11 Fantasy Football Sleepers to Target This Year

Phillip Dorsett, WR, Indianapolis Colts

By Jordan Hoover

Phillip Dorsett had a relatively quiet 2015 season, gathering just 39 targets while playing only 19.2% of the Colts’ offensive snaps in 11 games. He also failed to do very much with his minuscule target share, ranking 26th in Reception Net Expected Points (or NEP, which you can read more about in our glossary) per play among 39 wide receivers with 30 to 50 targets in 2015.

But heading into 2016, there are reasons for optimism.

Anthony Amico pointed out the ample amount of vacant targets available in Indy after Andre Johnson and Coby Fleener left town, meaning that Dorsett is probably going to see a moderate uptick in usage by necessity. This has been confirmed by the Colts’ coaching staff hyping up a move to more three-wide receiver sets this season, meaning T.Y. Hilton, Donte Moncrief, and Dorsett should see a ton of snaps.

Excluding his injury-shortened 2015 season, Andrew Luck has ranked 5th, 11th and 3rd in pass attempts since entering the league. You can question Luck or Dorsett, but the importance of an abundance of targets can't be disputed.

While concern about the offensive line is still valid, Dorsett’s physical profile, the likelihood of a substantial bump in opportunity, and his depressed average draft cost make him a prime candidate to surprise in 2016. And if either Hilton or Moncrief were miss any sustained time to injury, Dorsett could become the steal of the draft.