Anyone can put together a solid fantasy football team with their first five picks. Ok, maybe not anyone but all seasoned fantasy players should be able to form a solid foundation early in the draft. While that’s all fine and dandy, it’s the sleepers and players with breakout potential snagged later in the draft that allow for improving your team via trades down the road. With the first three weeks of the preseason now in the books, we’ve got a better idea of who some of those diamonds in the rough just might be.
Let’s dig in and take a look at some of these late round flyers or waiver wire pick-ups for those that have already drafted.
Tajae Sharpe – Those of you that follow college football are firmly aware of Tajae’s talents from reeling in bombs from Blake Frohnapfel from his days at Massachusetts. The rookie has made an instant splash with the Titans so much that Marcus Mariota has started to target him as his No. 1 wide receiver.
In three preseason games, Sharpe has reeled in nine receptions for 163 yards - that equates to 18.1 yards per catch! With Tennessee saying it’s going to run the crap out of the ball and doing just that in the preseason, it will force opposing defenses to put more men in the box. That means Tajae will get more one-on-one coverage which should lead to big gains and even bigger scores. He’s got speed that burns and great hands.
That type of production from a player in the late rounds leads fantasy owners to championships.
Dak Prescott – Another rookie making an immediate impact is former Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott. Even before Tony Romo went down with yet another injury, Dak had Cowboys nation turned upside down with his ability to hurt opposing defenses with both his arm and his legs. In this dual threat’s first taste of the NFL, he completed 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Now granted, this is the preseason and most of his stats were accrued against second and third stringers, but the kids got a 137.8 QB rating and has thrown for 454 yards and a 5:0 TD/INT ratio!
Dez Bryant is going to love reeling in passes from this kid. He has the heart of a champion and is simply just the kind of guy you want to root for. Going undrafted in 10 team leagues, he just might be the wild card your fantasy team needs if you failed to pick up any of the big guns in the middle rounds of the draft.
Spencer Ware – Jamaal Charles is yet to take a single snap in live game action and won’t the remainder of the preseason. It’s also believed he’s behind schedule in recovering from last season’s ACL tear. While that bodes terribly for those that selected him in the second or third round, it’s great for those that picked up Ware much later in the draft. Hopefully Charles owners picked him up as a handcuff. If he’s still sitting on the wire, pounce now!
While Kansas City has done a bit more throwing of the pigskin this preseason, it’s still a running team by nature. Ware is going to get a number of reps early on, and will likely succeed behind one of the best offensive lines in the business. At worst, he’s going to get goal line carries. At worst, he’s going to be in a committee but I highly doubt Charles gets even close to averaging 20+ carries a game. There will still be plenty carries to go around for this budding superstar!
Some other notables to keep an eye on include:
Christine Michael
Terrelle Pryor
Chris Conley
Sammie Coates
Jared Cook
Michael Thomas
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