The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Cleveland Browns players heading into their matchup with the Buffalo Bills to help you craft a winning lineup.
Shedeur Sanders, QB
Guess what?
A rookie quarterback is going through it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All of it.
One week after lighting up the Titans for 364 yards and three scores, Shedeur Sanders had no answer for an often iffy Bears defense, averaging just 5.1 yards per pass with three interceptions.
He showed nice touch on a few deep balls, but in large, he was a mess. Sanders was 13-of-29 for 59 yards with all three of his picks when Chicago didn’t blitz: in essence, he’s struggling to progress through his reads.
That’s an issue, but far from surprising. Cam Ward has gone through his issues this season in the same way. It happens. Any hot takes on whether Sanders can or can’t make it at this level are just that, hot takes.
We don’t have nearly enough data to have any idea of what he is at this level. This Browns team lacks talent, and, for right now, Sanders’ processing speed is a tick slow. Cleveland wasn’t expecting him to look like a finished product, and we shouldn’t be either.
Take in all of the data for the rest of the season and piece together how you want to approach this situation moving forward. No matter where you fall on this situation, you’re not going to be right or wrong by the end of this season.
Dylan Sampson, RB
With Jerome Ford on IR, you could have made the case for Dylan Sampson as an end-of-bench type with the thought being that he was a Quinshon Judkins injury away from handling enough work to at least be moderately interesting.
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The rookie sat out last week with what we thought was a calf injury, but saw “hand” added to the description on Wednesday. Regardless of exactly what is ailing him, at 2.6 yards per carry, it’s hard to imagine him being a valuable asset even if he did happen to fall into volume with the season nearing its conclusion.
His savvy out of the backfield (28 catches on 34 targets for 259 yards and two scores) is an interesting skill set to carry into 2026 and could make him a late-round stash, but for the remainder of this season, there’s no need to hold.
Quinshon Judkins, RB
Quinshon Judkins was a volume play early in the season, and this offense has failed to improve around him, leaving us to continue to chase quantity over quality.
The rookie hasn’t had a 20-yard rush since mid-October and has gained over 100% of his yards after first contact in three of his past four games. Injuries around him (Jerome Ford and Dylan Sampson) keep him viable for as long as the game stays competitive, and with 3+ targets in all three games during this losing streak, there is some hope that he can give you RB2 production even if the Bills were to separate.
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You’re not playing Judkins this week because you are in love with his profile; you’re doing it because of the matchup. Four times this season, an RB has topped 30 PPR points in this matchup, and even if that’s not in the cards, five of the past seven lead backs have cleared their regular-season average.
A rookie tore apart this defense a week ago, and while this Cleveland offense doesn’t offer the type of versatility that TreVeyon Henderson benefited from in Week 14, he should be viewed as a reasonable floor option during your fantasy semis.
Jerry Jeudy, WR
Sometimes, fantasy analysis can be simple.
How would you feel if you looked at your matchup and saw that your opponent was starting Jerry Jeudy?
I had this instance last week, and I was ecstatic. In fact, I not only checked on the matchup when I woke up on Sunday, but also at 1:01 p.m. EST to confirm that Cleveland’s receiver was locked into my opposition’s lineup.
Shouldn’t that tell you something?
Jeudy has been held under 40 receiving yards in four of his past five games and has a 44.9% catch rate for the season. The Browns have taken him out of the slot almost completely (34.6% of his routes last season, down to 13.1% this year) and are thus only big swings to him (43.8% of his targets have come 15+ yards down the field over his past four games).
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He’s Alec Pierce. That role was profitable early this season for Pierce with Daniel Jones playing over his head, but it’s come back to earth in a major way since. Jeudy has more potential now than he did a month ago because Sanders is more aggressive downfield than Dillon Gabriel, but the floor is devastatingly low and very much in play against a Bills defense that ranks top 10 against the deep pass in terms of YPA, TD%, and INT%.
You beat Buffalo on the ground, or you get your head beaten in.
Those are the two outcomes I see for Cleveland as a whole this weekend, and neither is an appealing option for Jeudy.
David Njoku, TE
David Njoku scored his fourth touchdown of the season in Week 14 against the Titans, but in doing so, he aggravated a knee injury that’s been lingering for a while, and it resulted in him not playing last weekend.
The 29-year-old will be a UFA this summer, and given both the lack of anything for the Browns to play for and the development of Harold Fannin, it’s not hard to imagine a world in which that TD was Njoku’s final one as a member of this franchise.
That’ll all play out during the offseason. His short-term status, in theory, is TBD, but for fantasy, we know better than to roster him at this point. Fannin is a lineup staple moving forward and has a very good chance to be considered a top 10 player at the position when you begin the ranking process for 2026.
Harold Fannin Jr., TE
The Browns have young pieces all over their offense, and if we are marrying position with talent, you could argue (and I would) that Harold Fannin projects as the most interesting among them for years to come.
The rookie was featured in the opening script (five of Shedeur Sanders’ first seven targets), and he’s now finished consecutive games with 40 routes run and an end zone target.
What learning curve?
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In those two contests, he’s racked up 189 air yards and seems to be the player that Sanders most trusts as he looks to stretch the field. Against the Bears on Sunday, he had three more catches than any of his teammates had targets: that level of domination probably doesn’t stick, but if the Bills get frisky with their linebackers in an effort to correct their leaky run defenses, it’s easy to see Fannin hitting for multiple splash plays.
He’s my TE6 for this week, and if you told me I was too low on him, I wouldn’t fight you. He’s been phenomenal, and as this offense grows together, it’s easy to see a world in which this unit is on the right side of league average.
