2019 Summer Sleeper: New Orleans Saints

Kyle Holden

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.

To put it bluntly, running backs in an offense coached by Sean Payton are very productive. Alvin Kamara is an efficient, fantasy cheat code and Mark Ingram was very productive in his stint in New Orleans as well. Together, they formed one of the rare backfields that were able to produce multiple top-12 fantasy running backs in the same season. Even Tim Hightower won a lot of people fantasy leagues the year he stepped into the starting role after Mark Ingram suffered a torn rotator cuff. Simply put, the Saints backfield is a fantasy gold mine.

This is one of the main reasons why many are so excited for Latavius Murray to fill Ingram’s role this year. Both Murray and Kamara can be productive at the same time and Murray is a potential week winner anytime Kamara misses a game. Murray figures to have a solid role with the upside of so much more. If we are collectively enthralled with his potential, shouldn’t we also be excited for a rookie running back who is potentially one injury away from a similar role?

Devine Ozigbo, RB

Category: Deep Sleeper

At first glance, the New Orleans depth chart is a little crowded at running back. However, I like to envision the Saints’ backfield snaps and touches being split into two separate roles, like a running back ‘1A’ and ‘1B.’ Alvin Kamara has the ‘1A’ role locked down and isn’t ceding many touches to anyone barring injury. It includes most of the receiving work on third downs as well as a decent amount of carries. This role is designed to get the running back out in space in creative ways. Javorius Allen is an underrated pass-catcher and figures to be Kamara’s main backup in this role. For the record, I do not see Allen seeing as many touches as Kamara does if the former is asked to fill in at any point. However, I do see him filling a good portion of Kamara’s role if needed.

The other role, the ‘1B’, is more of the bruiser who sees mostly carries and is asked to earn the “tough” yards in between the tackles. It is the role Latavius Murray is likely to fill. Dwayne Washington is currently listed as Murray’s backup with Matthew Dayes in the mix as well, but Ozigbo was a player I hard earmarked throughout the entire NFL draft process and has the potential to jump those two on the depth chart in short order.

He failed to get drafted by an NFL team but the Saints quickly signed him soon after the NFL draft. He has good size, decent speed, and caught 23 passes last year at Nebraska. This combination is what I look for in running backs, especially when trying to identify those who might carve out a role for themselves in the future.

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Statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference and FFToday.

As you can see above, the Saints backfield produces two fantasy-viable options nearly every year. The group has been especially productive for the past two seasons. It is no coincidence this jump happened the year they added elite talent Kamara to the backfield. Drew Brees is also approaching the end of his career and has seen his passing attempts decline each of the past two years. Keep in mind Mark Ingram was also suspended for the first four games of the season last season and still managed to put up decent numbers in just 12 games.

Brees is not getting any younger and the Saints figure to continue a run-heavy approach throughout the end of his career. Buying into Ozigbo is as much about the Saints running back role as it is about Ozigbo as a player. New Orleans has a productive offense and gives their running backs a plethora of touches.

Ozigbo is a talented runner who has a great opportunity to be one injury away from being a significant fantasy contributor. He is currently sitting out on many waiver wires or costs very little to acquire. According to our trade analyzer, he likely only costs a fifth-round rookie pick.

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If he ends up carving out a role or earning significant playing time, you can likely insert him into your lineup or at least flip him for a quick profit. After all, you should not be relying on deep sleepers to be regular contributors to your lineup. I like to view them as players you can either:

  1. Flip for future capital to select a different player with a better profile
  2. Use as throw-ins in larger deals

The key is to hold onto them until their value rises above where it currently sits. Do not go trading them away before this bump unless the other owner is willing to pay more than the current market price. Staying active and finding small value deals like this can have a snowball effect and lead to greater dividends for your fantasy rosters down the road.

kyle holden
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