8 Fantasy Football Sleepers for Week 1
Dwayne Allen, TE, Indianapolis Colts
Dwayne Allen is owned in less than 40% of ESPN public leagues, and that's pretty nuts.
Allen's fantasy value has long been hamstrung by his sharing the Indianapolis Colts' tight end duties with Coby Fleener, but with Fleener out of town, Allen should get all the snaps he can handle. In games over the past four seasons where only one of Fleener or Allen played, the active one of the pair saw an average of 6.37 targets and totaled 54.48 receiving yards per game.
The whole Colts' offense had a down year last season, but this 2016 group isn't much different than the unit that ranked sixth in Adjusted Passing NEP per drop back in 2014. That year, Allen averaged 2.39 fantasy points per target, which ranked second among the 32 tight ends to see at least 40 targets.
His upside is especially high this week as Indy takes on the Detroit Lions in a fantasy-friendly affair with an over/under of 51. The Colts have the highest implied total of the week (27.25), and with Allen having shown flashes of fantasy potential in his career, he has a change to be a fantasy difference maker -- in Week 1 and all year long.
