Welcome to the 2024 NFL season if you’re just returning to football and preparing for fantasy drafts. If you’ve been here for a while, welcome in! Unlike offense, finding “sleepers” and “busts” for IDP can be subjective. Rankings are all over the place and good ADP data doesn’t exist because scoring is inconsistent.
So for this article, three of them aren’t even ranked in FantasyPros IDP rankings, while the last one falls outside the top 70 LBs. However, only you know your fantasy football league enough to know if these players are even worth drafting. If you only play two total IDPs, these players are unlikely to be worth drafting, but in deeper leagues, it might be worth it.
Fantasy Football Sleepers
As highlighted above, these four players are deep names that should outperform where they’re currently being drafted and ranked. Since positions can vary from league to league, we’ll hit on a couple of LBs (who tend to score more consistently than DL or DB counterparts) as well as a DL and a DB.
Zack Baun, LB, Philadelphia Eagles
We’ll start by discussing a fifth-year LB who’s totaled 88 combined tackles in his career, while never eclipsing 30 in a single season. So why exactly would he be a sleeper? Well unlike on offense, defense mainly matters if the players get snaps. It’s way simpler than “Can they earn targets or run efficiently?”
Zack Baun has earned praise throughout the offseason in Philadelphia, and despite using a third-round pick on Nakobe Dean a couple of years back, Baun is likely to start beside Devin White. New coordinator Vic Fangio showed last year he’ll play multiple LBs at 90-100% snaps. Baun could easily match or best his tackle total in 2024.
Javon Bullard, S, Green Bay Packers
DBs are the ultimate challenge for IDP, as they’re inconsistent year to year, and there really are four types of DBs to choose from. The most valuable position among DBs is the box safety role, followed by slot CBs, deep safety, and outside CBs. Javon Bullard seems likely to play a hybrid box and deep safety role in 2024.
Bullard is super versatile, though, and appears to have a good lead for the starting job. With Xavier McKinney next to him, Bullard should play in the box a fair amount. He’s also capable of being a slot defender. With a full snap share, it wouldn’t be a surprise to finish comparably to McKinney, who’s being ranked as the eighth-best safety in 2024.
Odafe Oweh, Edge, Baltimore Ravens
Odafe Oweh has taken quite a while to develop, but 2024 may finally be the breakout. So far, Oweh’s best season has been hitting five sacks (twice). He seems prepared to take on a bigger role in 2024 with Jadaveon Clowney’s departure. If 2023 was a sign of Oweh’s growth, watch out for him with increased snaps.
Sacks vary from year to year, but pass-rush win rate, which is tracked by PFF, is a better predictor. In 2023 he made a leap, going from around 12% in each of his first two seasons to over 18% in 2023. For reference, his 18.2% was the same as Chargers star pass rusher Khalil Mack, who posted 17 sacks in 2023. I don’t expect that, but double-digit sacks are within reach.
Daiyan Henley, LB, Los Angeles Chargers
The final sleeper is the only one ranked on FantasyPros’ consensus IDP rankings, coming in at 146 overall, or LB71. He’s actually the third-ranked Chargers LB despite being a starter all offseason. Rookie Junior Colson has yet to wear pads in camp and was hurt for much of the offseason. Rookie LBs can take time to develop and missing camp hurts.
While Colson has missed time, Daiyan Henley has been earning praise. He wore the green dot as the play-caller for the first preseason game. His coordinator and star defender both praised his background as a DB, but he plays downhill with a good thump. He was the top LB per PFF grades in the 2023 NFL Draft. He can cover and tackle and doesn’t need to come off the field.