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Taking a look at some potential sleepers to play in Week 16 for fantasy football.
Just two weeks remain in the fantasy football season as the playoffs have gotten underway in the majority of leagues.
Whether you’re looking for a boost to help your playoff lineup or simply looking for some dart throws in daily fantasy, we’ve got you covered on potential sleepers at every position.
Be sure to check out The Huddle’s weekly PPR projections and rankings as well as the start/bench list to help formulate the best lineup possible.
Does this backfield offer any value behind Rhamondre Stevenson?
Put bluntly, the New England Patriots were a disaster offensively in 2023. With arguably the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, the team struggled to sustain drives, finished 30th in total yards, and tied for last in points. The result was a complete overhaul of the coaching staff and quarterback room, with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien replaced by Alex Van Pelt (most recently of the Cleveland Browns), and Mac Jones (Jacksonville Jaguars) swapped out for Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye.
A return to competence would go a long way in breathing life back into the rushing attack after the Pats finished 26th on the ground (95.7 yards per game). Rhamondre Stevenson is back to once again lead the backfield, but Ezekiel Elliott returned to the Dallas Cowboys after one season in Foxborough. His spot on the depth chart now belongs to RB Antonio Gibson, who was signed to a three-year contract after spending his first four seasons with the Washington Commanders.
With the Pats set to open starting Brissett, a known game manager, as QB1, and then eventually move Maye, the third overall pick, into the role, the ground game figures to be featured. So, what does that mean for fantasy owners?
Here’s how you should address the situation in fantasy football drafts.
There had been plenty of rumblings of late as to whether the New England Patriots would add another back, and all doubts were put to rest with the signing of former Dallas Cowboys star rusher Ezekiel Elliott.
While Zeke isn’t quite the world-beater he was a few seasons ago, the veteran still has a nose for the end zone. But will he eat into Rhamondre Stevenson‘s workload to a degree that significantly dampens the third-year back’s fantasy football worth?
In a word, maybe.
Helpful, huh?
Stevenson’s versatility will keep him on the field all three downs as the coaching staff sees fit, but Elliott will give him a breather when needed. The fear here is that Stevenson will be pulled inside of the 5-yard line for Zeke, which could be damaging enough to make him a low-end RB2 rather than the fringe No. 1 back he was prior to the Elliott signing. It’s not like Stevenson was a big-time touchdown threat in the first place after scoring just five times on the ground in 2022.
As for Zeke himself, he’s a handcuff and roster depth but isn’t much better than a lottery ticket for a flex touchdown most weeks. He hasn’t rushed for more than 92 yards in any contest since Week 5 of the 2021 season, being overly reliant on finding the end zone since. Elliott logged a single game last year with more than 10 PPR points and no touchdowns scored. He did it five times the prior year, for context.
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The best-case scenario for Stevenson is that Elliott is merely an insurance policy and will be seldom utilized from week to week. It seems unlikely that is how this will play out, but expecting some kind of 50/50 split is far more unrealistic. Even more than 65/35 might be a stretch. Stevenson is the 1a, at a minimum, with Zeke being the change-up and spell. Don’t mistake Elliott’s lofty name value with a direct correlation to his new role; he wasn’t brought in to outright steal Stevenson’s job.
Drafting Stevenson as a No. 1 now just become a little tougher pill to swallow, and he’s best digested as an RB2. Handcuffing Elliott is wise, though the former Dallas workhorse is an RB4 on his own as a potential weekly TD flier. Reserves Ty Montgomery, Kevin Harris and Pierre Strong now can be ignored in all formats.
If you play fantasy football, you should be keeping an eye on these Patriots players in 2023
With training camp approaching, it’s that time of the year to start finalizing plans for the fantasy football season. That means taking a look at some potential breakout candidates for the 2023 fantasy season.
The Patriots had a top finisher in Rhamondre Stevenson last season. So that will obviously be a name to continue keeping an eye on. This list will focus on the players in 2023 you need to pay attention to on your big board leading up to your draft.
One piece of advice is to not pick all of the players from this list, as its never a good idea to stack your team with players competing for targets. With that said, here are three fantasy football breakout candidates for the Patriots in 2023:
Will there be anything of value behind Rhamondre Stevenson?
