giants

Bruce Matson Posted On July 15, 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 pendulum is swinging over Eli Manning’s head. The time is ticking on his career and the clock is about to run out of batteries. He’s 37 years old and could be a potential cut candidate next off-season. To entice the Giants on keeping him around a little longer, he must play better than advertised and lead the team deep into the playoffs.

Leading the team to the Super Bowl is not outside the realm of possibilities for Manning. He defied odds before and he has the potential to do it again. The return of Odell Beckham and the addition of Saquon Barkley could be the fountain of youth Manning needed to kick things in gear. If this happens, he will return to being the god of New York and will get an few extra years to show off his skills in a Giants uniform.

If things go mediocre or worse for Manning, then the team will transition away from him and look at other options at quarterback. After all, he only accounts for $6.2 million in dead cap if the team decides to cut him next year. The question is, who will the Giants transition to? Will they go with a quarterback already on the roster or will they dip their toe in free agency or the draft to get their next signal caller?

[am4show have=’g1;’ guest_error=’sub_message’ user_error=’sub_message’ ]

KYLE LAULETTA, QB

Deep Sleeper

The Giants drafted Lauletta in the fourth round of this year’s draft. He’s a small-school prospect from Richmond where he passed for 10,465 yards and 73 touchdowns during his four-year collegiate career. At 6-foot-3 and 222 pounds, he has the prototypical size for a starting quarterback at the NFL level. Even though he was one of the top quarterbacks in the FCS, he flew under the radar due to being a small school prospect.

The most encouraging thing you see out of him while watching film is his accuracy. He does a very good job of using his eyes to freeze and move safeties and linebackers to help get his receivers open. Lauletta is a very cerebral passer and his instincts allow him to easily read defenses. Not to mention, he’s very gritty in the pocket and he’s not afraid to use his mobility to create some extra time for his receivers to get open. He doesn’t have the speed to outrun the defense, but his 6.95 three-cone suggests he has the short area quickness to evade tacklers to keep plays alive.

The major knock on Lauletta is his arm strength. He doesn’t have the arm to make all of the NFL throws. Deep outs and touch passes will be difficult for him to convert. A lot of the interceptions he threw in college were due to his lack of arm strength and not his inability to read the coverage. However, we’ve heard this about a lot of quarterback prospects. Tom Brady wasn’t known for his arm when he was coming out of Michigan and Andy Dalton has built a respectable career despite having less-than-optimal arm strength. Having limitations with ball velocity and arm strength shouldn’t be the final nail in the coffin for him. He still has a chance to develop into a functional starter one day.

The most exciting thing about him from a fantasy perspective is that he’s paired with Odell Beckham who is one of the top wide receivers in the game. The offense is infused with other weapons like Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard and of course, the great Saquon Barkley. Even if the Giants use Lauletta as a gatekeeper until they find their long-term option quarterback, there’s still a chance he can be fantasy-relevant. The fact he’ll be connected to one of the best receiving corps in the game inflates his potential drastically.

Davis Webb is another quarterback on the roster who could also gain some steam if Manning departs from the team next year. The Giants drafted him in the third-round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He will be competing against Lauletta for the backup quarterback role in training camp. The winner of this battle will be an indicator of which quarterback the team likes the best.

Webb should be the favorite to win the job in camp because he has one year of experience in the NFL compared to Lauletta who will be acclimating from the FCS level to the pros. From a developmental standpoint, he should start to peak in the next couple of years. This could potentially be in the same time frame when Manning leaves the team.

The thing I like about Lauletta is that he’s virtually free. He’s falling all the way to the final rounds in startup drafts with a 239.50 dynasty ADP. Depending on league and roster size, he’s worth stashing on the back end of your depth chart. If he never ascends to be the team’s starting quarterback, you’re not out much, because you only squandered one of your late-round picks on him.

In rookie drafts, he’s currently being drafted in the late fourth-round and his 47.80 Rookie ADP is a reflection on how Lauletta is being valued. At this point in the draft, we are just making dart throws on the players we like. I don’t see anything wrong with taking him here in 1QB leagues.

However, in 2QB leagues, he obviously holds more value, because the league dynamics increases the scarcity at the quarterback position. In leagues like this, don’t be surprised if he gets drafted anywhere from the third round to the late second, because owners are quick to pull the trigger in 2QB and Super-flex rookie drafts.

Whether you think Lauletta is the next great quarterback or not, we can all agree that there’s virtually no risk in acquiring him due to his price tag. Players like him are worth stashing at the end of your bench just to see what happens. Even if you can’t acquire him through trade, you can wait for his current owner to dump him on the waiver wire after he loses his patience while waiting for Lauletta to get his big break. He may never get his opportunity to succeed, but the minimal investment it takes to get him makes it easier for you to move on from him if he doesn’t pan out.

If he’s there in the fourth round and all of my favorite wide receivers and running backs are off the board in that range, then I’m definitely going to hit select and hold him on my taxi squad.

[/am4show]

Author
Recent Posts

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.