2018 Summer Sleeper: Miami Dolphins
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
Looking over the Miami Dolphins roster, there are a decent number of well-known assets, even if they are all in the mid-to-late ranges of ADP. Players like DeVante Parker, Kenny Stills, Kenyan Drake, and Leonte Carroo are likely already clogging up your rosters. They added Kallen Ballage and Mike Gesicki to the mix during the draft, further burying any chance of an unknown gem. The Dolphins also made a small splash in signing Danny Amendola.
But there was another free agent signing that got me a little excited…
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Albert Wilson, WR
Category: Deep Sleeper
While Wilson had a mostly quiet time in Kansas City, He did manage to eclipse 450 yards twice in four years, going over 550 this past year, primarily as a slot receiver. Wilson also was at the top of the list on the team in yards per reception, only two yards behind Tyreek Hill in 2017.
The excitement for Wilson comes in the fact that Jarvis Landry – and almost 165 targets – walked out the door to Cleveland. Even with all the other receiver names listed above, there is no one who will qualify to play the slot role vacated by Landry. Stills is locked into a deeper role, being third on the yards per reception list for active players, and Parker has only really lined up as a typical X receiver for Miami.
This leaves the slot role completely open for Wilson, where he can really shine and see a good portion of those vacated targets. He also will fight for the job of returning punts for the Phins.
He has similar size and a very similar BMI overall to the now-Brown Landry, except he tested much better at the Scouting Combine, with a 77th percentile 40-yard dash and very good burst scores. The ‘Shorts Olympics’ aren’t everything (look at Landry himself), but Wilson almost profiles better as a slot receiver than Landry even did. He even brings along the elusiveness that Landry had showcased at times: Pro Football Focus has Wilson as the leader in forced missed tackles since 2014 with a 27% rate per catch, improving on Landry’s rate of 19%. He shows off this ability on tape, showing nice vision after the catch to go along with his straight-line speed and agility.
“Bert” was a standout at Georgia State, leading the team in receiving all three years he was there and amassing over 6,000 all-purpose yards. Those were top-30 numbers in NCAA history. Wilson was also the team captain for GSU, showcasing his commitment to the game and his leadership.
Wilson signed a three-year, $24m deal with Miami this off-season, which is no small amount of cash. There is an out after 2019, but he’s on the books till 2020. $24m is top-50 wide receiver money, putting him as the 42nd highest-paid receiver in the NFL. The Dolphins coaches have already begun to praise Wilson as a slot piece and offensive weapon, which may be coach speak, but is still exciting – especially if your league rewards return yardage.
He has experienced a slight upturn in ADP after the signing, but is still past the 175 ADP mark, sitting at 185th overall. At this level, he could be a wonderful WR2/3 upside shot for dynasty owners and a player who might be worth throwing a hopefully very late second-round pick for.
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