12 Fantasy Football Sleepers Experts Target (2026)

Several of our experts gave us their favorite fantasy football sleepers for 2026. For those with drafts yet to come, here are some players to target, particularly for those who target the tight end position with late picks. 2026 Consensus Sleepers Who is the player you expect to be this year's biggest fantasy sleeper and why? Quarterbacks Experts listed the following as their favorite QB sleepers this season: Daniel Jones (QB – IND) 'Daniel Jones is the player I expect to be this year's biggest fantasy sleeper after performing well before last year's injury. He returns to the same offensive cast, but now Alec Pierce, Josh Downs, and Tyler Warren are back and better than ever with fully established chemistry. Jonathan Taylor gives Jones a reliable checkdown outlet and consistently runs routes that add easy fantasy points, keeping the offense on schedule and boosting Jones' efficiency. If this group stays healthy, his dual‑threat ability gives him a realistic path to a top‑12 QB finish.' – Lawrence Iacona ( FantasyPros ) Malik Willis (QB – MIA) 'Malik Willis is a prototypical Konami code QB, yet he's priced as a low-end QB2 despite having an aggressive rushing profile. Among quarterbacks with 100-plus rushing attempts since 2014, 31 of 34 produced top-12 fantasy points per game (91% hit rate). Willis should easily beat 100 rushing attempts and is projected for 600+ rushing yards despite Miami's struggles; his rushing floor offers a realistic path to top-10 weekly fantasy finishes without requiring top-10 passing volume. Additionally, given Willis' ADP, he enables fantasy owners to be overweight at the other skill positions while bringing QB spike week potential (a 31.5 fantasy-point game in 2025 that included 60 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns).' – Avery Thrasher (The Branded Sports) Jared Goff (QB – DET) 'The Jared Goff ADP is absolutely incomprehensible to me. And let me start by saying I LOVE the value of Tyler Shough and Malik Willis this season, but I've still taken Goff a full 2-3 rounds earlier in the 11th and felt set at the position because of what I expect him to do. First, I have Goff as the likeliest to throw 50 TD passes of any other QB not named Joe Burrow. Of course, David Montgomery's departure and Isiah Pacheco's injury should lend the Lions to be even more pass-centric, but there is also their best-strength-of-schedule-in-the-league setup, their awful and awfully-injured defense, and their top-tier weapons that make the 10-year pro set to smash in year 11. Last year's QB9 has become this year's QB15 by ADP for no discernible reason. No, he doesn't run, but he won't have to. Drew Petzing's chuck-it-at-all-costs offense is coming in from Arizona to make Goff a star, and this offense is about to hum. I'm in on all Detroit Lions at cost this year, and so is consensus, making Goff's price pure lunacy. If you have him, enjoy the biggest value in fantasy this season.' – Jeremy Shulman (Fantasy Football Universe) Matthew Stafford (QB – LAR) 'Matthew Stafford won the MVP award last season, yet that is not enough to convince the ECR that Stafford is a Top 15 QB in Fantasy Football. Age seems to be the number one concern for Stafford, despite the fact that in his last game of last season, he threw for 374 yards and 3 TDs in Seattle! Stafford is arguably the best throwing QB in the NFL, and he has the same weapons and the same system to duplicate his MVP season from a year ago. Last season, BEAST DOME was the only expert site on FantasyPros to rank Stafford a QB1; this season, BEAST DOME will be the only site to rank Matthew Stafford as a Top 3 QB.' – Muntradamus (Beast Dome) Running Backs Experts listed the following as their favorite RB sleepers this season: Kaleb Johnson (RB – GB) 'Kaleb Johnson isn't known for being a special teams guy, not after last year anyway. His skill set is running the ball. Green Bay isn't a big player in free agency. They build their team through the draft and develop their players. For them to trade one of their picks, even if it's a late one like a 6th, over just picking up any Joe off the street tells me that they wanted to secure Kaleb and have plans for him, as opposed to just having him sit on the bench as a depth piece. Remember, Tim Lester used to be a senior analyst with Green Bay before leaving to be the offensive coordinator at the University of Iowa. The same University of Iowa where Kaleb Johnson was a star RB. Green Bay has done extensive research on Johnson, and I think they envision him having a significant role in their offense if Josh Jacobs is handed a lengthy suspension by the league.' – Mark Ringo (Sleepers and Busts) Woody Marks (RB – HOU) 'Woody Marks – David Montgomery has the spotlight on him, which has caused an overreaction to Marks' ADP. Whether you believe the 50/50 split talk is 'coach speak' or not, Monty is 29 years old and hasn't handled over 50% of his team's rushing attempts since 2023. It's no fault of his own that he was playing behind Jahmyr Gibbs, but there's upside for Marks if he eats more into the rushing workload than many expect. With the expected receiving role and potential for added carries, Woody Marks has a path to an RB2 finish.' – Kyle Zeigler ( Fantasy In Frames ) Wide Receivers Experts listed the following as their favorite WR sleepers this season: Michael Wilson (WR – ARI) 'People are still sleeping on Michael Wilson heading into the season. During the last half of last year, he burst onto the scene with 778 yards and 6 touchdowns from weeks 11-18. During the off-season, all that happened was that he received a 3/yr $75 million contract extension and a new coach (Mike LaFleur) who has been quoted as saying he would be using Wilson in a Puka Nacua role, which means targets are going to stay