Pittsburgh Steelers: Donte Moncrief a fantasy football sleeper to target

Donte Moncrief is impressing early with the Pittsburgh Steelers and is looking at a significant role. He is undoubtedly a fantasy football sleeper to keep an eye on.

With Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown gone, there are a lot of available targets in the Pittsburgh Steelers offense. JuJu Smith-Schuster is undoubtedly the number one target for Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, but there will be opportunities for other pass catchers to make their mark.

According to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic (subscription required), Donte Moncrief looked like the “slam-dunk No.2 on the roster behind Smith-Schuster because of an impressive spring.”

The Steelers signed Moncrief to a two-year, $9 million contract this offseason after he spent one season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Moncrief has always flashed some upside, but he has underperformed throughout his five-year career with the Jags and Indianapolis Colts.

This opportunity with the Steelers may be Moncrief’s last chance to prove himself in the NFL. So far, he seems to be making the most out of his opportunities.

"“Moncrief easily looks like a 50- or 60-catch guy with five or six touchdowns after the spring, and that’s something nobody saw back in March,” Kaboly wrote."

Moncrief’s best season came in 2015, his second year in the NFL. With the Colts that season, Moncrief caught 64 passes for 733 yards and six touchdowns. He has never been the most consistent performer, but Moncrief has not exactly been catching passes from Peyton Manning throughout his career.

According to Kaboly, “Andrew Luck, Blake Bortles, Jacoby Brissett, Matt Hasselbeck, Cody Kessler, Scott Tolzein and Charlie Whitehurst all have thrown passes to Moncrief.” Luck is far and away the best passer of the bunch, but Luck has only thrown “141 of the 347 targets Moncrief has seen in his career.”

Consistently catching passes from Roethlisberger is going to feel like a dream scenario for Moncrief and I would not be surprised to see him perform at a high level in this situation.

Moncrief is nearly going undrafted in early fantasy football drafts. His 14th-round ADP means that you can scoop him up as basically the last guy on your bench. He is still a gifted athlete, should see a lot of targets and has found himself in an advantageous Pittsburgh Steelers offense.

When it comes down to it, Donte Moncrief is the kind of late-round flyer who we love to find. He essentially comes free and has legitimate upside as Roethlisberger’s No.2 receiver in 2019.