{"id":297274,"date":"2025-08-18T05:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T05:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/297274\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T05:57:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T05:57:22","slug":"6-late-round-sleepers-to-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/297274\/","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":297275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[90,5929,258,702,1999,51949,7,253,1519,601,125,569,1056,259,249,6,15,609,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-297274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-brenton-strange","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-emeka-egbuka","12":"tag-fantasy-football","13":"tag-fantasy-football-analysis","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-houston-texans","16":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","17":"tag-j-k-dobbins","18":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","19":"tag-jayden-higgins","20":"tag-kyle-williams","21":"tag-minnesota-vikings","22":"tag-new-england-patriots","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-nfl-draft","25":"tag-no-minute","26":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115048235034943787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}