Selected as a 4th-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Dylan Sampson finds himself in an interesting spot, though not one that I really expect to make an impact in the fantasy football space.
Should You Draft Dylan Sampson in Fantasy Football?
We’ll start with Sampson’s ADP, which is at 169.3 in PFN’s Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator. He checks in as the RB53 in the PFN consensus rankings, which are a combination of me and my colleague Kyle Soppe. He’s projected for 6.51 fantasy points per game, but we don’t care about projections when we get this far down the rankings.
We’re talking about a guy who was ranked outside the top 50 running backs. Where he’s going off the board, he’ll be the RB4 or RB5 on your fantasy team. That’s not someone you care about weekly production from. What you care about is the upside case. With Sampson, I think it’s better than people are giving him credit for.
Yes, he’s on the Browns. Of course we want to draft players on good offenses. But when you get this far down in draft boards, that doesn’t matter. You’re taking players who have a plausible path to a ceiling.
Sampson ran for nearly 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns at Tennessee in 2024. This is an explosive player, and he’s proven capable of being a lead back if he needs to be. We know Quinshon Judkins is their lead runner, but he’s coming off a leg injury. We have no idea if he’ll remain healthy the entire year. Players get hurt all the time in the NFL, regardless of whether they’re coming off injury.
Sampson has a unique situation where I don’t think his upside is being respected enough. What differentiates him from a Blake Corum, a Tyler Allgeier, or a Woody Marks? Yes, those guys are better. They’re better fantasy bets. But Sampson is a similar bet in the sense that he may have standalone RB3 value, and he has the injury-contingent upside if the starter goes down. He’s going so much later than all of those guys. I don’t understand why.
Sampson was pretty impressive last season. He led all running backs in yards per route run at 2.02, and he led the league in yards created per touch at 4.87. He only earned an 8.7% target share, but if Judkins were to miss games, he would certainly be able to crest that 10% to 11% mark on a weekly basis whenever he is the starter.
Plus, we expect the Browns to be pretty bad this season. That means they’re going to be trailing. When they’re trailing, who’s the two-minute back? That’s Sampson. Who’s the guy in there on obvious passing downs? That’s Sampson.
I think this is one of the more underrated backs in the league. Yes, there’s no sky-high ceiling here. When you get that far down in draft boards, you’re not going to have that sky-high ceiling. You want players where you can see a plausible path to the upside. I see it with Sampson. He’s somebody I’m targeting as my last running back in every league this year.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Dylan Sampson’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
The pass-catch profile is interesting, but you’re inheriting a lot of risk if you consider starting Sampson in any situation.
Quinshon Judkins was soaking up all of the usage in this backfield prior to getting hurt last season and, call me crazy, but this Cleveland offense isn’t one I want to overextend myself to get exposure to.
The rookie pass catchers, Jerry Jeudy, and Harold Fannin will all get chances to produce ahead of Sampson to start the season, and that’s too much risk to take on. If you want to stash him and hope, that’s fine. If you are considering playing him, you’re overthinking your flex spot.
START PREPARING: PFN’s FREE Fantasy Draft Simulator
Where Sampson Ranks Among 2026 Running Backs
Sampson sits outside our top 50 at running back. Here are the last five on the PFN Consensus Board:
- Keaton Mitchell | LAC
- Mike Washington Jr. | LV
- Tank Bigsby | PHI
- Jonah Coleman | DEN
- Tyjae Spears | TEN
Check the full position group on PFN’s 2026 PPR Running Back Board.
