Welcome back to Part VI of the series, where I will highlight guys that should be added to your supplemental draft queues. Today’s theme: DEEP League Stashes!
I will try to lay out some expectations and roughly where I would target the player in the supplemental draft (assuming it’s the standard 15 rounds). As a devy analyst, I will try to give an honest perspective on their NFL aspirations. It would be best if you, the reader, kept in mind when these articles are written that the players who are partially driven by opportunity could quickly lose that variable with a transfer portal addition.
I am changing the roster ship percentage from 25% to 5% or under in Fantrax leagues to qualify for this article. I have discovered that only 260 players are over 10% rostered in Fantrax; under 5% is the new number to beat. I cannot stress this enough: these are final pick considerations, specifically for those leagues that have over 12 members. I know there are sickos out there in 16+ man leagues, and filling a queue is challenging.
WR Jordan Faison, Notre Dame
- 5’10” / 180 lbs.
- Entering 2nd year
- NFL Projection: Day 3 Hopeful
- Rostered: 0%
- Supplemental Draft Range: Round 13-15
Notre Dame’s passing offense was gutted through the portal by losing WR1 Rico Flores, WR2 Chris Tyree, WR3 Tobias Merriweather, and TE2 Holden Staes. Flores led the group in targets with only 49 targets, so this vacancy of targets is a little less interesting than it appears on the surface. The top returners will be TE Mitchell Evans (season-ending injury) and tFR WR Jaden Greathouse (25 targets).
Jordan Faison was a 0-star recruit and a walk-on at Notre Dame. Faison came to Notre Dame to play for the reigning lacrosse champs as a top 35 recruit in the sport and a three-time All-American. His scholarship belongs to the lacrosse team but will count against Notre Dame’s 85 scholarships. In high school, Faison was a quarterback and safety at Pine Crest and produced 1,800 all-purpose yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior.
Here’s where Faison comes in. He started getting snaps in the final seven weeks of the season. He had two starts but averaged 12 routes run per game with a 3.70 YPRR (A total of 87 routes). In the bowl game, he was listed as a starter and saw 20 routes. He finished the season with a 19-322-4 receiving line, along with two rushing attempts for 22 yards. This was on 24 total targets, and he averaged 9.39 fantasy points a game.
I love versatile usage early on, and the team must view him as one of the better athletes and playmakers on the team. Notre Dame has added Kris Mitchell from FIU and disappointing boundary wide receiver Beaux Collins from Clemson in the portal. My expectation is for Faison to enter as the WR4 in this system, but the early success deserves a late-round stash spot on the bench. Collins will play outside but has failed to find consistent success. G5 players (Mitchell) have a spotty record in transitioning up, and Faison is already out-producing fellow tFr Greathouse. This is a safe floor play with upside. Add him to the queue.
RB Lee Beebe, UAB
- 5’10” / 210 lbs.
- Entering 3rd year
- NFL Projection: None
- Rostered: 0%
- Supplemental Draft Range: Rounds 13-15
Lee Beebe is currently the RB3 on the UAB Depth Chart. RB1 Jermaine Brown Jr. just wrapped up year five of his collegiate career, with a max of one more possible year. The RB2, Isaiah Jacobs (Brother to NFL RB Josh Jacobs, BTW), has been a journeyman from Maryland to JUCO to UAB, where he missed the second half of the season due to a torn ACL. He will be entering his fifth year.
Not every player bounces back from an ACL, and Beebe was dynamic in the second half of the year. Since Week 8, Lee Beebe rushed 29 times for 271 attempts and three TDs. This is an average of 9.3 YPC with ten rushing attempts going over 10+ yards, and he had 14 MTF on those 29 attempts. Beebe had 52 total rushing attempts on the year with 5.19 yards after contact to go along with 17 targets.
UAB does add LSU RB Armoni Goodwin from the portal, who did not touch the field last year. Goodwin had a season-ending injury in his 2022 campaign, and reports during the 2023 off-season stated that he looked like he was “a player moving at half speed,” per Sports Illustrated. I’m assuming Brown is out of eligibility, Jacobs returning is probable, but Beebe could be the UAB RB1 going into the 2024 season with the opportunity to earn a larger workload if Jacobs doesn’t recover and Goodwin doesn’t complete his bounce back. He has great size, and I love the small sample size of production, ambiguous backfield, and the only CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH. Add him to the queue.
WR Landon Sides, North Texas
- 5’11” / 179 lbs.
- Entering 2nd year
- NFL Projection: None
- Rostered: 0%
- Supplemental Draft Range: Round 15
North Texas lost WR1 Ja’Mori Maclin to the portal, and WR2-6 are only separated by 100 yards, with Sides finishing as WR6 in targets. Every WR in front of Sides has four or more years of experience, and one of them is hitting the portal. Sides is a true freshman for North Texas who played in almost every game of the season, earning his largest role in the final game of the season with 32 routes run.
Sides primarily operated in the shallow areas of the field before they started using him deeper in the final weeks of the season. He crushed UAB in the final game of the season with 100 receiving yards and two TDs. He has the highest yard per route run on the team, with 2.16. Sides’ steady and increased usage has me feeling good about his future with North Texas, but this is the transfer portal era. Post-hype WR DT Sheffield is coming in from Washington State. Monitor North Texas reports this off-season for Sides’ name; I have no doubt he takes a step forward this year, but I’m worried if the step will be big enough for it to matter for fantasy purposes. Add him to the queue.
