No matter how hard we wish, not every under the radar player is going to live up to expectations. In many cases, those expectations were likely to be wildly off base to begin with. While the three biggest fantasy football sleeper busts of 2021 all seemed like smart plays at the time, there were warning signs that got ignored.
Of course, there isn’t really any harm missing on a sleeper. You most likely didn’t invest much in terms of draft capital. However, letting them go can be hard. Hell, some of the biggest fantasy football sleeper busts of 2021 may still be taking up space on your roster as you can’t give up on them just yet.
This logic is why I can’t come around to deleting the AAF app on my phone. I know the spring football league is dead. But I’m not ready to move on. Anyway, enough about that. Let’s explore the three biggest fantasy football sleeper busts of 2021 and what went wrong.
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3 biggest fantasy football sleeper busts of 2021
Honorable Mentions: Mike Davis, Ty’son Williams, Bryan Edwards and Marquez Callaway
Mike Davis was taken pretty high in a lot of drafts, so it is difficult to label him a true sleeper. Ty’son Williams really didn’t get enough time to be hyped as a sleeper to qualify. If you follow The Touchback, you already would have known that Bryan Edwards was a bust. Marquez Callaway was always going to be overextended as a WR1 no matter how good he looked in the preseason.
1) Trey Sermon
Trey Sermon looked like the perfect fantasy football sleeper. He was being hyped up in the preseason and it seemed like he was going to take over the lead back role for the San Francisco 49ers at some point this year. And then week 1 happened.
Sermon was a healthy scratch and he remains buried deep inside Head Coach Kyle Shanahan’s doghouse for reasons no one is fully sure of. An injury to Raheem Mostert during the season opener did little for the running back who continues to find himself at the bottom of the San Francisco depth chart.
What went wrong?
It is hard to pinpoint the moment Sermon lost the faith of the 49ers coaching staff, especially after all the glowing reports about him during the summer. But something happened that caused Shanahan and company to sour on him quickly.
2) Any Chiefs WR not named Tyreek Hill
Mecole Hardman, Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson all received varying degrees of sleeper buzz heading into 2021. Hell, there were even some Cornell Powell truthers out there. Maybe combined this group would equal one fantasy relevant wide receiver, but on their own, they are all pretty bad.
What went wrong?
None of these guys is particularly good and the Kansas City Chiefs offense with Mahomes has never reliably supported anyone other than Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and a running back for a few weeks every season. It is easy to be tempted by the upside a second pass catcher should have, hell I grabbed Josh Gordon as soon as he signed, but nothing has ever materialized.
3) Laviska Shenault
By the time fantasy football drafts were rolling around, we were all tired of hearing about Laviska Shenault. Literally, everyone was targeting him. On the surface, it did make a lot of sense. In reality, he sits outside the top 50 wide receivers and is behind teammate Jamal Agnew in points scored as of publication.
What went wrong?
Urban Meyer. The Jacksonville Jaguars offense has been beyond terrible in 2021 and most of it has been due to a coaching staff that doesn’t seem to know what it is doing. Shenault is a good player in an awful situation.
