Here are my top deep sleepers for the 2021 fantasy football season. And you can see the rest of my recent work below to prepare for your fantasy football drafts.
Average Draft Position referenced using FantasyPros consensus ADP for half-PPR formats.
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Boston Scott (RB – PHI): RB70
Scott appears to have the inside track for the receiving role in this offense, but we can’t be sure whether or not this is going to lead to anything from a fantasy football perspective. Scott’s worth monitoring on your league’s waiver wire as we move into the season, but he shouldn’t be someone you’re drafting outside of deeper leagues.
Carlos Hyde (RB – JAC): RB71
With the Travis Etienne injury, Hyde moves up redraft rankings a little bit. He’ll be on the field in relief of Robinson, but it’s unlikely that we ever see him push start-worthy consideration unless something were to happen to Robinson. He’s now merely an insurance RB on an offense that doesn’t exactly figure to be a top-tier offense in 2021. He’s simply worth watching on the waiver wire.
J.J. Taylor (RB – NE): RB77
It wasn’t clear whether or not Taylor would make this 53-man roster in New England for 2021, but now that he did he is absolutely worth stashing in deep leagues. He’s showed enough in this pre-season action to get his coaches excited. Keep an eye on the second-year RB as we move into the regular season.
KJ Hamler (WR – DEN): WR90
Hamler’s a dynamic and explosive receiver that should only continue to develop on what he showed in his rookie season. He’ll make some splash plays here or there this season, but with the other receiving options around him, it’s unlikely that he sees enough consistent volume week after week. He’s worth monitoring on the waiver wire in case something were to happen in this receiving corps to clear targets up a bit, but otherwise, he’s not worth drafting this season.
Byron Pringle (WR – KC): WR95
One of my favorite sleepers at the WR position this year is Pringle. The Chiefs let Sammy Watkins walk in free agency due to his unavailability, which leaves a major opening on this roster for someone else to step up. While some people hope that Mecole Hardman can take that next step, there’s a ton of buzz growing about Pringle and his potential in this offense. Right now, he’s simply a flier pick in the last round of your drafts. However, if he comes out and secures the WR3 role that it seems like he’s trending towards doing, he’s absolutely going to be in the FLEX conversation every week.
Quez Watkins (WR – PHI): WR109
Watkins has made the most of his opportunity this pre-season and he’s emerging as a legitimate candidate to take over the slot duties in this Nick Sirianni offense. We saw in the pre-season just how much juice this wideout has and how easily he can pick up yards after the catch. Sirianni is going to be looking for ways to take pressure off of Jalen Hurts as a passer and simply getting the ball in Watkins’ hands is going to be an easy way to accomplish that. He’s not exactly on the redraft radar just yet in shallow leagues, but if you’re in a deeper format and want to take a shot on the second-year wideout, it’s worth seeing what he can become in this offense.
D’Wayne Eskridge (WR – SEA): WR122
If you’ve followed any of our podcasts for any length of time, you know that I am obviously a fan of Eskridge and what he brings to the table. In this new offense in Seattle that Shane Waldron is bringing over from the Rams, Eskridge fits like a hand in a glove. With DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, the Seahawks have two incredible deep threats, but they didn’t have a receiver last season that could work the horizontal areas of the field and make life easy on Russell Wilson. Eskridge is going to be able to step in immediately and be a threat on Jet Sweeps and underneath routes that will pick up easy yardage. He has the route-running prowess and skillset to build upon and become a lethal weapon in this offense that will run 3WR-sets a lot. There are a lot of people doubting the rookie WR, but don’t be shocked when you see his ADP rise several rounds because of positive news coming out of training camp or a couple of splash plays in the preseason.
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Kyle Yates is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @KyleYNFL.