{"id":77261,"date":"2025-08-12T13:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77261\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T13:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:54:07","slug":"6-late-round-sleepers-to-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77261\/","title":{"rendered":"6 late-round sleepers to target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DRAFT HIM IN: Round 12 or later\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This essentially will be the rookie season for the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, who missed all of last year after suffering a knee injury in the preseason opener. McCarthy is in a great situation, getting to play with the best wide receiver in the NFL (\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/justin-jefferson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justin Jefferson<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff) and one of the best play-callers in the league (Vikings head coach Kevin O&#8217;Connell).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Connell has proven time and time again that he is a quarterback whisperer. With the masterful schemer guiding him in 2024, \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/sam-darnold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sam Darnold<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff had 35 passing touchdowns, topping his previous single-season high by 16, and finished as the QB9 in fantasy points, breaking into the top 25 for the first time in his career. Under O&#8217;Connell in 2023, \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/kirk-cousins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kirk Cousins<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff was the QB8 in average points per game through Week 8, putting him well on his way to a career year at age 35 until a torn Achilles abruptly ended his season. And in 2021, \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/matthew-stafford\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matthew Stafford<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff recorded the second-best fantasy season of his career (behind only his 2011 campaign with the Lions) with O&#8217;Connell as the Rams&#8217; offensive coordinator.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instead of taking \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/bo-nix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bo Nix<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff in the sixth round of fantasy football drafts, wait and grab McCarthy six rounds later. I do not expect their production to be all that different, either passing or rushing, in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DRAFT HIM IN: Round 12 or later\u00a0 This essentially will be the rookie season for the 10th overall&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4687,54688,7820,31132,27556,54686,4058,6343,31134,1811,54687,32058,8851,1815,6257,99,1824],"class_list":["post-77261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-analysis","tag-brenton-strange","tag-denver-broncos","tag-emeka-egbuka","tag-fantasy-football","tag-fantasy-football-analysis","tag-houston-texans","tag-j-j-mccarthy","tag-j-k-dobbins","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jayden-higgins","tag-kyle-williams","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-no-minute","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}