Ja’Tavion Sanders Injury Opens Door For Carolina Panthers Sleeper in NFL Playoffs

Ja’Tavion Sanders’ season-ending injury thrusts Tommy Tremble into a larger role, creating a potential sleeper tight end to monitor for DFS during the NFL playoffs.

Carolina Panthers tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders (0) looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Bank of America Stadium. | Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

On the first offensive play for the Carolina Panthers in Week 17 against the Seattle Seahawks, starting tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders took a rough hit and broke his ankle, effectively ending his season. His absence leaves a significant hole in the Panthers' offense. 

"We're going to miss him a lot because he's been so versatile, a guy that we can really count on," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said of Sanders. "Yeah, it definitely took some of our game out of there." 

However, his injury opens the door for Tommy Tremble to step up during their playoff run. Tremble also spoke about the injury to Sanders. 

"I mean, that stuff is tough, man," Tremble said. "He's a good player, works hard, and so to see him go down, that was really tough for us as an offense. He's a good kid, good player, and so his going down was hard for all of us, but we've got to learn how to do the next-man-up mentality.

We're praying for him to be healthy as soon as possible and get back to being right."

Fantasy owners now have to consider whether Tremble is a valuable fantasy asset as a fantasy football sleeper in the playoffs. There are two different lenses to view this through. In the playoffs, we have DFS and full playoff leagues. 

If you are playing in a fantasy league that lasts for the entire playoffs, whether rosters reset or re-stack, Tremble is not an option you want to consider. In the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, the Panthers are likely to get crushed by the Los Angeles Rams, who have a good enough defense to completely shut down the 8 - 9 Panthers' offense. Avoid Tremble in these formats. 

However, in DFS, he could be an interesting contrarian option with a cheap price. He cost just $2,800 on DraftKings. The Rams have been middle of the pack when it comes to allowing fantasy points to tight ends, ranking 16th in the league when it comes to slowing down the position. If he has a solid game, he could give your GPP team a big boost. That's the only case where we would consider starting Tremble.