While New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has more than earned his reputation as one of the best to ever do it, his decision to enter 2022 without a traditional offensive coordinator is open to criticism. Matt Patricia, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, served as the de facto OC despite a history on the defensive side of the ball. The results weren’t pretty with New England finishing 26th in total offense, 20th in passing, and 24th in rushing.
Those struggles led to the hiring of University of Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien to the same position with the Pats, a role he filled in 2011 before departing for head coaching opportunities with Penn State and then the Houston Texans. O’Brien has a lot of experience as a play caller — despite holding the title of OC for just one year, he called plays in New England for four seasons, beginning in 2008 — and he should bring a much-needed sense of cohesion to the offense.
While his experience working with quarterbacks should benefit quarterback Mac Jones’ development, there’ll still be a heavy dose of the running game as well. Gone is running back Damien Harris, who signed with the Buffalo Bills after leading the team in rushing in 2020 and 2021. The Pats also signed RB James Robinson as a free agent but released him less than three months later, ostensibly over durability concerns. So, let’s see who’s left and what we can expect in 2023.
Take a fantasy football spin around the AFC East.
The 2022 fantasy football draft season is starting to heat up now that we’ve gone through the height of free agency and all of the chosen rookies have been assigned to their professional home cities.
The landscape has changed a great deal for many franchises after a whirlwind offseason, and our divisional preview series will help you stay on top of all of the changes to date.
What to expect in fantasy football after the Michel trade
The New England Patriots have traded running back Sony Michel to the Los Angeles Rams for what essentially will be a fourth-round draft pick.
What a difference a day can make, huh?
It was seemingly inevitable the Pats would part ways with their former first-round rusher, whose inability to stay on the field ultimately spurred this decision. While Michel is currently is healthy, his extended absences have given a glimpse into what Damien Harris can do, and the preseason brilliance of rookie Rhamondre Stevenson also helped fan the flames.
The Rams were facing a backfield led by third-year man Darrell Henderson after losing Cam Akers to injury in the offseason. Just yesterday, Henderson’s thumb issue was considered behind him as he participated in 11-on-11 drills after getting a positive medical report of no structural damage. Prior to the injury, the Rams maintained they were going to roll with him as their featured back, sprinkling in untested backups Xavier Jones and Jake Funk along the way.
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Regardless of whether there always was some intention to bring in a veteran to complement Henderson or the thumb injury set this in motion, the tandem will make a nice one-two punch.
Michel is a more conventional between-the-tackles type who has the ability to bounce on zone-blocking and can just barely wheel his way to the corner. Henderson, though, is a more polished pass-catching back, and offers a slight bit more juice.
Interestingly, though, if the injury concern about Henderson is what motivated LA to acquire another back, why pick one who has missed 10 games in his first three years? Nevertheless, any fantasy gamer investing in either back must be at least aware of the elevated injury concern.
Both backs will be shielded by the strong arm of Matthew Stafford to keep defenders from stacking the trenches. This offense uses play-action passing as much or more than any team, meaning the running game has to be no worse than functional. It’s easy to assume it will be a pass-laden script because of the Stafford trade. Don’t be so easily fooled.
Neither running back is a central figure for dynasty leagues, and their long-term value really doesn’t change to any noticeable degree following the trade. Over the course of time, both profile as fringe starting lineup considerations, where ever they may land.
Owners who have already drafted Henderson should look to add Michel from the waiver wire as soon as their league rules permit a move. After all, Henderson has missed time with high-ankle sprains each of the past two years, including one that required surgery in 2019.
For now, he should be treated as the primary guy and is likely to see the majority of the touches, if both backs remain healthy, but we’re talking something like 60/40 or 55/45 here. Neither back is likely to dominate the touches with any consistency, though a “hot-hand approach” is likely some weeks.
Henderson’s ADP will tumble from 3:10 as the 19th RB chosen down to somewhere in the Round 6-7 range. He has more appeal in PPR setups than TD-heavy leagues, and there is added early-season value in him already knowing the offense going in. He should net out as a weekly flex play.
Michel’s stock has only way direction it is going to travel. He wasn’t even being drafted in the top 62 backs, according to FFCalculator.com. He should see his placement rise into roughly Round 8 or so initially, but if the window to learn the offense were longer, Michel would find enough suitors to take him as early as the sixth.
