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In the realm of fantasy football, there are few more subjective terms than “sleeper”. Everything from your scoring system to the size of your league to the caliber of your competition comes into play when talking about who might be a sleeper. Maybe the more appropriate term is “player with upside”, as in these guys won’t be drafted as a fantasy starter but have the potential to significantly outperform their current anticipated draft status.
In any event, with almost two months before the start of training camp—and then another month until fantasy drauctions and the start of the season—expectations and draft values could change significantly. But for now, at least, here is a cast of characters with upside I’m looking to add in the latter rounds of my draft or auction.
David Garrard, QB, Jaguars
 It wasn’t but a year ago that Garrard was a sexy fantasy pick, a borderline top-10 guy on many boards. After a sluggish start that yielded just one touchdown in the first three games, however, many forgot about him. Pity; Garrard’s final numbers, while a tick off the level he established during his 2007 coming-out party, placed him right in that borderline top-10 range.
One year later, Garrard has fallen back to after-thought status. His current ADP falls in the range of the 10th round, the 17th quarterback off the board according to Mock Draft Central. Of course, plenty has changed in Jacksonville—but most of those changes would seem to indicate an uptick in Garrard’s production from a year ago. For starters, the Jaguars beefed up their wafer-thin receiving corps with veteran Torry Holt and three rookies expected to challenge for immediate playing time. Jacksonville also used its first two picks to upgrade an offensive line that surrendered 42 sacks last season—twice as many as Garrard had ever experienced before. Finally, the Jags closed the curtain on the Fred Taylor era, turning the feature-back gig over to Maurice Jones-Drew—without question the better pass-catching back of the two. And sans a second back, wouldn’t it make sense for Garrard to call his own number an extra time or two at the stripe?
Garrard doesn’t project to be anyone’s fantasy starter. But if you’re waiting on quarterbacks, it’s always a smart move to grab two—and Garrard might just surprise you by outproducing a half-dozen guys who’ll be drafted ahead of him.
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