Not everyone out there plays in your traditional 15-round/12-team fantasy football league. There are some of you out there that play in massive leagues that are certainly going much deeper into ADP than what the casual fantasy managers experiences and this article is for you!
Who are some of the players that you should be targeting outside of the 180 in ADP currently? Who are some of the names that you should keep an eye out for when you’re on the clock super late in these deeper drafts?
Subscribe To The Youtube Channel and Help Support The Show >>>
Let’s break that down here as we study players that are currently going outside the top-180 in FantasyPros’ latest ADP Consensus.
Deep Sleepers
5. Jonnu Smith (TE – New England Patriots)
Yes, we’re back in on Smith for 2022! After an incredibly disappointing first year with the Patriots, Smith has been getting nothing but praise and hype from the team and beat reporters alike this off-season. With the offense moving away from deploying a Fullback regularly, there’s now an opportunity for Smith to get onto the field more for the Patriots and take advantage of his incredible ability after the catch. Last season, Smith was 7th out of all TEs in Yards Per Route Run for players with over 30 targets. Additionally, he was 1st among all TEs with over 15 targets in Yards After the Catch Per Reception with 8.5. He’s an incredible mismatch weapon offensively. It all comes down to whether or not the Patriots actually decide to use their $50 million man and it’s appearing like they’re set to this season. At TE29 off the board currently, he’s worth selecting if you want to completely punt the position.
4. Ameer Abdullah (RB – Las Vegas Raiders)
It just came out recently that the Raiders intend to utilize Abdullah this season in a very similar fashion to how Josh McDaniels deployed James White in New England for years. If that’s the case, we could be looking at Abdullah pushing top-30 status most weeks in Full PPR formats and he’s currently – at the time of writing – 265 overall in ADP Consensus. He has the skillset to fit in nicely into that role and create some after the catch too, so don’t be surprised if Abdullah’s one of the hottest week one waiver wire targets this year.
3. Ty Montgomery (RB – New England Patriots)
Should we be excited to draft a Patriots RB? Probably not. However, there’s a real opportunity here for Montgomery to emerge as the next James White in this Patriots offense. All reports currently have Montgomery as the favorite to step into this role in 2022 and there’s the potential that this leads to some solid and steady fantasy production throughout the season. Remember that in the two games White played in before he got injured last season, he saw 13 total targets. It’s not sexy to draft Montgomery with your final pick, but it actually could just work out for you.
2. KJ Osborn (WR – Minnesota Vikings)
The value point on Osborn right now is shocking to me. This is a player who put together a solid breakout campaign last season and showed that he can get the job done for fantasy football and he’s going way later in drafts than he should be for what his situation looks like now in 2022. Kevin O’Connell is bringing in a significant offensive system upgrade, this team is going to throw the ball more than ever before, and Osborn has insane upside if Adam Thielen misses time again with an injury. As someone who’s going to enter into the low-end FLEX conversation week after week when everyone’s healthy, but also who has top-30 upside if Thielen goes down again, Osborn’s a fantastic pick late in your drafts.
Why is no one talking about this catch from KJ Osborn?! pic.twitter.com/Ob73pjNK8Z
— Kyle Yates (@KyleYNFL) October 6, 2021
1. Eno Benjamin (RB – Arizona Cardinals)
James Conner and Chase Edmonds formed a solid duo last season in Arizona and both were absolutely on the fantasy radar week in and week out. Fast forward to 2022 and Edmonds is now off in Miami, which leaves an opportunity here for one of the other RBs to take a step forward and become a reliable fantasy contributor. All reports out of Arizona are signaling that Benjamin has taken advantage of the opportunity and is in the lead for the vacated Edmonds role for the Cardinals this year. If that’s the case, Benjamin is arguably the greatest value in drafts right now and could enter into the weekly FLEX conversation with the receiving workload. That’s not even speaking of the upside for Benjamin if Conner misses time again with an injury like he has previously. There’s no downside to drafting him this year at his ADP and the upside is through the roof.
