• Brandin Cooks remains in a great offense: It took some time for Cooks to settle into the Dallas Cowboys offense, but he was back to being a consistent fantasy starter late in the season.
• Ja’Lynn Polk is a rookie worth remembering: Polk has a chance to be the New England Patriots top wide receiver, and is only driven down draft boards with the number of other great rookie wide receivers.
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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
These sleepers are five players who have an ADP outside of 120 by consensus boards who I have ranked notably higher than their ADP. Some of these players will have an ADP inside of the top 120 at other sources where a higher percentage of users are experts, but a variety of players were picked so at least some players could be considered a sleeper at any site.
Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Sunday, September 1
Brandin Cooks, Dallas Cowboys (ADP: 12.07, From consensus ADP)
Cooks was a top-20 fantasy wide receiver six times over a seven-season stretch from 2015 to 2021. He was often helped by his quarterback play from Drew Brees to Tom Brady to Jared Goff to Deshaun Watson. Even in 2021 with Davis Mills, he finished in the top 20, but in 2022, injuries took their toll and he wasn’t scoring touchdowns on the second-lowing scoring offense.
Last season, he joined the Cowboys, but it took time before he really clicked in the offense. He was inactive in Week 2 and helped to 50 receiving yards or less in every game over the first half of the season. He then broke out with a nine-catch, 173-yard performance. From that point on, he was consistently playing at least 70% of Dallas' offensive snaps. He was WR14 from Week 10 until the end of the season while his teammate CeeDee Lamb was WR1 by a wide margin.
Cooks has remained a wide receiver who is pretty good at everything outside of shorter routes, and the Cowboys will likely need Cooks more this season than last. Dallas allowed Tony Pollard and Michael Gallup to leave in free agency and didn’t bring in any notable pass catchers.
He is pretty unlikely to finish as a top-10 fantasy receiver given Lamb’s target share and some of his fantasy production came from touchdown luck, but there is a strong case for him to be a fantasy starter if he builds off what he did at the very end of last season. He caught at least five passes in each of his last three games including the playoffs after accomplishing that just once in the first 16 weeks.
Dontayvion Wicks, Green Bay Packers (ADP: 13.03)
Wicks was a Packers' fifth-round pick last season who quickly worked his way up to being the top backup outside wide receiver on the team. Christian Watson missed the first three weeks of the season, allowing Wicks to play at least 50% of Green Bay's offensive snaps each of the first four weeks. By midseason, he worked his way back up to playing at least 20 snaps per game.
He finished the season with 2.04 yards per route run which was 22nd-best among wide receivers with at least 50 targets. He also finished with the best-receiving grade among the Packers' top four wide receivers.
The Packers still have a crowded wide receiver room. Watson and Romeo Doubs started their first preseason game with Jayden Reed taking the first snap in the slot, just like last season. Wicks entered the game on the third play, caught a 65-yard touchdown pass, and that was it for his time with the starters.
Wicks, on a relatively small sample size, looks like he could be a top-30 wide receiver, just without the direct path to playing time. He either needs to earn enough time over the other three Packers receivers. We saw he would replace either Watson or Doubs if they get hurt. We don’t know how they would handle an injury to Reed, but presumably, either he or Watson would play in the slot. There is a decent enough chance that Wicks can either earn enough playing time or reach it due to injury, in which case he could be a star in this up-and-coming offense.
Ja'Lynn Polk, New England Patriots (ADP: 16.01)
Polk was the 10th wide receiver selected during the NFL draft, 11th on our big board heading into the draft, but 13th by consensus ADP, behind receivers like Roman Wilson and Jermaine Burton. Unlike Wilson and Burton along with multiple others ahead, Polk has a chance to be the top wide receiver on his team.
The Patriots had seven different receivers with at least 100 snaps last season and no one above 600. The only departure is DeVante Parker, who led the group in snaps last season while adding K.J. Osborn in free agency and Javon Baker in the fourth round.
During the preseason, Polk has served as both the primary backup at Z receiver behind K.J. Osborn and the primary backup in the slot to DeMario Douglas, which has included some snaps with the starters. Kendrick Bourne may complicate this, but he will miss at least the first four weeks of the season while on an injury list. There is still time for Polk to work his way up the depth chart and overtake Osborn as a starting receiver. By the final preseason game throughout the first half, Osborn and Polk were in a near-even rotation.
If he becomes the starter, he will be the Patriots' top outside wide receiver. Several rookie wide receivers are just learning the slot or just learning out wide, and the fact that Polk is learning both is a great sign of his immediate potential. He probably isn’t someone to start in Week 1, but by the mid-point of the season, it’s reasonable to expect him to be leading the team in targets.
Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals (ADP: 17.12)
Wilson was a third-round pick by the Cardinals last season and was immediately put in as their Z receiver. He had a slow start in Week 1, leading to a reduction of playing time, but he rebounded in Week 2 leading to his playing time getting restored and was WR40 from Weeks 2-8. He accomplished this despite having Joshua Dobbs as his quarterback.
Wilson suffered a shoulder injury causing him to miss Week 9, and then he re-aggravated the injury in Week 11. He also suffered a neck injury. He returned for the last four weeks of the regular season and was held without a catch in his first two games back. Not only was he returning from injury, but this was also his first opportunity to play with Kyler Murray. Things with Murray clicked over the last two weeks of the season, and he was WR16 over Weeks 17-18.
The Cardinals replaced Hollywood Brown with Marvin Harrison Jr., traded away slot receiver Rondale Moore and added veteran Zay Jones, who can back up Harrison, Wilson and Greg Dortch in the slot. This means Wilson’s role in the Cardinals offense should remain similar to last season.
The exciting part about Wilson this season, outside of his health, is that he was more of a deeper threat. His 14.1-yard average depth of target was among the top-10 wide receivers last season who ran 400 routes. With Brown off the roster, he could see even more deep targets. Murray has the third-highest accuracy percentage among quarterbacks on deep passes over the last four seasons among those with 50 or more deep attempts. He’s also the most consistent on accurate-plus throws or throws where the pass is perfectly accurate or away from coverage.
Every indication is Marvin Harrison Jr. is the safest wide receiver picked in a long time, but there is a chance he doesn’t work out immediately or he suffers an injury. That chance alone makes Wilson an interesting option this late in the draft, but even if that doesn’t happen, Wilson should outperform his ADP.
Rashod Bateman, Baltimore Ravens (ADP: 18.01)
Twenty-nine of the 32 receivers projected to be the X on their team have an ADP in the top 175 using consensus ADP. One exception is the New England Patriots where Tyquan Thornton and Jalen Reagor are competing for the job, and another is the Los Angeles Rams, where Demarcus Robinson is a very clear third receiver on the team. This leaves the Baltimore Ravens.
In Baltimore, Zay Flowers will hold down the Z receiver role while Nelson Agholor is the slot. Rashod Bateman rotated with Odell Beckham Jr. last season as the X receiver. Todd Monken was among the top-five play callers in keeping wide receivers in their typical role, with either Bateman or Beckham often on the field, and rarely both. If their fantasy production had been combined last season, they would have been WR35.
Bateman was given a contract extension with high expectations on him this season. The Ravens have consistently rested their starters throughout the preseason, which has included Bateman, Flowers and Agholor. The one player who seemed like he could compete for snaps with Bateman was fourth-round rookie Devontez Walker, but he’s only played in the second half of preseason games behind five other wide receivers.
Bateman should have a full-time role in one of the best offenses in the league at a position that typically scores a lot of fantasy points. While his numbers haven’t impressed in his first three NFL seasons, he’s still only 24 years old, making a breakout a possibility.
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