Don’t wait too long to draft a stud running back in fantasy football this year. And make sure you come out of the first six rounds with at least a couple of backs.
There’s still plenty of value to be had later in drafts, though. For this list, I targeted running backs going outside of the top 30 in FantasyPros’ Real-Time ADP (average draft position). Here are four sleeper running backs that can help fantasy managers in 2026.
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Fantasy Football Running Back Sleepers
Blake Corum (RB – LAR)
The former Wolverine was pretty solid last season; you just can’t really tell by looking solely at his 7.2 fantasy points per game, which ranked 46th among all running backs.
You have to look under the hood to see where Blake Corum prospered last year. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry and was a big-play machine despite limited touches. On just 145 carries, Corum ripped off 10 runs of 15+ yards, good for 15th at the position. He also ranked second in PlayerProfiler’s explosive rating (122.9) and third in expected points added (EPA) with a mark of +20.0.
It’s hard to put that type of efficiency and splash-play potential back in the bottle. After only seeing the field on 28.9% of the snaps last season, there have been rumors all offseason about Los Angeles making this backfield closer to a 50-50 split between Corum and Kyren Williams. We’ll see if that happens once the games start counting, but it’s nice to know the Rams are at least acknowledging Corum’s ability and the impact he makes when he’s on the field.
In what should be one of the top-scoring attacks in football, Corum has a chance to carve out a role of around 10-12 touches a week. That would give him FLEX appeal in standard and half-PPR formats.
The real excitement, though, comes from the contingent upside he offers should anything happen to Williams. If Corum ever got the backfield to himself for a game, he’d be a borderline RB1 that week, especially if the matchup were juicy.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt (RB – WSH)
The man simply known as “Bill” was the talk of the town at various points last season. A seventh-round pick, Jacory Croskey-Merritt garnered a ton of buzz in training camp and became a trendy sleeper pick. He paid off immediately, with 10 carries for 82 rushing yards in the season opener against the Giants.
It wasn’t all rainbows for Croskey-Merritt, though. He struggled with pass protection and didn’t offer much of a receiver — he caught only nine passes, none after Week 11 — which led to an up-and-down rookie campaign. Still, he finished with 805 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. Not bad for someone picked near the end of the 2025 NFL Draft.
This year, it seems like the Commanders are expecting more from Croskey-Merritt in Year 2. They didn’t add much competition, signing Rachaad White to a cheap one-year deal and drafting Penn State’s Kaytron Allen in the sixth round.
If Croskey-Merritt maintains the early-down role for a full season, he has 1,000-yard potential next to Jayden Daniels. Daniels is always a threat to take off running, and that should open some nice running lanes for a running back who ranked seventh in juke rate (26.6%) and 21st in evaded tackles last season.
Croskey-Merritt has been trending up lately, climbing 10 spots in ADP over the past week, but he’s still reasonably priced at RB36. If he adds some receiving to his game, there’s some major fantasy potential here.
Jordan Mason (RB – MIN)
Want to take a guess on where Jordan Mason ranks among his peers in yards per carry (YPC)? His overall body of work is smaller than most — he only has 395 career carries — but Mason’s 5.1 YPC average is tied for fourth with James Cook among active NFL running backs. The only players better (with at least 500 carries) are J.K. Dobbins (5.2), Jahmyr Gibbs (5.3) and De’Von Achane (5.6). Not too shabby.
The elite per-touch efficiency hasn’t translated into much fantasy success simply because Mason doesn’t catch enough passes to pile up crazy fantasy numbers.
That said, things could be even better on the ground this season. The Vikings have implemented a new rushing scheme that suits Mason’s skill set well. New assistant head coach Frank Smith comes from Miami, where he served as the offensive coordinator for the last four seasons.
Smith’s wide-zone approach incorporates some of Kyle Shanahan’s concepts and has helped Achane become one of the game’s most explosive and dangerous players. More importantly, Mason has experience in this scheme from his three years under Shanahan in San Francisco.
In 2024, when Christian McCaffrey was injured and sidelined, Mason crushed it. He amassed 504 total yards and three touchdowns in the first four games. He eventually slowed down some, and an ankle injury ultimately cut his season short, but he still finished with 789 rushing yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry in just 12 games.
Another positive is the addition of Kyler Murray. While he hasn’t run much in recent years, Murray is still a threat to take off on any dropback and remains one of the league’s most elusive dual-threat quarterbacks. His presence will help open up wider running lanes for Mason to attack.
Training camp reports are all echoing that Mason looks like a stud in this scheme and that 2026 could be the year he’s finally unlocked. I’m expecting a career high in rushing yards from the fifth-year back, and if he improves on the six scores from last season, low-end RB2 numbers are definitely in play.
Dylan Sampson (RB – CLE)
My analysis for including Dylan Sampson here is pretty simple: The Browns’ offense is a work in progress (I’m trying to be polite), and they’re going to be trailing a lot. That means plenty of receiving opportunities out of the backfield for Sampson.
Catching the football is where Sampson shines. As a rookie last season, he only had 175 rushing yards and averaged just 2.7 yards per carry. We’re not really drafting him for that, though. We’re taking shots on him because he showed he can be a lethal weapon out of the backfield as a pass-catcher.
Sampson caught 33 passes for 271 yards in 2025. Among all running backs with at least 200 snaps last season, Sampson ranked first in both yards per route run (2.02) and yards created per touch (4.87), per PlayerProfiler.
Sampson excels with the ball in space, and the Browns would be wise to lean into that playmaking ability. We already caught a glimpse of it this preseason. In Cleveland’s first exhibition game, Sampson caught a screen pass, split two defenders and raced for a 43-yard chunk play.
The second-year back is not the fastest ball-carrier — Sampson ran a 4.51 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine — but he’s shifty and can make defenders miss in the open field. As a rookie, he had a 26.5% juke rate, eighth-best among all running backs.
Another thing that should help Sampson see the field more is the state of Cleveland’s defense. This unit is not going to be what it has been in years past. Not after trading away reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and losing defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
This is a team that’s going to be playing from behind more often than not, which will lead to many negative scripts and checkdowns. Hopefully, Sampson is on the receiving end of most of them.
If I’m playing in full PPR formats, Sampson is a player I’m targeting at the end of every draft. He’s a cheap bet to make, and one who could pay off if the Browns decide to get their second-year back the ball more involved through the air.
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Wolf Trelles-Heard is a fantasy football analyst for FantasyPros. Find him on X at @DynastyFFWolf.