10 Fantasy Football Sleepers That Will Win Your Draft (2026)

Every fantasy football league has a handful of players who get won or lost in the final rounds of the draft. Our analysts went through the running back, wide receiver, quarterback, and tight end pools looking for names sitting outside the top 40 at running back, outside the top 50 at receiver, and outside the top 16 at quarterback and tight end. Here are 10 late-round targets worth prioritizing on draft day.

10 Late-Round Fantasy Football Sleepers That Will Win Your Draft

Here are 10 fantasy football sleepers our experts love to target in drafts from a recent podcast.

Jonathon Brooks (RB – CAR)

Brooks is currently going as the RB42, and that number is already moving up. As a college prospect, Brooks ranked 21st in yards after contact per attempt, 9th in elusive rating, and 21st in yards per route run in his final season. The two ACL tears are the obvious concern, but the belief is that the first tear was mishandled, and Brooks is now well past the typical recovery timeline for that kind of injury.

He’s paired with Chuba Hubbard, described as an inefficient, pseudo bellcow back, which leaves the door open for Brooks to eventually take over the role. One analyst has him as high as RB29, viewing him as a player worth getting in on before his price climbs further, while the other has him as a fringe RB3. The lingering question isn’t about opportunity, it’s whether Brooks looks like the same explosive back he was in college once camp gets underway.

Keaton Mitchell (RB – LAC)

Mitchell has flashed real explosiveness since being drafted in 2023, posting over 6 yards per carry and nearly 10 yards per reception for his career, albeit in a small sample with the Ravens. He’s not viewed as a bellcow option in this backfield behind Omarion Hampton, but the read here is that new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel pursued Mitchell aggressively this offseason, and McDaniel has a track record of carving out touches for a complementary back even when a clear lead back is in place.

The expectation isn’t that Hampton loses his role, but that he’s unlikely to see 70% of the backfield work on his own. If Mitchell settles into a time share piece similar to how Blake Corum was used last year, that’s enough to make him flex worthy with real upside as a late-round dart throw.

MarShawn Lloyd (RB – GB)

Lloyd is currently the RB66, and the talent has never been the question, it’s been availability. He’s barely seen preseason or regular-season action over the last few years. As a college prospect, though, Lloyd ranked 20th and 16th in yards after contact per attempt in his final two seasons, and finished top 20 in both breakaway percentage and elusive rating in both of those years.

He sits behind Josh Jacobs, who played through a heavy workload and multiple injuries last year and looked like a shell of himself for stretches. Green Bay’s offseason approach suggests the team trusts Lloyd if something happens to Jacobs, which is notable given how thin this backfield otherwise looks. Beyond the injury-handcuff scenario, there’s also standalone value tied to Lloyd’s usage in the passing game, giving him a path to Corum-like flex value even if Jacobs stays healthy.

Nicholas Singleton (RB – TEN)

Singleton profiles as a limited but useful piece behind Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears, both of whom are free agents after this season. That timeline matters even for this year’s redraft leagues, not just dynasty formats. Spears has dealt with injuries and hasn’t taken the lead role many expected, while Pollard is viewed as a replacement-level back who’s fine with volume but unspectacular.

With a new coaching staff in Tennessee that had a hand in drafting him, there’s a scenario where Singleton works his way into the lead job without needing an injury to open the door, particularly if Pollard starts slow and Spears continues to be Spears. The staff’s history at previous stops has leaned heavily on a single primary running back rather than a true committee, which raises the ceiling if Singleton does take over. The swing factor is how cautiously the team handles him early in the season given the foot injury he dealt with in the predraft process.

Romeo Doubs (WR – NE)

Doubs is going as the WR52, effectively free in most drafts. The issue with Doubs has never been talent, it’s been usage and the crowded receiver room in Green Bay. His route share sat at 72.8% last year and is projected to climb to 80% or higher in his new offense. Green Bay ranked 30th in neutral passing rate last season; New England ranked ninth. Add another year of Drake May developing in this scheme, the addition of AJ Brown, and a tougher schedule that should force more passing volume, and the situation upgrade is significant.

