DLF’s Dynasty Fantasy Football Sleeper Rankings
Welcome to the latest edition of DLF’s Sleeper rankings review.
As always, “these 2022 dynasty sleeper rankings are some of our favorite deep sleepers in dynasty fantasy football. These players are all outside the top 200 dynasty rankings (at the time they are ranked). They highlight deep stashes and players with potential upside.”
I’m going to take a look at a couple of the players our rankers (Jeff Haverlack, Ryan McDowell, or Eric Dickens) have highly ranked and tell you why they are wrong or right on these players.
RISE AND SHINE: Jimmy Garoppolo, QB SF
It’s not often we highlight a quarterback who’s started in a Super Bowl in these Sleeper rankings, so it’s an honor to take a look at Garoppolo this month. He checks in as the QB6, the 27th-ranked player overall.
For reasons not entirely clear, Ryan and Eric don’t even have Garoppolo ranked. I assume it’s because they are jealous of how handsome he is. It’s common knowledge that the 49ers are going to move on from Garoppolo, and either trade or cut him. You don’t give up the draft capital they sacrificed to secure Trey Lance and then let Lance sit on the bench for the first two seasons of his rookie contract.
Garoppolo may not be an elite starting quarterback for real-world or fantasy purposes but he does provide consistent QB2 production. Excluding the 2020 season (QB41), he finished between the QB17 and QB25 in points per game in the other four seasons he was a starter with the 49ers. Though this is not elite production, it is at least streamable, QB3 production for your roster.
If you do want to acquire him, now is the time to do so. You don’t want to wait until he is cut/traded to Seattle or Carolina, or wherever he ends up. If you wait until after something happens then you risk his acquisition cost increasing. There are a couple of different ways you can go about trading for him in leagues as evidenced by the trades found using the DLF Trade Finder app.
My favorite process is “tiering” down from another QB2 and picking up additional assets while doing so.
Mac Jones had an excellent rookie season in 2021, but strictly from a fantasy football view, he was mediocre, finishing as the QB25 in PPG. He could certainly have a higher ceiling than QB25, but I have my doubts that ceiling will ever approach top 12 at his position. The only thing that separates Jones from Garoppolo is that Jones has a starting job today, while Garoppolo does not. Based on his real-world production it’s almost certain that Garoppolo will be given a chance for at least one more starting role, and at worst will be a “super” backup QB, a player who often finds starts during a regular season.
Another trade in this vein is found below.
Daniel Jones‘s situation is no less tenuous than Garoppolo’s, with one more season of starting guaranteed, but nothing after that. David Montgomery is the most valuable asset in the above trade, and that makes that side of the deal a slam dunk win.
You can also trade FAAB or low upside players like Rashaad Penny for Garoppolo right now.
Again, Garoppolo is not an elite fantasy option, but he is a player you will likely be able to start during bye weeks, or due to injury at least several times throughout the remainder of his career, with the outside chance that he becomes a full-time starter again somewhere. Try to acquire him now before his value receives a spike based on a positive move for his career.
RISE AND SHINE: Gerald Everett, TE LAC
Continuing my personal tight end fetish in this series, one of my favorite “never was” players represents excellent value. Everett is a highly athletic tight end who many in the community, including myself, have been touting for years.
Considering that Everett has never finished any higher than the TE17 on a points-per-game basis, this is not a bet I expect to hit, but the acquisition cost makes it one worth making. Ranked as the 12th overall Sleeper player, and as the TE3, Everett’s cost remains low on the open market and in startup drafts.
Betting on Everett is betting on his offense, and trying to acquire a piece of that offense at an extremely low cost.
The Chargers’ offense is certainly one we want a part of, after averaging the third-most pass attempts per game in 2021 with 39.6. The tight end position accounted for 20.7% of those targets, and Jared Cook, despite being 58 years old (or 35), accounted for 83 of those targets. If Everett can maintain, not exceed, just maintain that same target share, there are reasons to believe he could be more productive than Cook was with the same targets.
Everett ranked 12th in fantasy points per target last year (1.87), vs Cook who ranked 19th with 1.60. It’s not a leap to expect Everett to maintain or surpass Cook’s target share either, as Everett saw a 15% share last year compared to Cook’s 13.3% share, albeit on a much lower volume passing offense in Seattle. Acquiring Everett via trade would only cost you a rookie third-rounder, or as a thrown in a larger deal.
It’s truly now or never for Everett as he joins a high-powered offense that has utilized the tight end position, and he’s well worth his minimal cost.
RISE AND SHINE: Sony Michel, RB MIA
The last player I wanted to highlight this month is Michel. He checks in as the RB11 and 19th player overall, and I find that ranking too low for my tastes. Michel is in a bit of a running back quagmire in Miami with free-agent addition Chase Edmonds, and incumbent Myles Gaskin on the roster. But Edmonds has never been able to monopolize a backfield, no matter how many times the Arizona Cardinals tried to give hand him the role. The Dolphins also did their best to phase Gaskins out of the game plan last year (yes I know it was a different regime) and the current regime then signed not one, but two, free-agent running backs to replace Gaskins. What I’m saying is Michel’s path to relevancy isn’t exactly blocked.
Last year when Michel took over the feature role for the Rams when Darrell Henderson was out due to injury, he controlled a 86% share of the rushing attempts and averaged a 9.3% target share.
Even if Michel doesn’t have the starting role fall to him due to injury, there’s a signficant chance that he’ll at least be part of a time-share. Edmonds has never had more than 159 touches in his career, and has averaged just 8.08 touches per game in his first four seasons in the NFL. Considering the range of outcomes and his cost, Michel is a player I would look to add to the bottom of most of my rosters.
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