2022 Dynasty Fantasy Football Summer Sleeper: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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 or James Robinson 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.
When I look for sleepers, I like to go deep. So how deep do we want to go today? How about a 5’9″, 28-year-old, undrafted journeyman who has been on seven practice squads and didn’t even play football in college. Yeah, that deep.
Cyril Grayson, WR
Category: Super Deep Sleeper
The Buccaneers’ Grayson was an all-American sprinter while at LSU, and when his college career was over, he was allowed to participate in LSU’s pro day. After a tryout with the CFL, Grayson was signed as a UDFA by the Seahawks and was placed on their practice squad. That was followed by additional practice squad stints with the Colts, Seahawks (again), Texans, Bears, Saints, and Cowboys, before being signed away by the Buccaneers off of Dallas’ practice squad in 2019.
Look at any way-too-early 53-man roster projection for the Buccaneers, and you’ll see everyone on the interwebs currently has Grayson listed as the team’s WR5. With an injured Chris Godwin, only Mike Evans is locked into a known role with this team to start the 2022 season. Grayson has plenty of opportunity to step up and carve out a role for himself early in the year.
Russell Gage is an unknown on this team with this offense, and thus far, Tyler Johnson hasn’t done much to get excited about. Then what’s left? Jaelon Darden? Breshad Perriman? Scotty Miller? There is a better chance than most people realize for Grayson to get a shot at the Buc’s WR2 spot until Godwin returns.
Looking at Grayson’s stats from Pro Football Reference, you’ll see he really hasn’t had a chance on the field thus far in his career. Over three seasons, he’s only dressed for ten games and has garnered just 16 targets over that span.
When those targets came is somewhat notable. Down the stretch, when Tampa Bay was pushing for the No 1 seed and the only first-round bye in the NFC, it was Grayson who stepped up in weeks 15 and 16. Leading the team in receiving yards (162) during a stretch of games when the team barely had a banged-up Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski and were without Godwin – when the Antonio Brown saga was reaching its crescendo – Grayson emerged as a trustworthy option for Tom Brady.
It was during the infamous Brown walk-off game that Grayson splashed. Filling in for Brown for the remainder of the game, Grayson caught the eventual game-winner with only 15-seconds remaining in the contest. With the game on the line, Brady looked to Grayson despite all the other distractions going on.
At his 2017 pro day, Grayson reportedly ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash. Arguably the fastest player on the roster (Breshad Perriman is projected to get cut), there is definitely a role for Grayson in 2022. You can see his big-play ability on display here:
CYRIL. GRAYSON.
: #TBvsNO on FOX pic.twitter.com/4nJW0q8z2t
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 31, 2021
Looking at Mike Clay’s projections, he only has Grayson projected for six receptions and 71 yards on the season, so temper your expectations. He should be off everyone’s radar at this point, but be sure to keep an eye on reports out of Buccaneers camp. If he starts to make any noise, you might want to jump the gun a little earlier than usual. With Gronk retired and Godwin on the mend, Grayson has plenty of opportunities to earn some of those vacated targets until Godwin returns.
- 2024 Off-Season Mock Drafts: Rookie Fallout From an NFL Mock Draft - April 20, 2024
- 2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Drafts: A View from the 1.07 - April 17, 2024
- 2024 Off-Season Mock Drafts: Recent Rookie Risers and Fallers - April 13, 2024
