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. Bouncebacks 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 off our tour of the AFC West with a team pinning their hopes on a new quarterback: Case Keenum. Can we find any fantasy football value in the Denver Broncos offense?
2018 Fantasy Football Sleeper – Courtland Sutton (ADP 191, WR69)
Sutton garnered only one target in preseason week one, but he is the next man up in Denver if anything happens to Emmanuel Sanders or Demaryius Thomas. While DT has been an iron man, Sanders missed four games last season. At the same time, he’s already earned the #3 role in the passing game, which could develop into something of value. I doubt he does much in the first quarter of the season, but he needs to be on your waiver wire speed dial if either DT or Manny wakes up with something as simple as a crick in their necks. His combine measurables compare similarly to Alshon Jeffery, Jordy Nelson, and Larry Fitzgerald. If he gets his route running in check, he will have a bright future as a 2018 fantasy football sleeper.
2018 Fantasy Football Breakout – Royce Freeman (ADP 57, RB25)
Freeman ran very well in his first preseason game, and showed likelihood of every bit of his college tape transferring. He’s going as an RB25, and the 2018 Rookie Running Back Curse will likely strike him down soon. In the meantime, RB25 feels like his floor, given his skills displayed last week against his first NFL competition. I don’t buy the Devontae Booker hype at all. If they continue to talk nonsense about him sharing touches with Booker, lean into the ADP dip. He’s going to be great.
2018 Fantasy Football Bust – Devontae Booker (ADP 118, RB43)
Booker, at this point, is on the Christine Michael career path of getting annual chances to be the head back without doing much with the opportunity. He looks great in small bursts, but out of his nine games with double-digit carries, he has just two games over 4.0 yards per carry. YPC is a contentious stat, but when you put together nearly half a season below that threshold, it’s not great. Especially when you factor in that one of those games he managed just 1.94 YPC on eighteen carries. Booker is 5’11”, so if he had literally just fallen forward, he would have gotten a higher YPC (1.97). He’s awful and does not belong on fantasy football rosters since he offers no upside.
For more AFC West fantasy football sleeper, breakout, and bust predictions check out these;
2018 Fantasy Football Sleeper, Breakout, and Bust: The Los Angeles Chargers
2018 Fantasy Football Sleeper, Breakout, and Bust: The Oakland Raiders
2018 Fantasy Football Sleeper, Breakout, and Bust: The Kansas City Chiefs
