2018 Summer Sleeper: Kansas City Chiefs

Joseph Nammour Posted On July 21, 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 Chiefs are loaded with talent on the offensive side of the ball. Between Patrick Mahomes, Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Travis Kelce, and even Spencer Ware, there’s little opportunity available for a depth option to step up and become relevant.

When researching the depth chart for this piece, I came across a strange combination of familiar names and players unlikely to make the roster.

Players like Chad Henne, Charcandrick West, Damien Williams, Kerwynn Williams, De’Anthony Thomas, and Jace Amaro are sleepers by our definitions, but aren’t going to gain enough value to be worth holding on a dynasty roster (we’ve already seen West with an actual role, and he’s not worth owning). Alex Ellis, Daniel Braverman, Marcus Kemp, and Gehrig Dieter are highly unlikely to crack the roster.

This leaves Chris Conley, Demarcus Robinson, Jehu Chesson, and Demetrius Harris as viable options for this piece. Because we want to highlight a player who has a chance to appreciate in value and become a worthwhile roster spot, we’ll go with Robinson for the second year in a row.

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Demarcus Robinson, WR

Category: [Super] Deep Sleeper

Demarcus Robinson’s football career to this point has been interesting, to say the least. His off-field issues were well documented during the pre-draft process but seem to have been forgotten somewhat now that he hasn’t made major waves to this point in his career.

Just to revisit, though: Robinson was arrested or suspended a total of four times in his three years as a Florida Gator. Long on talent, Robinson could not help but continually get in his own way. However, he’s since stayed out of trouble and 2018 could be the year where his talent begins to shine through on the field.

Robinson didn’t test particularly well (4.59), but has better-than-advertised speed on film. He has made massive improvements as a route runner despite a limited route tree, looking fluid at times rather than purely relying on his athleticism to separate. He flashes good hands, has decent size (6’1”, 203 pounds), and thrives downfield by excelling at tracking the ball over his shoulder.

After his 21-year-old rookie season where he didn’t record a single catch, he began to creep up the depth chart after Chris Conley’s Achilles injury forced him out of action for the year.

Robinson’s end-of-year stat line doesn’t stand out in any particular way. He was targeted 39 times in 2017, catching 21 passes for 212 yards (10.1 YPR) and no touchdowns. Interestingly, though, he seems to be a favorite of Patrick Mahomes. In the last week of the preseason, Mahomes and Robinson connected three times for 127 yards and a score. His gains went for chunks of 53, 46, and 28 yards, demonstrating how Mahomes can unlock this offense and utilize Robinson’s downfield skillset.

Flashing in the preseason is exciting, but the end of the season is what excites me most about his future. In Mahomes’ lone start – on the road against the strong Denver Broncos defense – Robinson saw ten targets, catching four for 31 yards (and dropping a touchdown). The catch rate is poor, but his heavy involvement with Mahomes under center is the intriguing detail to me.

Then, in the Chiefs’ playoff loss against the Titans, Robinson was blanked on the stat sheet until Kelce exited the game with a horrific concussion. Robinson then took over the remainder of that drive, helping Alex Smith drive the offense down the field and score, catching each of his four targets for a total of 57 yards and a touchdown (before going the entire second half of the game without a target for some reason).

Robinson’s growth throughout the season is notable. His immaturity was well documented, but he was a rawer prospect than some realized. He’s an effective blocker – check out his blocks at the end of Tyreek Hill’s touchdown here – and that should help keep him on the field in most situations. As he became more comfortable in the offense and learned how to react to pre-snap adjustments, he was trusted to play a larger role. Seeing the growth year over year is a promising sign for his future outlook.

Looking forward to 2018, we can’t reasonably expect Robinson to see a heavy market share without at least one – maybe more – injury. Kelce and Hill command a large target share each, while Hunt and newcomer Watkins also stand to receive a large slice of the pie, which leaves very little for every other player on the roster.

Where Robinson’s value could stem from is if he wins the third receiver role, and he’s supposedly running in that role during voluntary off-season practices. Like Hill and Watkins, Robinson has also been moving all over the offense and lining up at every receiver position to enhance his versatility. He’ll have to beat out the incumbent Conley, who has used his freakish athleticism to be the more consistent player thus far. Unfortunately, Conley’s Achilles tear may sap some of his explosiveness that he needs to succeed.

Ultimately, I believe Robinson has the skillset to succeed at the NFL level. The Chiefs are suddenly loaded with offensive talent, which will likely suppress most hopes for a breakout for any auxiliary players. Of those other players, Robinson is the one who offers the most upside – and he’s currently free.

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