The late rounds of fantasy football best ball drafts aren’t the time to fall asleep at the wheel. Rounding out stacks is an essential consideration at the end of the fantasy football best ball drafts. Yet, hitting on undervalued fantasy football players is also a critical consideration. The following four players have an average draft position (ADP) after the 180th pick at DraftKings and Underdog, with one minor exclusion who fits the spirit of this piece and has an ADP of 179.8 at Underdog. Here are four fantasy football draft sleepers and late-round targets to consider.
Fantasy Football Sleepers: Late-Round Draft Targets
Drake Maye (NE – QB): 199.21 DraftKings ADP/193.7 Underdog ADP
The Patriots didn’t move out of the third pick in this year’s NFL Draft. Instead, they stood pat and selected Drake Maye, hoping he’d be their franchise quarterback. The Patriots also signed Jacoby Brissett in free agency as a capable bridge quarterback. The concept of a bridge quarterback reducing the need to force a rookie into action is novel, but it rarely comes to pass. The following table features the 17 quarterbacks selected in the top five in the NFL Draft since 2014.
Eleven of the quarterbacks on the table were starters in Week 1, and 13 started at least 10 games, with a dozen starting at least 12. The average debut was in Week 2.8, with a median of Week 1. Furthermore, the average was 12 starts, and the median was 13.
Teams didn’t wait to improve the infrastructure before thrusting their rookie quarterback into the starting lineup. The 17 teams in the sample averaged 5.6 wins. Furthermore, two of the four quarterbacks who started fewer than 10 games were on two of the three teams that tied for the most wins (10 wins) of the sampled teams. And, of course, Anthony Richardson had a season-ending shoulder injury in 2023, which limited him to four starts. Basically, history indicates Maye is a solid bet to start many games this season.
As for the draw for drafting him, Maye is a stellar runner. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Maye had 127 scrambles and 128 rush attempts that weren’t in his final two collegiate campaigns, amassing 1,481 rushing yards, 47 missed tackles forced and 16 rushing touchdowns.
Maye wasn’t a slouch as a passer in his final season, either. Among 112 FBS quarterbacks with at least 250 dropbacks, Maye was seventh in PFF’s passing grade (89.8), sixth in big-time-throw rate (7.7 BTT%), tied for the seventh-lowest turnover-worthy-play rate (1.9 TWP%), tied for 69th in pressure-to-sack rate (19.5 P2S%) and the 12th-deepest average depth of target (11.0 aDOT). Maye also decreased his time to throw from 2.88 seconds in 2022 to 2.79 in 2023 despite learning a new offense and losing weapons. Maye is an ideal QB2 on best ball teams with a stud signal-caller or part of cheaper three-QB constructions.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire (KC – RB): 211.26 DraftKings ADP/200.5 Underdog ADP
Isiah Pacheco is unquestionably Kansas City’s top running back, but Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the leader in the clubhouse to be his primary backup. Deneric Prince, Keaontay Ingram, Emani Bailey, Louis Rees-Zammit and Carson Steele are the other running backs listed on their depth chart at Ourlads.
CEH is a bargain relative to other backup running backs and the only viable cheap access to the Chiefs. Edwards-Helaire never delivered on the hype that accompanied the Chiefs using the 32nd pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on him. Still, CEH was tied for the RB18 in half-PPR points per game (12.2) among running backs with at least 10 games played in 2020. He was also the RB25 in half-PPR points per game (10.7) among running backs with at least 10 games played in 2021.
Edwards-Helaire has scored at least five touchdowns in three of his four professional seasons. He also had an encouraging 2023 season as a passing game option. The following table has his receiving data versus Pacheco’s and McKinnon’s.
CEH had his highest pass-blocking grade and yards per route run (1.26 Y/RR) in his career last season. He was a weapon in the passing attack at LSU and could carve out a role as a change-of-pace and passing-down option for the Chiefs. Pacheco is an exciting pick as a possible, if not probable, bell-cow running back this year. Yet, the Chiefs have grander goals than winning regular season games or the AFC West. They’re vying for a three-peat, and it would be illogical to run Pacheco into the ground before the playoffs. As a result, CEH is a nifty selection to round out the running back position on best ball teams.
Javon Baker (NE – WR): 214.30 DraftKings ADP/193.4 Underdog ADP
The Patriots desperately needed to infuse talent into their wide receiving corps in the offseason, and they signed K.J. Osborn in free agency before picking Ja’Lynn Polk in the second round and Javon Baker in the fourth round of this year’s NFL Draft. Baker isn’t a shoo-in to start early in 2024. Yet, he has a straightforward path to playing time on a rebuilding team.
The rookie had a productive final collegiate season. Among 114 FBS wide receivers who were in this year’s NFL Draft class with at least 40 targets in 2023, Baker was 11th in PFF’s receiving grade (84.3), 10th in receiving yards (1,139), first in yards per reception (21.9), sixth in average depth of target (17.1-yard aDOT) and fourth in yards per route run (3.21 Y/RR). Even as a field-stretching wide receiver, Baker was targeted on 23.7% of his routes. The big-play merchant is a stylistic fit with Maye and for best ball. It’s cheap to stack Maye and Baker, but the rookie wide receiver is also an intriguing one-off pick or game-stacking choice with the Bills (Week 16) and Chargers (Week 17).
Noah Fant (SEA – TE): 193.16 DraftKings ADP/179.8 Underdog ADP
Noah Fant had an ADP after 180 when I outlined this piece, but it snuck under at Underdog before I penned it. Still, he’s close enough to that threshold to fit the spirit of this piece. The Seahawks will look different offensively this year. Pete Carroll was replaced as head coach by defensive whiz Mike Macdonald. Shane Waldron is no longer Seattle’s offensive coordinator, and Macdonald tapped into the college pipeline to bring in Ryan Grubb from Washington to fill the vacancy.
The Huskies had a potent vertical passing attack on their path to the National Championship Game, and the Seahawks have the pass-catching weapons to attack defenses deep through the air. Fant can be part of that attack with an impressive athletic profile.
Noah Fant was drafted with pick 20 of round 1 in the 2019 draft class. He scored a 9.89 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 10 out of 855 TE from 1987 to 2019. https://t.co/yo0N3IRU7v #RAS pic.twitter.com/q0iFBW9YWa
– Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 2, 2022
Fant could be a mainstay on the field this year. Money and actions talk, and the Seahawks re-signed Fant while letting Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson walk. In 82 games in Fant’s career, he’s had 3.1 receptions per game, 34.3 receiving yards per game, 1.47 Y/RR, 5.7 yards after the catch per reception, a 7.3-yard aDOT, 27 missed tackles forced and 14 receiving touchdowns. Interestingly, Fant was more efficient earlier in his career when he played a higher percentage of his passing snap aligned inline. Without Dissly and Parkinson, Fant could see an uptick in inline snaps. Even if Fant merely plays to his previous level and doesn’t take a step forward in a new offense, he’s an acceptable TE2 or TE3.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