Even though it’s likely Henderson’s job to lose, especially early on, once Michel learns the playbook in an offense that will indeed run the rock, he has a potential to be a touchdown-scoring threat. In a best-case scenario, he’s a weekly flex play with the occasional RB2 showing. Be patient, and linking the two backs together is not a bad idea.
A quick look at this backfield’s loss of Michel means the starting job should be Harris’ to lose. He has faced injury issues of his own so far in his young career, but the third-year bull has Stevenson looking over his shoulder. The leash will be short for Harris.
New England wants to run, run, run, play great defense, and run some more. There will be opportunities for both Harris and Stevenson to offer fantasy utility, while James White remains the third-down back. His role was greatly diminished in 2020 after Tom Brady moved south. The loss of Michel doesn’t move the needle for White’s stock.
The biggest winner here is Stevenson. He has scored four touchdowns through the first two preseason games, looking every bit the part of an NFL-capable back. Harris has been put on notice, but that doesn’t make him ready to be sent to the pasture just yet. The Alabama product will be given a fair shake behind a quality offensive line.
Both backs will lose touchdown opportunities to Cam Newton. A move to Mac Jones at quarterback actually would help both of their fantasy offerings, even if it means more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage with greater frequency.
Harris is a low-upside RB2 for the time being, and he’s really even more of a No. 3 in PPR scoring. Stevenson, the wild card, is depth material for now, and he should be considered a handcuff of sorts for Harris. It’s tough to commit so much draft stock into this backfield, however.
Sooner RB Rhamondre Stevenson moves to the NFL
Need another Derrick Henry type without all the wear and tear of a successful career in Division I?
Rhamondre Stevenson played two seasons at Cerritos College. He only rushed 68 times for 501 yards as a freshman but took over as a sophomore and turned in an eye-popping 222 carries for 2,111 yards and 16 touchdowns, plus 16 catches for 90 yards. It was a smaller community college in California, but it attracted enough attention to land with Oklahoma as a junior in 2019.
The Sooners use a committee backfield and in 2019, Stevenson rated second-best with 64 runs for 515 yards and six touchdowns. Kennedy Brooks led the team with 155 runs for 1,011 yards. As a senior, Stevenson led the offense with 101 rushes for 665 yards and seven touchdowns, plus 18 receptions for 211 yards. Again – the Sooners ended with four different backs with more than 50 rushes last year.
One of Stevenson’s notables is that he was suspended by the team for the Peach Bowl as a junior when he had a positive THC test before the game.
The ex-Sooner is a load at 6-0, 246 pounds and enters the draft as a running back though he could double as a fullback as well. In a draft with only two locks at the top (Travis Etienne and Najee Harris), Stevenson is attractive to a team looking for a bruising power runner.
Height: 6-0
Weight: 246 pounds
40 time: 4.63 seconds
While he’s expected to be a third day prospect, he doesn’t enter the draft with a ton of carries and little tread left on the tires. The entirety of his four-year college career only totals 455 rushes and most of those happened at a community college. That’s far lower than Harris (638) or Etienne (686). And with much less impact.
Rhamondre Stevenson Oklahoma stats (2019-20)
| Year | Games | Runs | Yards | Avg. | TD | Catch | Yards. | TD | Total Yards | Total TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 13 | 64 | 515 | 8.0 | 6 | 10 | 87 | 0 | 602 | 6 |
| 2020 | 6 | 101 | 665 | 6.6 | 7 | 18 | 211 | 0 | 876 | 7 |
This year’s draft is very hard to project for running backs outside the first two, but the consensus is that Stevenson will go on Day 3, the only question is when? The NFL has more usage of big backs now than recent seasons and there is a short-yardage role at the least. Stevenson just had much less experience than most other backs in the draft and that makes him harder to quantify.
He’s been linked potentially to the Steelers, Falcons, Giants, Bengals and Jets but by Day 3, there’s no certainty with any team. To his credit, he displayed good pass protection at Oklahoma and again at the Senior Bowl, which will help him stay on the field more. But he is built like a first and second-down banger.
Stevenson won’t be considered a big fantasy factor for 2021 unless he falls into a fortuitous situation. But he carries higher dynasty value since he may take a year to learn the NFL and earn a place in a backfield rotation. His stats were limited by the Sooners offensive scheme, not from a lack of his talent. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry at Oklahoma and became their primary rusher. He could surprise and become a big value in fantasy.
