The second week of the NFL preseason is underway. While most of the league’s starters played sparingly last week, look for them to get more extended snaps as we get closer to the regular season. That also means fantasy owners should be looking closely for potential sleeper candidates, with many leagues beginning their drafts over the next two weeks.
Fantasy football 2017: Wide receiver sleepers to watch in Week 2 of preseason
We look at some potential wide receiver sleepers heading into the second week of preseason.
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It’s still too early in the preseason to make any serious predictions, but we have a general idea of where most players stand on the depth chart at this point. Before the majority of games kicks off over the weekend, let’s examine some sleeper candidates at the wide receiver position worth keeping an eye on.
John Brown’s sickle-cell issues have come up again, forcing him out of practice this week. Jaron has since been confirmed as the No. 2 receiver next to Larry Fitzgerald. It’s not a given that he’ll return any meaningful fantasy value this season, but John Brown simply can’t be counted on to stay healthy for a long stretch. Keep Jaron in mind when you’re digging for waiver wire gems later this season.
Despite being the No. 9 overall pick, Ross is kind of a forgotten man in the fantasy community — shoulder surgery and Washington’s late graduation meant that he missed a lot of the Bengals’ offseason program, putting him well behind Brandon LaFell and Tyler Boyd to start the preseason. That said, Ross is back in practice and still has that game-changing speed. We’ll see if he gets any playing time this weekend after missing last week’s preseason game. Ross figures to be a boom-or-bust fantasy option in his rookie year, but he’s well worth drafting in the later rounds.
Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett are set as the starters when healthy, and Paul Richardson will get some snaps as a deep threat. However, the team still has a big weakness in Jermaine Kearse, and Williams might push him for a role if he keeps playing like he did last week. Williams put on a show against the Los Angeles Chargers, hauling in four catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. The former Washington Husky has been hanging around the roster fringe for a few years now, and he could finally make his breakthrough here, though at the moment he’s just a deep, deep flyer in fantasy.
Carr probably won’t amount to much in the long term, but he put himself on the map with some impressive plays in the Patriots’ preseason opener. We’ll try not to hype him up too much, since Patriots receivers have a habit of having big preseasons and then disappearing (remember Kenbrell Thompkins?). Carr is still a longshot to make the roster, but if he does, he’ll have minor appeal as a slot guy if Julian Edelman misses time.
