2022 Dynasty Fantasy Football Summer Sleeper: Cleveland Browns
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.
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.
Next up in our series, the Cleveland Browns…
Jacoby Brissett, QB CLE
Category: Deep Sleeper
The Browns have had an interesting off-season, to say the least. After trading for Deshaun Watson, who is awaiting a potential suspension that could cause him to miss a season, and fracturing their relationship with previous starter Baker Mayfield, Brissett is left as the projected starter. At first, you may not feel comfortable with the thought of starting or even rostering Brissett, but I’m here to tell you why he may not be so bad of an option in your superflex leagues and is viable as a deep sleeper.
Brissett has had three seasons in which he had substantial time spent as a starting QB:
Statistics from Pro Football Reference.
In games started, Brissett scored the following points per game in four points per passing touchdown leagues: 14.0 in 2017, 14.8 in 2019, 14.9 in 2021. Now I realize 14-15 points per game isn’t doing that much for your superflex spot as that kind of fantasy production will land him somewhere in the quarterback 24-30 range. Still, I think there is reason for optimism.
First, Brissett has some Konami Code to him. In games started, he averages 17.65 rushing yards and 0.35 rushing touchdowns per game which adds 3.87 fantasy points per game. Second, this will easily be the best offense that Brissett has played in with the best complement of weapons including Amari Cooper, David Njoku, Nick Chubb, and Kareem Hunt.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski’s offense is perfect for helping quarterbacks like Brissett (less than ideal arm talent player with some mobility who prefers short and intermediate routes) to thrive. The running back combination of Chubb, Hunt, and one of if not the best offensive line in the league makes for a very productive run game that will open windows for Brissett in the passing game, especially during play action.
The beautiful thing about the Stefanski offense is that it schemes players open, the quarterback just needs to make the correct read. Just last year, we saw Case Keenum score 13.5 points in a game in which he only had to throw the ball 24 times and I think Brissett is the better quarterback at this point in their careers. Considering all of that, I think it’s possible for him to be around the 16 fantasy points per game mark which would solidly put him in the QB2 conversation.
Right now at DLF, Brissett is the consensus rank QB45, is being drafted as the QB42, and is valued at approximately a 2023 fourth-round rookie pick. Even if you can’t stomach the thought of using Brissett when the season is here, at this cost he is a no-brainer investment to me. In superflex leagues, you can basically never have too many starting quarterbacks and they’re all worth more than a fourth-round rookie pick.
Last year I was able to collect a lot of third-round rookie picks by unloading spot starting quarterbacks like Colt McCoy, Mike White, and Trevor Siemian to other league members who were in need of quarterback help. As the season draws near and it’s obvious that Brissett will be the Browns 2021 starting quarterback, his market value will continue to grow. A year-long starting quarterback in superflex should be worth a second-round pick at a minimum. In the event Watson is only suspended for something like eight games, Brissett should still be worth at least a third-round rookie pick and would still give you a return on your investment. Buy in now and reap the benefits later.
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