Digging Deeper: 10 of my Deepest Rookie Sleepers Nobody is Talking About.

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One of the more interesting consequences of everyone hating this year’s draft class is that many of the types of players who would typically be considered popular 4th/waivers dart throws are getting pushed up as consensus 3rd round picks. So what do you do if you’re stuck with 4th/5th round rookie picks that you can’t trade for a ham sandwich and you’re just looking for a warm body on your taxi squad? You dig deeper, of course. Here are 10 guys your leaguemates probably never even heard of. Most of them probably won’t even get drafted, but there are at least some interesting qualities that make them worth keeping an eye on to see if they could make some noise in OTAs or camp. Desmond Reid, RB - Pitt - As the only guy on this list to get a combine invite, he’s a bit less “off the radar” than most but still worth talking about. The downsides are glaringly obvious. He’s tiny, spends a lot of time in the blue tent, and his size adjusted athletic testing was pretty mid. Pitt attempted to use him as a bellcow RB and while he had some impressive moments between the tackles, his 174 lb body just took too much punishment there. But in open space, I genuinely struggle to find a more dynamic player in this entire class. His receiving efficiency is unbelievable and he’s an absolute weapon in the return game too. At his size, Tarik Cohen is probably at the upper end of his range of outcomes but I really think he has the juice to be exactly that and the special teams chops to play his way onto a roster and potentially earn an offensive role from there. Tyren Montgomery, WR - John Carroll - This is more of a “don’t forget about this guy” than a name that’s totally new. He was everyone’s favorite sleeper at the Senior Bowl, but not getting a combine invite and running slow at his pro day seems to have killed most of the hype as well as his shot of actually being drafted. And while the transition from D3 to NFL game speed will take him longer to adjust than most, we already know he has the body control/contested catch skillset to produce flashy highlights in a 1 on 1 practice setting and when you combine that with his cool backstory that the national media will want to tell, he could end up being the story of OTAs and a guy that everyone is dumping their FAAB on a month from now. Dean Connors, RB - Houston - The thesis here is very simple. He catches a ton of passes. In his 3 seasons as a starter at Houston/Rice, he caught a total of 139 passes. But what makes him more interesting than a lot of small school scat backs with similar production profiles is that there’s some real juice here. With mid 4.4s speed at 208 lbs and agility/jump testing that nets out to a 9.7 RAS score, this is a real athlete and his breakaway speed definitely shows up on his tape. He also has just enough size and ability to create yards via missed tackles that he could be functional on early downs too and doesn’t need to be hemmed in as only a 3rd down back. The pass pro could be better, but it’s not for a lack of willingness and he has the frame to improve in that regard. Daniel Sobkowicz, WR - Illinois St - A “jack of all trades” type of receiver who doesn’t have a “superpower” but also doesn’t really have many glaring weaknesses to his game aside from the level of competition he played against in the FCS. Shifty route runner, effective zone beater, strong hands, and a pretty versatile route tree. Played some of his best ball in the FCS playoffs and was a prolific TD scorer wi…