Fantasy Football Week 1 Cheat Sheet: Deep Sleepers Who Could Emerge

The beauty of fantasy football sleepers is their ability to awaken at any time.

All it takes is the right matchup or the ideal opportunity for an otherwise off-the-radar player to become very much on it.

Week 1 features several deep sleepers—players available in more than 50 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues, per Fantasy Pros—who can carry their fortunate owners into the winner's circle. We'll break down our favorite three below.

Frank Gore, RB, Buffalo Bills (15 Percent Owned)

You know how the entire football world seems deathly afraid of 30-year-old running backs? Well, 36-year-old Frank Gore would like a word with all of us.

The ageless wonder may truly be immortal. He keeps securing starting gigs—he's atop Buffalo's first unofficial depth chart—and finding ways to produce. Just last season, he delivered the same yards per carry as Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook and Lamar Miller (4.6).

That's not to suggest that we'd recommend Gore as a season-long investment. The Bills probably aren't competing for anything this season, meaning the bulk of their carries might be better spent on the development of 25-year-old T.J. Yeldon and 22-year-old rookie Devin Singletary.

But neither should be a major threat to Gore early on. Yeldon made five starts over the past two seasons combined. Singletary "won't consistently be a featured back, at least not early in the season," according to The Athletic's Joe Buscaglia.

Gore's proven ability to handle touches means he'll keep getting them until his young counterparts show they are ready for more. That seems highly unlikely to happen in Week 1, leaving Gore positioned to potentially feast against a Jets defense that finished 2018 tied for 24th in rushing touchdowns (16) and 26th in rushing yards per game (126.3).

Anthony Miller, WR, Chicago Bears (45 Percent Owned)

The stat sheet from Anthony Miller's rookie campaign looks deceptively light. Fantasy owners aren't exactly scrambling to add someone with 33 catches on 54 targets across 15 outings.

But the freshman campaign was more impressive than it looks—in more ways than one.

For starters, even the relatively limited workload couldn't stop him from piling up the touchdowns. Seven of those 33 receptions wound up in the end zone. That gave Miller more receiving scores than—wait for it—Julian Edelman, Keenan Allen, Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, George Kittle and Jarvis Landry.

Encouraging as the scoring was, though, the real intrigue rests in his potential to do more. Before his rookie year opened, he dealt with a Jones fracture that kept him out of combine field work and limited his offseason activity. Then, he dislocated his shoulder in Week 3 but couldn't have it surgically repaired until this offseason.

"It'll definitely be different [this year] because I get to use my hands now," Miller told reporters in August. "Last year, I really didn't get to use my hands. I was just relying on just having good footwork so I could get open. But now I can incorporate my hands."

If an injury-riddled Miller was a touchdown machine, what could his healthy version be? We should get a good idea Thursday night when he draws a Packers defense that allowed 30 passing touchdowns and the fourth-most fantasy points to wide receivers last season.

Darren Waller, TE, Oakland Raiders (23 Percent Owned)

Streaming the tight end position this season? Give Darren Waller a shot now, and you might discover a worthy year-long investment.

Admittedly, that's a bold take for a player with 18 career catches in 22 games. But we're far from the only ones singing his praises.

Cue ESPN's Matthew Berry:

"I've been screaming this guy's name since the NFL combine when Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson told me on our podcast to watch out for Waller—that the team really feels like it found something with him. A 6'6", 256-pound converted wide receiver who ran a 4.46 40 at the combine, Waller is the new starting tight end for the Raiders. You know, that same Raiders team that was top seven in both overall tight end targets and red zone tight end targets on their way to making Jared Cook a thing last season."

Waller has physical tools on top of physical tools, and he's experienced as both a wide receiver and a tight end. He has walking mismatch potential with too much size for most defensive backs and too much speed for most linebackers.

Cook was awesome in this offense last season, totaling 68 receptions for 896 yards and six scores. Time only knows if Waller can follow the same trajectory, but he could get a head start Monday against a Denver defense that yielded the 12th-most fantasy points to tight ends in 2018.

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