For the 2018 season, we will explore a 2018 fantasy football sleeper, breakout (or bounce back), and bust from every NFL team. First, a sleeper can leap into top-tier production at a bargain basement draft day price. A breakout is available in the middle rounds and will return positive value of at least a couple rounds. Bounce backs are normally helpful players coming off a down year or years whom you can acquire for a song. Busts are the worst case scenario: a player who drastically underperforms his draft position. While they may not be a wasted pick, you definitely don’t want them on your team.
We start our tour around the NFC East with a 2018 fantasy football sleeper, bounce back and bust for America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys. Why? Well, because they’re first alphabetically.
2018 Fantasy Football Sleeper – Michael Gallup, Wide Receiver (ADP 142, WR58)
I’m in love with Michael Gallup’s talent and opportunity as a 2018 fantasy football sleeper. Haters will tell you that he will be running behind Allen Hurns as Dak’s #2 target, at best. He’ll be Dak’s most targeted wide receiver by year’s end. First, why are you scared of him starting behind a player who has missed an average of one-quarter of the season each year over the last three years? Second, if he was such a monster, wouldn’t he have done… anything of note last season in the games he did play? Or are you afraid of a guy in Hurns who has posted one 100-yard game over the last two seasons? Third, do you think Dak throws it to a guy with a 56.5% career catch rate or the man with vice grips?
Clearly, I am not high on Allen Hurns, but I am very high on Gallup. I watched Gallup’s progenitor, Anquan Boldin, for my beloved 49ers for several years. While Anquan has 18 pounds on Gallup, Gallup concedes little to Boldin in the way of feistiness or on-field tenacity and vice grip hands. With 137 targets from last season up for grabs, Gallup will get his opportunity to succeed. Will he grab it and truly be a 2018 fantasy football sleeper? Of course he will, he has amazing hands… weren’t you paying attention?
2018 Fantasy Football Bounce Back – Dak Prescott, Quarterback (ADP 128, QB 17)
Dak was a really good fantasy football quarterback in 2016. In fact, Dak was a really good fantasy football quarterback in 2017. That is, until Ezekiel Elliott finally started to serve his suspension, and then all hell broke loose. Since the Zeke suspension had us scratching our heads at Dak suddenly falling apart, let’s hop in the Wayback Machine and go all the way back to November 2017. Disco was still dead and XXXTentacion was still alive. Dak was flying high, turning in top-eleven performances in eight of his first nine games, and finishing as a top-three quarterback in three of his last four games.
Then, Zeke serves his suspension. Prescott finds himself with teams selling out against the pass, as they no longer have to fear the Herculean task of defending Ezekiel Elliott. Dak finishes inside the top-fifteen just once the rest of the year, and outside the top-twenty quarterbacks six times. But, Zeke is back, baby! And, he is going to catch more footballs, mostly out of necessity. But what about Dez Bryant rocketing into space to never be seen again? Well, over his career, Dak averages more fantasy points per game without Dez than with him. Dak will be great, and he’s free.
2018 Fantasy Football Bust – Allen Hurns, Wide Receiver (ADP 117, WR48)
It isn’t exactly a revelation that I don’t think the guy going 117th overall is going to do much this year, but I think a lot of people are tossing a pick his way with the thought that he could be Dallas’s #1 wideout. You can see Gallup’s assessment above to find out what I think about Hurns’s talent, but this is another TEACHABLE MOMENT in my 2018 sleeper, breakout, and bust series. If you are in an unclear situation between two players, and you honestly believe it to be a coinflip as to which one of them will be the better player, invest in that situation as cheaply as possible. That means going after the less pricey option. In this case, that would be Michael Gallup going two full rounds later.
Not that it matters, it’ll be Cole Beasley for some stupid reason.
For more 2018 fantasy football sleeper, breakout, and busts, look here:
2018 fantasy football sleeper, breakout, and bust: Philadelphia Eagles
2018 fantasy football sleeper, breakout, and bust: Washington Redskins
2018 fantasy football sleeper, breakout, and bust: New York Giants