The underlying numbers back up the talent case: among 109 qualifying wide receivers last year, Doubs ranked 18th in first downs per route run, 27th in fantasy points per route run, 23rd in separation, and 5th in route win rate. That production came without the target volume asked of him. With more routes and snaps in New England, he projects as a strong wide receiver four with real upside to outperform his current ADP.

Stefon Diggs (WR – FA)

Diggs remains unsigned, which is why he’s being drafted in the final rounds despite finishing inside the top 30 wide receivers last season in what was his worst season since his rookie year, averaging 9.9 fantasy points per game. Even a further step back to 8.9 points per game would still land him around top 40. Once he signs with a team, the expectation is that his ADP jumps five to six rounds.

The per-route numbers make the case for more than just floor value: Diggs ranked 23rd among wide receivers in fantasy points per game last year, 22nd in targeted-per-route-run rate, 20th in receiving yards per game, and 8th in yards per route run, all while playing a capped route share as he worked back from an ACL injury with the Patriots. If he lands as a full-time player in 2026, he profiles as a wide receiver three with wide receiver two upside depending on the offense and quarterback situation.

Jalen Coker (WR – CAR)

Coker is going as the WR54, and the case here is built around the price gap between him and Tetairoa McMillan. McMillan’s ADP reflects a bigger role that isn’t guaranteed given Carolina’s run-heavy tendencies and the Bryce Young situation, but that same discount isn’t priced into Coker. Looking at weeks 13 through 19 last year, Coker’s healthiest stretch of the season, he actually out-produced McMillan: a 20% target share compared to 18.3%, 2.3 yards per route run compared to 1.78, four red-zone targets compared to one, and a 28.3% first-read share compared to 26.1%.

Carolina also signed Coker to a three-year extension worth roughly $12 million per year, a contract that signals real confidence in his role. His ceiling is a wide receiver three in three-receiver formats, with a floor as a flex option contingent on Bryce Young playing at a competent level.

Adonai Mitchell (WR – NYJ)

Mitchell came out of college with known question marks: a somewhat raw route runner who struggled with contested catches but excelled after the catch, almost playing like a running back at receiver. Reports this offseason suggest he’s ahead of his rookie counterpart for the number two job, avoiding the multi-year adjustment period some receivers with a similar profile have needed.

If Mitchell holds that role, he’s in line for 100 to 105 targets from Geno Smith, in an offense expected to benefit from an improved offensive line, an important factor given how much Geno Smith‘s play has historically depended on a clean pocket. As the field-stretching complement to Garrett Wilson, Mitchell profiles as a wide receiver four with spike-week upside, going well outside the top 50 at the position.

Malik Willis (QB – MIA)

Willis is currently being valued as a low-end QB2, a range that doesn’t reflect his rushing profile. One analyst has him ranked as high as QB15. Over his limited two-year sample as a starter, Willis posted a 5.6% big-time throw rate that would have ranked eighth among qualifying quarterbacks last year, and 10.9 yards per attempt over that stretch that would have ranked first. On the ground, he’s averaged 44.8 rushing yards per game across his six career starts, a mark that would have ranked first, fourth, and third among quarterbacks over the last three years.

His design rush rate of 13.3% trails only Anthony Richardson, Justin Fields, and Jalen Hurts. The comparison drawn is to Daniel Jones, who finished as a top-10 fantasy quarterback on a bad Giants team largely by rushing for 707 yards without even averaging a passing touchdown per game. Even a modest passing season of 2,800 yards and 15 touchdowns paired with his rushing production would make Willis a weekly QB1, yet he’s currently going one and a half to two rounds behind Kyler Murray in drafts.

Chig Okonkwo (TE – WAS)

Okonkwo is the favorite late-round tight end target here. Washington signed him to be the new lead tight end in an offense that’s expected to expand its play-action and overall scheme under the current coaching staff, working alongside Terry McLaurin in a receiver room otherwise full of question marks.

The math behind the pick: in his most productive stretch as essentially a full-time player, Okonkwo produced around 70-something targets, 50-something catches, and roughly 500 yards. Scaling that role up to closer to 100 targets projects to something like 70 catches, 700 yards, and around five touchdowns, a stat line worth roughly 140 fantasy points in half-point PPR. Over the last decade, that point total has matched the ninth-best finish at the tight end position, making Okonkwo a strong value as a late-round tight end target.

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