2020 Summer Sleeper: Washington Football Team

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 Washington Football Team had one of the worst offenses in the NFL in 2019. They scored the fewest points, had the fewest passing yards, ran the least plays, and ranked near the bottom in nearly every other category. The offense hindered the team immensely and the team limped to a 3-13 finish.

The offense was plagued by a lack of continuity, rarely starting the same combination in any game. Second-year running back Derrius Guice was lost to injury for most of the season. Ageless veteran Adrian Peterson stepped in and led the rushing attack with 898 yards over 15 games started. The quarterback situation was a rollercoaster until Dwayne Haskins settled in, starting the final seven games. Rookie Terry McLaurin was a bright spot, leading the team in receiving with 58 catches for over 900 yards and seven touchdowns. Four other receivers started games and one of them, Kelvin Harmon, is out for the entire 2020 season due to a torn ACL.

There is a lot of opportunity for someone to emerge and carve a significant role in the offense. The team drafted Antonio Gandy-Golden and we profiled him recently, he could carve out a role as a rookie. Antonio Gibson will have a role as well and could give them a chess piece to use all over formations. They drafted Thaddeus Moss to bolster a weak tight end group as well. One other player has a chance to shine...