Fantasy Football Sleepers: Rondale Moore & Michael Gallup (2023)

Anyone who drafted Zay Jones in 2022 will be happy to tell you how valuable a late-round receiver can be for your fantasy rosters. More often than not, these are players who can sit on your bench until bye weeks or you’re more certain of what value they can bring to your starting lineup. One thing is for sure, nailing these late picks can help you take down your league and walk away with a championship.

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2023 Late-Round Wide Receivers

Using FantasyPros Consensus ADP (Average Draft Position)

Rondale Moore (ARI): 185 Overall | WR63

Nobody expects the Cardinals to be good this year. They’re among the favorites to be picking very highly in the 2024 NFL draft. For fantasy purposes though, it’s worth considering that this defense could be exceptionally poor, putting whatever form of offense the Cardinals are able to muster into game scripts that naturally favor the pass. W

ith DeAndre Hopkins no longer in Arizona, the team is crying out for a No. 2 receiver to step up behind Marquise Brown. It should be noted Brown is entering the last year of his contract and could be ready to force the issue in training camp.

Moore will compete with Greg Dortch and Michael Wilson for playing time. It can be easy to position Moore as the obvious slot receiver on the team since so much of his production can happen near the line of scrimmage. Moore played on 39% of 2-WR sets during games in which he was active last year.

New head coach Jonathan Gannon has talked several times about wanting to get Moore involved more vertically. If Moore plays on 2-WR sets consistently, and if Kyler Murray can return for even half of the season, then Moore could be fairly productive for fantasy purposes.

Rondale Moore played on 39% of the Cardinals' 2-WR set snaps last year when active (more than I remembered), and I think this new offense will increase his aDOT.

Hard to really break out in Arizona, but things are aligning for his best year by a wide margin.

— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) June 6, 2023

Michael Gallup (DAL): 162 Overall | WR60

This time last year, fantasy managers were higher on Gallup coming off an ACL injury than they are in 2023. He is regularly slipping to the 12-13th round at times, which is several rounds behind new teammate Brandin Cooks’ ADP who has been anointed the WR2 in this Cowboys’ offense.

With Gallup’s recovery from a nasty knee injury hindering his playing time and ability when on the field, his targets per game dropped to a five-year low of 5.2 and his average depth of target dropped to a career-low 11.1 in 2022. His deep target rate also dropped from a career average of 0.22 per target to 0.12.

Now, a year further removed from the ACL injury, Gallup should rediscover some of his downfield ability and be able to feature more in the Cowboys’ plans. That was the plan in 2022 when they chose to extend him and move on from Amari Cooper afterall.