Scott Engel 
Football Sleepers for The 2020 Season
Here is a batch of interesting Fantasy Football Sleepers for the 2020 season, ones that you may have not considered yet. Some may not be widely targeted or mentioned. They could also be good DFS values earlier in the season before they potentially force their prices to rise.
Sleeper Running Backs
Carlos Hyde, Seattle Seahawks: The Seahawks were down to signing Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin off the street at RB late last season because of injuries. Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny cannot seem to stay healthy. Carson is returning from a serious hip injury and we do not know when we may see Penny (knee) back. Hyde is on his fifth team in four years, but he posted career highs in rushing yards (1,070) and attempts (245) and has not been overworked in his career despite turning 30 during the season. Seattle may have to turn to Hyde as a starter at some point and he could be utilized heavily with not much else competition for carries on the depth chart when Carson and Penny are out. Hyde is off the early Fantasy radar as the 73rd RB being taken so far and is well worth a late flier. He could be a very useful DFS play at times in 2020.
Joshua Kelley, Los Angeles Chargers: The hype is on overdrive on Austin Ekeler after Melvin Gordon moved on as expected. But even though he makes sense as a late-rounder because of his outstanding receiving skills, don’t expect a major rushing workload increase for Ekeler. Kelley was drafted to take over a good chunk of the old Gordon role, as he is a determined inside runner who should be the main short yardage back for the Chargers. He has some serious flex potential. Look for the rookie to vault past Justin Jackson on the depth chart and at least share a lot of work with Ekeler. In the four games Gordon missed at the beginning of the season last year, Ekeler never rushed for 70 yards. Kelley is being heavily overlooked as the 65th RB off the board.
Duke Johnson, Houston Texans: The list of failed and mediocre RBs in Houston includes the likes of Lamar Miller, D’Onta Foreman, Alfred Blue and Andre Ellington. The team has never effectively replaced Arian Foster and they also weakened the WR corps by trading DeAndre Hopkins during the offseason.
Houston acquired David Johnson in the deal, but he has the potential to be another swing and miss by the front office. Injuries have plagued David Johnson in two of the past three seasons, and when he played a full schedule in 2018 he did not rush for 1,000 yards and his receiving yards were almost cut in half from his 2016 totals. Johnson has not been able to recapture the form of his marvelous ’16 season and was pushed out of Arizona in favor of Kenyan Drake.
The Texans now field three WRs with consistent injury concerns in Brandin Cooks, Will Fuller and Randall Cobb. Duke Johnson could be pressed into heavy service at any time in 2020 to compensate for various injuries on offense, and he may be pushed to the top of the RB depth chart at any time. Duke Johnson might have to play a mini-Ekeler role this season, and let’s not forget he averaged 62 catches per season in his first three years with Cleveland.
Sleeper Wide Receivers
Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers: The return of Ben Roethlisberger should revitalize the Steelers passing game, yet JuJu Smith-Schuster is likely coming to the end of his tenure in Pittsburgh. He is a free agent after the season and the Steelers have comfortably carried on after the departures of many top wideouts in the past (Hines Ward, Plaxico Burress, Mike Wallace, Santonio Holmes). They also traded Antonio Brown. Don’t expect them to make an aggressive play to retain Smith-Schuster.
Diontae Johnson should be groomed to be a top target for 2021 and expect him to be integrated even more into the passing game flow this season. He caught five TD passes working in poor QB conditions last year and his targets started picking up towards the end of the season (31 in the final four games). Johnson averaged 9.8 Fantasy Points Per Game in 2019 and that total will certainly rise this year. He also played through a sports hernia injury in ’19. Diontae Johnson drew some comparisons to Brown coming out of college and while he may never reach such superstar status, he is poised to break out in 2020. He is a good value play with an ADP of 43 at WR.
Emmanuel Sanders, New Orleans Saints: Sanders is 33 years old and has not reached 1,000 receiving yards in the past three seasons. He was traded during the season last year, though, which is never easy for a wideout, and played on one team with QB issues and another that led the NFC in run/pass ratio. Now he moves to a team that was in the Top 12 in pass/run ratio and fills their need for a quality No. 2 WR.
The Saints have long been searching for a solid option opposite Michael Thomas, who will obviously draw a lot of defensive attention, freeing Sanders up more. New Orleans may be going for one final Super Bowl push with Drew Brees and Sanders can be an integral part of attempting to reach that goal. Sanders will be a good candidate to reach 75 catches and 1,000 yards and re-emerge as a Fantasy WR3. He is a very interesting target as the 40th Fantasy WR off the board.
Allen Lazard, Green Bay Packers: Much to some of their fans’ chagrin, the Packers did nothing of significance in the offseason to address their WR needs. Adding Devin Funchess was not a splashy move. He will likely battle Lazard for the No. 2 WR job in Green Bay, with Marques Valdes-Scantling already showing he is just a boom or bust type.
Funchess has caught more than 50 passes and reached just 600 yards one time in his career so far. He does not separate from defenders consistently and challenge them much after the catch. He should not be hard for Lazard to beat out. Because of the Packers’ lack of other moves at WR, an opportunity is there for Lazard to claim a starting job, and he already has familiarity with Aaron Rodgers, who began to look for him on key passing downs later in the year. He flashed his potential with a 103-yard, one TD outing to start December and finished the regular season with 69 yards and a TD in the finale. Lazard has an ADP of 72 at WR and is a very intriguing late round pick. He may be a friendly priced DFS value early in the regular season, too.
Sleeper Quarterback
Drew Lock, Denver Broncos: Lock was underrated coming out of college last season. Lock has some Brett Favre in him. He is a potential gunslinger type who can be a viable starter in two-QB and superflex formats, and he has some high-end Fantasy QB2 upside in standard leagues that require only one starter,
Lock throws a good deep ball, and the Broncos have committed to building around him very quickly as he enters his first full projected season as an NFL starter. Lock threw five TD passes in his final two games last year. Denver has added exciting rookie Jerry Jeudy to further deepen the pass-catching corps, and TE Noah Fant may be on the verge of a breakout season. Denver also added Melvin Gordon for additional quality offensive support and balance. Everything is in place for Lock to succeed, now it’s just a matter of when he starts to blossom.
Sleeper Tight End
Blake Jarwin, Dallas Cowboys: I was going to go with Hayden Hurst here, but that seems to be everyone’s favorite, so let’s go with another lesser heralded and deeper selection. Much is being made of how explosive the Dallas passing game may be this season, and that excited speculation mainly focuses on the wide receivers.
Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup are big play types, though, and CeeDee Lamb is a rookie who needs to get comfortable. So there is a need for a big target to make some important catches on key downs and near the goal line, and Jarwin fits the bill at 6-5, 260. Jason Witten is finally and officially gone, clearing the way for a player who has likely learned a lot from the longtime Cowboy in his pro career so far. Jarwin is big, athletic and can gain yardage after the catch. He should be a frequent target for Dak Prescott over the middle as the wideouts command a lot of defensive attention to help him get open at times. Draft him as a TE2 with some upside in the final rounds. Jawrin could also be a nice DFS surprise early in the schedule.
We hope you’ve enjoyed The King’s Nifty Fantasy Football Sleepers for The 2020 Season! Make sure to find more Fantasy Football content on WinDailySports.com, hop into our Expert Discord Chat to speak one on one with our DFS pros, and follow us on Twitter @WinDailySports!
