With so many fantasy football drafts underway and more to come, you’ll need every new article you can get. Today, I’m covering the AFC North division as I delve deep into players you can get late in any draft. As I begin this article, I will leave out players who may have been injured, like Roman Wilson, who would have been a great steal.
In this article, you will see that I stick to my normal format and will highlight four players so you’re not overwhelmed by who to pick. That means each team will have one player selected, which will be a late-round target you can count on. Stay tuned to the site because I’ll do a podcast about this article, giving you more insight into my thoughts on these players. These players will bring you pain no matter their starting status. Have a great day, everyone, and may the sleepers be with you.
At first, you wonder how Amari Cooper can be considered a sleeper when he’s the team’s number-one wide receiver. Then you notice that many people think the Browns stink and, with Nick Chubb’s status in the air, are selling on this offense. That’s when you sometimes need to be bold and select Cooper ahead of where he’s going in drafts right now.
Currently, Cooper is being drafted around the middle to end of the fourth round, which is around the 55th pick. That is usually when the players who drafted wide receivers in the first or second rounds have been either reaching for a quarterback or their first running back. That has been pushing Cooper back on many drafts I have been in, which could result in him dropping to you at pick 60 or beyond, which is a tremendous value.
Cooper has had the same season twice, except for losing touchdowns. That is another disturbing factor that scares many because it depends on Deshaun Watson’s health. However, if Watson stays healthy, Cooper could be a threat to get over 10 touchdowns, putting him right next to players like Justin Jefferson. That is why I said you could even reach for Cooper around the 48th pick because you won’t find that production from many other players.
2024 Prediction: 142 Targets, 92 Recs, 1,278 Rec Yards, 11 TDs
What a wild off-season Tee Higgins has with trade rumors, holdouts and no long-term deal headlining his news while entering his fifth NFL season. Looking at his history of missing games, you can see why Higgins will fall in drafts. I like the possibility of a trade, and I know we would all love for him to stay healthy because Higgins has proved to be a threat when he does play.
Higgins is currently being drafted around pick 55 or so, which should put him tight in the middle of the fourth round in a 12-team league. That’s great for a wide receiver ranked around 30 in an offense everyone is sleeping on. In 12 games last year, Higgins had four double-digit games, three of which were twenty points. He was close to 10 points in two other games, with the others being forgettable, including a goose egg.
If Higgins stays with the Bengals while staying healthy, you can see his boom rate, which is about 25 percent, which equates to six to seven games above double-digits. That is amazing odds for any player, especially if Chase happens to miss a game. If you plan on drafting Joe Burrow and miss on Ja’Marr Chase, consider Higgins, but keep your eyes on this news. If he ended up with a team like the Steelers, you could see him put up phenomenal numbers.
2024 Prediction: 118 Targets, 86 Recs, 1,134 Rec Yards, and 8 TDs
Entering his second year in the NFL, Zay Flowers showed what he could do best last year by turning his targets into fantasy points for us. Benefiting from the absence of tight end Mark Andrews, he was quickly called upon to become Lamar Jackson’s new toy, which led to 108 targets, 77 receptions, 858 yards, and six total touchdowns. Upon getting some work out of the backfield last year as well, Flowers won’t have to worry about that this year with the arrival of Derrick Henry.
That will allow Flowers to run routes and open up this offense even more now that Andrews is healthy. That could lead to the same number of receptions, but a few more of those could go for a long touchdown since defenses will be focused on stopping Jackson’s big play ability along with Henry and Andrews. That means Flowers should make their fellow dirty birds proud with more broken plays and easier coverage as he pecks his way free down the field.
Flowers quickly falls down the boards when discussing the draft position, making him a great sleeper this year. Being drafted around the mid-fifties, Flowers should be a great pick to consider if you’re in a snake draft with back-to-back picks to end the fourth and begin the fifth round. It may seem like there will be a few picks early for Flowers, but you’ll probably not see him come back around. If you have the fifth- and sixth-round reversal in a draft, Flowers would almost be a must for you if you had him targeted this year.
2024 Prediction: 103 Targets, 78 Rec, 1,045 Rec Yards, and 8 TDs
Pat Freiermuth seems to have been forgotten fantasy football drafts this year. He is currently being drafted around the 125th pick and is ranked anywhere from 15th to 20th regarding tight ends. When I talked about Russell Wilson in my AFC Breakouts article, I mentioned Freiermuth for a reason. He can be a late-round steal in tight-end premium leagues if you abandon this position for either a handcuff or overall depth.
What people forget about Freiermuth is that in his rookie year, he had a future hall-of-fame quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger, throwing him the ball. He played in 16 games in his rookie year. He turned 79 targets into 60 receptions while recording 497 yards and seven touchdowns. After that, the Steelers fans were introduced to Kenny Pickett, who, as we all know, was sent to the Eagles.
That experiment led to 98 targets, 63 Recs, 732 rec yards, and only two touchdowns in his second year while playing another 16 games. Last year, that experiment finally exploded as Freiermuth recorded career lows in receptions and yards due to injury and abysmal play at quarterback. That’s where Russell Wilson steps in, and with Freiermuth being an option in the passing game, you’ll see his numbers back up. That’s what having another future Hall of Fame quarterback, especially Freiermuth, will do for a team. If he can repeat what he did in his rookie year this year, you will have a player to add to an already deep team; He will have you saying Muth all year long.
2024 Prediction: 87 Targets, 65 Recs, 712 Rec Yards, 6 TDs
