Tom Strachan | Fri, Feb 13th 2026, 7:16am EST

5 Fantasy Football Sleepers to Target (2026)

It may only be February, but there are plenty of people thinking ahead to redraft season already. Best ball drafts are already open, and our fantasy football rankings are already available. While things could look drastically different by the time we’re drafting our most meaningful leagues, it’s a fun exercise to hypothesize on what the current rankings reflect. Here are five early sleepers to target.

Fantasy Football Sleepers

Kenneth Gainwell (RB – FA)

In our expert consensus rankings (ECR), Kenneth Gainwell currently sits at 124th overall. Gainwell finished as the RB20 in half-PPR formats, scoring the 13th-most points from Week 10 onwards. Gainwell recorded 114 rush attempts and saw 85 targets, having previously never been over 84 rush attempts or 50 targets. His 2025 season has the potential to be looked back on as an outlier. He wasn’t a popular pick last summer as everyone expected more from Jaylen Warren, and some even had hope for Kaleb Johnson.

It can’t be ignored, though, how good Gainwell’s production was and how intertwined his relationship with Aaron Rodgers seems to be. Rodgers mentioned on multiple occasions how much he pushed for Gainwell to join the Steelers, and with both potentially eyeing a return to Pittsburgh, Gainwell’s ranking should be higher than this. Gainwell had seven performances that put him in the top-24 of running ba,cks and that is a valuable type of player to be available at this point in drafts.

Josh Downs (WR – IND)

Maybe the Josh Downs hive (by which I mean myself) needs to move on, but it’s quite hard to give up on a talented player who, a year ago, was receiving plenty of hype. Downs is ranked 136th currently, but could see significant bumps this offseason. Alec Pierce is trending towards becoming a free agent, and if he doesn’t find his way to free agency, it’s most likely that it’s because the Colts have traded Michael Pittman to make room for Pierce’s contract.

Meanwhile, Downs is still on his rookie contract for the next two years, and it would make little sense to move on from him in any way. Downs found himself in a marginalized role in 2025, playing 62% of snaps, with Pittman and Pierce both above 80%, but he still earned targets when on the field with a targets per route run of 0.24, the highest among the Colts. Even in a “down” season, he earned 84 targets. Should one of Pittman or Pierce move on, we can expect Downs to move back to a near every-down role and become significantly more fantasy relevant once again.

Jalen Coker (WR – CAR)

In a similar range and only three spots lower is Jalen Coker, who is heading into the offseason on the back of a strong finish to his second year in the NFL. Coker suffered a strained quad muscle in training camp, which caused him to miss the first six weeks of the season.

After ramping up in Week 7, Coker went on to have the 15th-highest yards per target rate for the rest of the season and had five games over 45 receiving yards. The Panthers ascended in their second year under Dave Canales. If Bryce Young can take a further step forward, it could be very good news for Coker.

Romeo Doubs (WR – FA)

The writing seems to be on the wall for Romeo Doubs and his time in Green Bay after he quickly wished his teammates goodbye via social media, not long after the last snap of Packers football had been played. Realistically, with Jayden Reed, Christian Watson and a first-round pick invested into Matthew Golden, the Packers need to make tough decisions with their wide receiver room.

Reed is contract-extension eligible this offseason, and the Packers could also look to renegotiate with Watson, after he signed a one-year extension a year ago. If they’re set on prioritizing those two players, it makes sense for Doubs to head elsewhere. Doubs has scored 21 touchdowns in 59 games for Green Bay, as well as going over 600 yards in each of the last three seasons. Currently, Doubs comes in at 161st in our rankings, and with plenty of wide receiver-hungry teams looking to free agency, don’t be surprised if he jumps ship a month from now.

Isaiah Likely (TE – FA)

It was far from an ideal season for Isaiah Likely, who, no pun intended, likely wanted to hit free agency on the back of a stronger performance. He broke a bone in his foot during training camp and struggled to ever get a big role in the offense with the season underway, averaging 21.9 yards per game.

Likely has been a popular sleeper pick since 2023, when he ended the season in scintillating form with Mark Andrews injured. During a seven-game stretch, he ranked ninth in receiving yards per game (53.7), averaging an impressive 1.96 yards per route run and 15.3 yards per reception, which was bested only by George Kittle in that spell.

The free agent tight end has scored 15 touchdowns in the last four years, which is more than many established tight ends who’ve been featured more have managed. No position is as dependent on scheme and landing spot as tight end is, but he should be higher than the 163rd overall player in our rankings.

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