Yahoo Fantasy Cram Session - Don't take a snooze on these sleepers
Yahoo Sports' Andy Behrens, Liz Loza and Matt Harmon discuss three players who could be late-round sleepers, including a TE in Dallas and two Wide Receivers.
Video Transcript
LIZ LOZA: We are gonna finish on the up with three late-round sleepers we love. Andy, I'm gonna start with you. Since we talked about the Cowboys and Amari Cooper with Matt, tell me what is a Blake Jarwin and what does he do in Dallas?
ANDY BEHRENS: Oh yeah, give me Blake Jarwin. So if I whiff on the early-round tight ends, right? I don't get Kittle. I don't get Kelce. Maybe I take a look at Andrews or Ertz.
If I don't get any of those guys, I'm not messing with the minefield that exists between like five and 15. I'm gonna take Blake Jarwin all day. The team paid him in the offseason. He was hugely efficient last year, about nine yards per target.
Witten is gone. Randall Cobb is gone. Those are not spectacular names, but they ate up about 160 targets last season. All of that is available--
MATT HARMON: Yikes.
ANDY BEHRENS: --both to CeeDee Lamb and to Blake Jarwin. There's a path here for Blake Jarwin to see 100 targets. There might only be four or five tight ends in any given season who see 100 targets. And if he plays 16 games, he's gonna be one of those dudes. So I think there's a pretty easy path here for him to finish as a top eight, top 10 fantasy tight end.
LIZ LOZA: Matt, if you don't throw a dart in the 11th round at Blake Jarwin, and you want to maybe load up on receiver, who's a great value? And tell me why his team is going to surprise the rest of the NFC North in 2020?
MATT HARMON: Well, I don't about the Bears surprising anybody in the NFC North in 2020. Don't try to sneak that one in there. But Anthony Miller, to me, really stands out among the receivers that are going in that range as a guy that is, number one, very talented and also has a very viable path to volume. And let's just start with the talent.
Anthony Miller, to me, he's been a reception perception superstar since he's come into the league. A guy that I think we've all kind of been waiting for him to fully break out, but there's been some injury issues. So you do have to account for that risk. But all that risk is baked into where he's going in fantasy right now and really none of the ceiling that he possesses.
Because we've actually seen this guy produce towards the end of last season. Just like we've seen Allen Robinson produce with Mitchell Trubisky, we've also seen Anthony Miller produce with Mitchell Trubisky as well. So if we get Nick Foles in there, we know there's a bigger ceiling for both of these guys if and when that does happen. And Miller especially.
Again, look at the rest of the Bears' wide receiver depth chart. Ted Ginn, Riley Ridley, Cordarrelle Patterson has moved to running back. And you've got all the ghost of Jimmy Graham at tight end. The path to volume is very real for Miller. I think you can conservatively project him for 90 targets. And at that point, at that position in the draft, you're really, really getting a good payback there.
LIZ LOZA: Absolutely love it. I love that you pointed out when this player is healthy, he produces. From weeks 11 through 15, after getting healthy again last year, he posted five consecutive fantasy-relevant stat lines and averaged over 86 yards per game. And that was again with Mitchell Trubisky. Foles, I think, gives this offense a little bit of a lift.
And despite the consecutive offseason shoulder injuries, reports out of camp are that Miller is healthy and looking good and that he crushed his rehab. So I think that's a great pick.
I'm gonna talk about someone that I think could break out in 2020. It's a rookie pick. And it is not Justin Jefferson or Jalen Reagor or even Michael Pittman, who I also love. It is Bryan Edwards. He is not being drafted. Say his name now because you're gonna be saying a lot of it in December.
On tape, what stands out the most about him is his physicality. He's 6'3", 212 pounds. An imposing presence. Solid game speed and strong hands.
But when you look at him within the rest of that receiving corps in Vegas-- that sounds weird, the rest of the receiving corps in Vegas, huh? Wow.
MATT HARMON: Get used to that.
LIZ LOZA: Yeah. Matt and I, we've talked about if you're looking at things from a which of these things is not like the others perspective, Edwards stands out. I believe him to be-- Matt has a different comp-- but a Brandon LaFell-esque workman. Someone who can do the dirty work as the team's number two on the outside, allowing the star that is Henry Ruggs to get all of the big-play glory.
You've got Gruden talking about fast-tracking rookies. You've got Tyrell Williams already hurt and going to, quote, "play through an injury for the rest of the season." That doesn't sound particularly great. And also Derek Carr talking about how he is very quickly gaining trust in Bryan Edwards. I think he's gonna stand out, I think he's a breakout, and he is not even being drafted yet.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, Liz, for our trillions and trillions of listeners who just threw up at the name Brandon LaFell for your comp for your exciting, young rookie here, I actually think he really comps pretty well to Michael Crabtree in this offense too. Because we just talked about your boy Amari Cooper back there and how he always was messing things up in contested situations and dropping passes in Oakland.
Well, the reason that Derek Carr continued to trust Crabtree to lead the team in targets, despite everybody's excitement over Cooper as a young player, was he trusted Crabtree in those back-shoulder situations in the contested game. And that was why Crabtree was continually productive. And I think Edwards can be that guy. Because they really haven't had a player like that for Derek Carr since Crabtree exited the picture.
