2019 Summer Sleeper: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Noah Ballweg

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 NFC South should be one of the most intriguing and competitive divisions in all of football for the 2019 season. Kyle Holden and Matt Price have each given their summer sleeper picks for the Saints and Falcons respectively, so stay in the division and give those a read as well.

This sleeper pick is as over-looked as any rookie receiver who was drafted in the class of 2019. However, before we fully dive into our mystery rookie, lets first analyze the shoes that this sixth-round draft pick will be filling.

Of the eight games that DeSean Jackson played in where he was paired up with Ryan Fitzpatrick, the numbers were impressive for the deep-shot standout. Jackson hauled in 32 receptions for 591 yards and four touchdowns in those eight games. While those statistics might not blow you out of the water (average of four receptions and 73 yards per game), fantasy owners playing Jackson out of the FLEX spot were pleasantly surprised to get some great consistency out of the veteran receiver.

Although Fitzpatrick and Jackson have now left the Buccaneers, there is one rookie receiver who has been consistently impressing the coaching staff and has a similar deep threat skill-set comparable to Jackson’s. Mike Evans is a star, and Chris Godwin is the talk of the 2019 off-season. Both are sure to inherit a ton of targets, but this sleeper pick will be available on your waiver wire and will no doubt make some noise this season.

Scott Miller, WR

Category: Deep Sleeper

From my perspective, Scott Miller may be the least talked about wide receiver drafted earlier than the seventh round. When the Buccaneers snatched the senior out of Bowling Green in the sixth round, I immediately knew they were getting a steal.

At 5’9, 174 pounds, Miller fits the similar size and frame of the DeSean Jacksons and Tyreek Hills of the league. A true-speed receiver, Miller does not attain the same agility and playmaking abilities of those two, but he will fill a niche within the Buccaneers offense as a deep target.

A three-year starter at Bowling Green, Miller managed 215 receptions, over 2,800 yards receiving and amassed 23 three touchdowns in his heralded career. Despite playing on a sub-par team in a below-average league, he proved enough to NFL scouts and to the Buccaneers that he has next-level talent.

Statistically, Miller has dominated in every way possible when he is on the field. In his senior season, he accounted for over 40% of the team’s receiving yardage, proving to be a dominant factor despite teams knowing his usage and target percentage.

From a physical perspective, Miller clocked in a 4.36-second 40-yard dash, posted a 34-inch vertical and had a broad jump of 123 inches. That is impressive for an unheard-of receiver who is one of the younger seniors of the 2019 class. What is most surprising was Miller’s breakout age of 19.7 years old – when he posted ten touchdowns and over 900 receiving yards as a sophomore. Miller’s SPARQ score is equally compared to Mecole Hardman who has been the hype man of the fantasy off-season.

While it appears Hardman will now take a backseat role in the Chiefs depth chart, Miller has a legitimate chance to be the WR3 of the Buccaneers and receive a plethora of downfield targets as Evans and Godwin draw multiple coverage schemes.

In my opinion, the only area that Hardman will struggle on the field is creating separation against physical cornerbacks who outmatch him in size, strength, and agility. Miller’s three-cone drill was under seven seconds, but after watching much of his film, it is pretty evident that even against suspect defenders, he relies on his pure speed to create space rather than quickness and agility. While this is an attribute that Miller will be able to improve upon, it will be interesting to see what type of routes he can run against defenders crowding him on the line.

His speed alone could be the difference-maker down the sideline, but don’t expect him to make many moves other than straight towards the end zone once the ball is in his hands. For this reason, his ceiling is lower than a lot of the 2019 class that I have been studying. As DeSean Jackson often contributed in boom-or-bust portions, I see Miller also falling into this category with even less explosion with the ball in his hands.

He has a great deal of talent and has been impressing the Buccaneers coaching staff at OTAs and training camp so expect to see a lot of targets his way during the preseason. He should be available in almost all of your leagues and would be a great taxi squad target if you have space. If either Evans or Godwin go down, Miller could be an immediate playmaking replacement for the Bucs.

I’ll leave you with Miller’s senior season highlights. You’ll fall more in love with his speed the more you watch. Regardless of the throws, Miller has the ability to run under the ball and then outrun defenders to the end zone.