“Sleepers” is a word that has seen its definition alter over time across the fantasy football industry. It used to be reserved for players whom few knew about, but in this era, it more commonly refers to players down the ADP board who aren’t getting respect.
Using that updated definition, here are my favorite picks for the upcoming season.
Fantasy Football Sleepers
Tank Dell, WR, Houston Texans
Among active wide receivers with 300+ PPR points through 25 career games, Dell averaged more points per target than Puka Nacua, Tee Higgins, and Amon-Ra St. Brown. The injury is being baked into his ADP. His slight frame is being baked into his ADP. The spotty nature of C.J. Stroud’s development is being baked into his ADP.
But have we lost the plot in terms of what could be? Fantasy sports are a game of risk management, and while there is significant risk involved in drafting Dell, he can truly impact the trajectory of your roster only in a positive way.
That is, if you struggle to compete in 2026, it’s not because you took a flier on Houston’s spark plug late in your draft.
The Texans have plenty of hope in their receiver room, but behind Nico Collins, nothing role-wise is nailed to the floor. This pick may gain steam as the summer wears on, and the math will change at some point if that happens, but for right now, this is a very comfortable click.
C.J. Stroud: When Throwing Past the Sticks
- 2024: 75.6 rating
- 2025: 95.5 rating
Isiah Pacheco, RB, Detroit Lions
I’ve been staring at Pacheco’s ADP (outside the top 40 at the position and the top 140 overall), and I just can’t figure it out. Isn’t this David Montgomery with slightly less versatility all over again?
Years 1–2 Fantasy Profile
- David Montgomery: 0.78 points per touch, 81.8% gain rate, 2.8 yards per carry after contact
- Isiah Pacheco: 0.82 points per touch, 85.6% gain rate, 3.0 yards per carry after contact
Yes, I understand that the genius of Ben Johnson isn’t calling plays for this version of the Lions, and that Jahmyr Gibbs has leveled up from one of the better backs to arguably the best in the sport, but RB40?
Montgomery had a pair of seasons in which he averaged over 13 carries per game and scored at least a dozen touchdowns. In totality across his three seasons in the Motor City, he was the 20th-highest-scoring PPR running back in the game. We could knock off 15–20% of that production and still have Pacheco profile as a viable pick, and that’s even without factoring in the contingent value that is in play should Gibbs miss time.
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To that end, Blake Corum, Woody Marks, and Kyle Monangai are all being drafted ahead of Pacheco despite not having proven to us that they are capable of handling a bell-cow role should that opportunity be thrust upon them.
That, of course, doesn’t mean they can’t, but that’s not a mystery we have to solve with Detroit’s RB2, considering that he averaged 4.7 yards per carry on 375 attempts through his first two seasons. I’m not forecasting an injury for Gibbs, but after logging 300+ touches in consecutive seasons for a team that wants to peak in January rather than November, missed time certainly isn’t to be ruled out.
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Tank Bigsby, RB, Philadelphia Eagles
Should Bigsby get the nod in any given week, I’m confident that we will view him as a locked-in fantasy starter with top-15 upside at the position. He’s averaged 4.5 yards per carry across his career (a 281-carry sample), and he’s been essentially league average at converting carries inside the five-yard line (roughly 39%).
“League average” may not sound all that appealing, but remember that 79.4% of his carries to date came with the Jags—not exactly an offensive hotbed until after he left. I’m willing to bet on those efficiency metrics rising if he’s given volume in this system, something that is only one Saquon Barkley rolled ankle away from happening.
READ MORE: Soppe’s Favorite Fantasy Football Targets
For his career, Bigsby is averaging 14.8 PPR points when clearing a dozen touches in a game. That’s not a bad profile behind Barkley—a great player, but one who is not without downside.
We are talking about a 29-year-old who has averaged 20.3 touches per game over the past four seasons (third-most in the NFL) and has appeared in 37 games since the start of 2024 when you include the playoffs. That’s a dangerous workload, and Bigsby is a cheap way to get exposure to Father Time.
Jalen Nailor, WR, Las Vegas Raiders
Small wins are still wins.
Dell and Pacheco have the potential to be more than that. They have shown us the ability to produce at an impactful level, and paying off their ADP in spades this season would simply require them to return to that form.
That’s not the case with Nailor, and that’s OK. If Dell and Pacheco hit their 90th-percentile outcomes, they are league winners, whereas Nailor is more of a fringe flex option. He’s 27 years old and has yet to really get a chance to shine, but his 15.4 yards per catch during his four seasons in Minnesota (11 touchdowns on 69 receptions) is enough proof of concept at his current cost.
This is as much a bet on ambiguity as it is on Nailor. In this wide receiver room, Tre Tucker and Jack Bech are his primary competition for looks. Both could be capable players, but the fact that we don’t know for sure means that, outside of the first 12 rounds of the draft, we could be getting the target leader for an offense we expect to trend in a positive direction.
Process-wise, this is a no-risk, moderate-reward bet. We are assuming that Fernando Mendoza will be leading this offense when it matters most for our purposes, and without a single December game featuring weather concerns, I think it’s possible that the Raiders’ highest-scoring month of the season will be their last.
Dontayvion Wicks, WR, Philadelphia Eagles
The Birds traded two picks for Wicks this offseason and have him signed through the end of next season. The 26-year-old breaks free of a crowded receiver room in Green Bay (where he has yet to post a 40-catch season) for one in Philadelphia that sent its WR1 to New England this offseason.
You don’t have to twist my arm in the final few rounds to get me to invest in a receiver who was brought into a situation looking to fill a vacancy.
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Of course, 20th-overall pick Makai Lemon is the favorite to be the WR2 in Philly this season. That’s not a secret, but with Lemon being drafted 100+ picks before Wicks, I think the price difference places too much confidence in the rookie walking right into an impactful role.
For his career, Wicks has scored on 10.2% of his receptions, a continuation of what we saw from him during his college days (13.3%). The departure of A.J. Brown leaves touchdown equity to be claimed, and I’m not alone in expecting Dallas Goedert’s touchdown count (11 last season—more than he scored in the previous three seasons combined) to regress.
Chig Okonkwo, TE, Washington Commanders
I’m as guilty as anyone of digging deep into things and, at times, getting too creative with my analysis.
This isn’t that.
We are talking about a Grade-A athlete breaking free of the shackles of a rudderless offense for a unit that has tremendous upside. Effectively, this is the cheapest way to bet on a Washington team that ranked in the top five in red-zone drives, points per game (PPG), and EPA in 2024 when Jayden Daniels was at full strength.
Okonkwo’s Titans were in the bottom five in all of those metrics during his time there, cutting the legs out from under any true breakout. He ranks 32nd out of 34 qualified tight ends in percentage of targets coming inside the 15-yard line since he entered the league—a metric in which Washington’s former TE1 ranked second over that same stretch.
There are nine tight ends I trust in fantasy this season. Once you extend past that tier, Okonkwo has as good a chance as any to slide into the back end of the TE1 rankings, and his cost makes him very appealing for those waiting to address the position.
