Fantasy Football: 6 Sleeper Tight Ends to Target in 2018

Luke Willson, Detroit Lions

Look, there are sleepers in fantasy football who are on most everyone's radar, and then there are legit sleepers. The Detroit Lions' newly acquired Luke Willson falls firmly into the latter category.

Tight ends aren't often known for their speed, but it is one of Willson's strengths, when he's allowed to show it. He ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash at his Pro Day. Since 2013, the only tight end to run faster than that at the NFL Combine was Evan Engram. Willson has ups, too. His 38" vertical is tied for the fourth best combine performance by a tight end in that same time frame.

The former Seattle Seahawks' backup has been in the league five years, but he's almost always played second fiddle, most recently to Jimmy Graham. Even when he was the de facto starter in 2014, he wasn't asked to do much in the passing game, receiving only 40 targets all year.

Though he hasn't been looked to often, he's been a very efficient player when targeted. Willson is one of 19 players who have at least 20 targets every year from 2013 to 2018. In that span, his 1.31 standard and 1.96 PPR points per target rank third among those 19 players, behind only Rob Gronkowski and Julius Thomas.

Even if Willson saw only 70 targets with Detroit this year -- Eric Ebron's lowest total of the past three seasons -- his career per-target output would result in him scoring 91.4 standard and 136.9 PPR points, which would be good for the TE9 and TE12, respectively.

Of course, it's not that simple, and expecting that level of production may be pushing it for a player who is going undrafted, but it is clear Willson has both the talent and opportunity to surprise. --Ian Goldsmith