2020 Summer Sleeper: New Orleans Saints

Joseph Nammour

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 New Orleans Saints have one of the best rosters in all of football, and they annually produce fantasy goodness at multiple positions.

Because of the depth of the New Orleans roster, there were a lot of intriguing players who qualify for this exercise. Technically, based on the definitions above, Jared Cook qualifies as a sleeper, but most dynasty players already know he should be a productive asset for competing teams. Likewise for Drew Brees.

Tre’Quan Smith and Jameis Winston both qualify as sleepers or deep sleepers, and I like both as buys. Winston is a screaming buy in superflex leagues and is a sneaky target in 1QB leagues as well, but I want to dig a little deeper.

Ty Montgomery, RB

Category: Super Deep Sleeper

What makes retread running back Ty Montgomery worth keeping an eye on?

First of all, he’s done it before, albeit in a small sample. According to DLF’s Yearly Data App, Montgomery has been an effective fantasy producer when given the opportunity, and he’s also managed to put some spike weeks together.

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A converted wide receiver coming out of Stanford, Montgomery converted to running back at the end of the 2016 season to decent success after a couple of injuries ahead of him on the running back depth chart. He then began the 2017 season as Green Bay’s starting running back, and his ADP spiked as a result.

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Through the first three games of the season, he scored 19.3, 29, and 13 points (PPR) before going down with an injury midway through the fourth game. He never regained a starting role again, but his production in a limited stint intrigues me. He’s a very good pass catcher, and targets are worth much more than carries in PPR fantasy leagues.

He’s also a good athlete at the running back position. In his list of comparable players on MockDraftable are Marion Barber and David Johnson.

At this point in his career, we know what Montgomery is, but being a good athlete doesn’t hurt.

Opportunity

Montgomery’s opportunity appears to be quite limited, as he’s obviously behind both Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray. Kamara is one of the best all-purpose running backs in the NFL, and Murray would likely reprise his workhorse role in the event of a Kamara injury.

However, Sean Payton has not been shy about talking Montgomery up. He hasn’t been provoked, either. It’s important not to grasp onto coach-speak as gospel, but in a year with limited off-season activities, there are few opportunities to identify sleeper candidates from their performance in camp because there hasn’t been camp to speak of yet.

Joel Thomas, the Saints’ running back coach, recently divulged a bit on how he envisions Montgomery impacting the team:

When you look at how [Montgomery’s] been used in these last couple of stops, do you see a running back? I know he came in as a receiver. Or do you see somebody who kind of can be sort of positionless and move around on the offense?

“That’s exactly – I see a Swiss army knife, so to speak. I mean, it’s, how are teams going to view him when we start putting personnel out there? How are they going to view him when we put Alvin out there? Are they going to treat it as a nickel package and they didn’t go dime with it, treating them as wide receivers? But, I see a complete (back) in all aspects, as far as the run, pass, catch, the ability to block. The worst thing we could do right here today is, is sit there and pigeonhole and say, ‘Hey, you’re going to be put in this position and that’s it.’ Something that Sean (Payton) talks about all the time is our job as coaches is to find out what they can do well, and that’s what maybe we haven’t seen something on film because he hadn’t been put in a situation with these other teams that hopefully we can maybe dig out a little bit more and find out just hopefully that he has not touched the ceiling, that he has got more room to grow, which we feel he does.”

“I’m a fan of Ty Montgomery, yes he’s on our team, but I was (familiar with him) before he got here just because he can do everything that is required within our playbook. Obviously, he has a route running skillset that he had in college at Stanford. I coached against him when I was at Washington and he was at Stanford so I was very familiar with him as he came into the league, but he’s got the ability to run routes. When you look back at it, he has only been a running back for five seasons so that is where I see the piece of putty we can hopefully mold into what we want him to be within our offense. I love the versatility out of the backfield. We can line him up in empty. We can put him back there as a single back seven-yards deep. I don’t think he’s gonna be put in a single position and that’s what he does. He’s along the lines of maybe a (Travaris) Cadet, maybe a little better running body just because he’s 220 pounds. Pierre Thomas, obviously Pierre didn’t have all the route skills coming out of college, but (he was) a solid running back. The meetings I’ve had with him, he is smart, obviously Stanford educated, but he’s smart, very coachable, I like what he’s bringing to the table as far as what we’ve got with this signing.”

Montgomery can play running back, slot receiver, and can return kicks as well. He’s a versatile player who isn’t outstanding in any one area, but can contribute in a multitude of ways. Montgomery could also line up opposite Kamara in two-back sets, causing fits for linebackers trying to make quick decisions in coverage. He now plays for an offensive mind that has schemed Taysom Hill into relevance, so if Payton sees something that intrigues him, I’m interested. Montgomery even asserted he chose New Orleans in part because of their creative success maximizing versatile talents.

Payton has always utilized multiple running backs. Kamara and Murray’s roles are secure, but he’s found creative ways to use change-of-pace satellite backs in the past, and many have been viable fantasy producers. Reggie Bush, Darren Sproles, and CJ Spiller are all significantly more talented than Montgomery, but he’s likely in the conversation with players like Pierre Thomas, Travaris Cadet, and Tim Hightower, all of whom have been productive in auxiliary roles under Payton.

There are a number of possible scenarios for Montgomery:

  • He earns a Boston Scott-type role, siphoning a few targets per game from the starters and having flex value
  • He steps into a committee role in the event of an injury ahead of him on the depth chart
  • He earns a handful of snaps per game in a low-volume gadget role
  • He makes the roster but has minimal impact
  • He gets cut before the season

When evaluating the landscape for super deep sleepers, the final two scenarios laid out above are probably the most likely. But I’m trying to target upside, and I think the ambiguity of what his role could become is worth keeping tabs on.

I’m not arguing for Montgomery to be a mega-star – I just think he may be worth the last spot on your roster, just in case things break his way.