Running Back Sleepers Experts Love to Draft (2024 Fantasy Football)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football sleepers below. And check out all of the fantasy football draft sleepers experts love in our consensus sleeper rankings.

2024 Fantasy Football Running Back Sleepers

Here are fantasy football draft sleepers the experts love to target.

Who are Fantasy Football Sleepers?
Sleepers are players that have a strong chance to exceed expectations to become surprise difference-makers for fantasy managers. Our RB sleepers are based on a poll of experts who selected their favorite RBs with high upside. Each RB has a consensus draft rank below #45.

Fantasy Football Running Back Sleepers

Rank	Running Backs	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	Rico Dowdle	DAL	7	18	44	45
2	Jaleel McLaughlin	DEN	14	12	45	51
3	J.K. Dobbins	LAC	5	12	49	43
4	Jaylen Wright	MIA	6	7	53	47
5	MarShawn Lloyd	GB	10	7	48	46
6	Ray Davis	BUF	12	8	54	59
7	Tyrone Tracy Jr.	NYG	11	7	62	58
8	Braelon Allen	NYJ	12	3	58	61
9	Kimani Vidal	LAC	5	5	57	53
10	Tyler Allgeier	ATL	12	3	47	50
11	Jordan Mason	SF	9	2	75	82
12	Roschon Johnson	CHI	7	5	56	62
13	Khalil Herbert	CHI	7	2	50	56
14	Audric Estime	DEN	14	2	60	63
15	Eric Gray	NYG	11	2	83	80
16	Kendre Miller	NO	12	3	51	54
17	Deneric Prince	KC	6	1	102	85
18	Bucky Irving	TB	11	1	55	60
19	Dylan Laube	LV	10	1	74	74
20	Dameon Pierce	HOU	14	2	61	55

Fantasy Football Draft Outlook: Sleepers

Jaleel McLaughlin (DEN)

Fully expect me to be above consensus regarding Jaleel McLaughlin this season. Last year, he was electric with every touch he earned. Among all running backs with at least 50 rushing attempts or 20 targets, McLaughlin ranked 14th in explosive run rate, fifth in missed tackles forced per attempt, fourth in yards after contact per attempt, and fourth in yards per route run. Denver made it a point to get him involved in the passing game when he was on the field, as he also ranked first in targets per route run. McLaughlin could easily earn more opportunities this season, as Samaje Perine wasn’t amazing last season, and Javonte Williams looked like a shadow of his former self. At this juncture, I’m not worried about Audric Estime and Blake Watson stealing any of McLaughlin’s work this season. If McLaughlin earns Sean Payton’s trust, he could be an RB3/4 that vaults into steady RB2 production.