high! Rankings and owners continue to be higher on Marvin Harrison, Jr., who has yet to flash (and still could), but in Arizona there is one wide receiver to have, and he can be had very late in drafts. Owners who grab Wilson will be rewarded with a sleeper that could top 1,000 yards and get 7+ touchdowns; not bad for a late 7th/early 8th round pick!' – Adam Dove (The Fantasy Couriers) Jayden Reed (WR – GB) 'If we can get Jayden Reed's snap share up to around 75-80% this year, he would be in for a massive fantasy campaign. Last season was a bit of a lost year because of the injuries he suffered early on, but he was a menace the last time we saw him truly healthy. That was in 2024, and among all wide receivers that year, Reed ranked first in both fantasy points per target (2.63) and QB rating per target (137.5), second in target separation (2.40) and 14th in yards per route run (2.35). With a thinned-out receiver room and a new three-year contract extension this offseason, Reed is poised to bounce back in 2026. When you factor in utility as a rusher — 310 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 34 career carries — Reed is a guy who can produce WR2 numbers if the Packers simply get him on the field more.' – Wolf Trelles-Heard (FantasyPros) Tight Ends Experts listed the following as their favorite TE sleepers this season: Isaiah Likely (TE – NYG) 'Isaiah Likely seems destined to emerge as the clear number two target in the Giants' passing attack this year. Likely comes to the Giants competing with the likes of Malachi Fields and Darnell Mooney for targets behind Malik Nabers. Where Likely could become a huge asset for fantasy managers and the Giants alike is what he can do in the touchdown department, scoring 15 times in a complementary role behind Mark Andrews during his time in Baltimore. Now that Likely stands to be the out-and-out TE1, look for his overall usage to surpass anything done in Baltimore with career highs in catches, yards, and scores, all firmly on the table, which could see Likely log a top-5 finish.' – Ed Birdsall (Talking Points Sports) Terrance Ferguson (TE – LAR) 'I want this to be an actual sleeper, so I'll go with Rams TE Terrance Ferguson. He only had 11 receptions last year, but three of them went for TDs, and he averaged 21 yards per catch. Ferguson is big (6-5, 252), fast (4.63), and athletic (39-inch vertical jump. Rams head coach Sean McVay is at the vanguard of the movement toward multiple-TE sets in the NFL, and there's buzz that Ferguson could effectively be the Rams' third receiver this season behind Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.' – Pat Fitzmaurice (FantasyPros) Juwan Johnson (TE – NO) 'There are a lot of great choices this year, and for one of the first times in a while, it actually feels like we have some legitimate sleepers, but Juwan Johnson is my favorite of the bunch. Johnson is coming off career highs with 102 targets, 77 receptions, and 889 receiving yards, while his target share jumped from 12.8% to 18.1% and his WOPR climbed from 0.28 to 0.38. More importantly, he finished as the TE3 in the games he played with then-rookie Tyler Shough, and now they get another year together after Johnson already showed what that connection can look like. The best part is that Johnson is essentially free in drafts, meaning I can spend the entire draft loading up at running back and wide receiver and still walk away with my starting tight end in the final rounds. That's exactly what I'm looking for in a sleeper: virtually no cost with a legitimate path to becoming an every-week difference-maker.' – James Emrick-Wilson (The Armchair Sports Corner) Dallas Goedert (TE – PHI) 'The Eagles' tight end Dallas Goedert will be the biggest sleeper this season. Goedert was the hyped 'breakout' tight end for years despite never finishing higher than TE10 in half-PPR scoring. That is until the 2025 season, when he finished as TE4. Somehow, after the best finish of his career by a mile, he is going lower in fantasy drafts than ever before. Add in the departure of star receiver A.J. Brown, and the sky is the limit for Goedert, who is currently going as TE12. Avoid the early tight end rush in drafts and simply take Goedert five rounds later. The net production will be in the ballpark anyway.' – Aaron St Denis (Fantasy Sports Advice Network) Greg Dulcich (TE – MIA) 'If I'm waiting until the final rounds to draft a tight end, Greg Dulcich is exactly the type of swing I want to take. Miami desperately needs someone to emerge as a reliable target for Malik Willis, and Dulcich has reportedly become one of the quarterback's most frequently targeted options throughout camp. None of Miami's other veteran pass catchers enter the season with more than 610 career receiving yards, leaving an unusual amount of opportunity available for someone being drafted this late. Dulcich also quietly showed last season that he can be much more than a desperation checkdown option. He averaged 7.7 yards after the catch per reception and finished inside the top 10 among tight ends in yards per catch. The deeper numbers were even more encouraging. Among 59 qualifying tight ends, Dulcich produced 2.64 yards per route run while being targeted on 24% of his routes, ranking second and fifth at the position, respectively, according to Fantasy Points Data. He also finished among the position's leaders in first downs and fantasy production on a per-route basis. Those numbers came on limited volume, which is why I'm not simply projecting them forward over a full season. The bet is that Miami gives Dulcich considerably more routes than he has received previously. He sits atop a relatively unproven tight end room and gets the easiest projected schedule for fantasy tight ends. Durability remains the biggest concern given his injury history, but at TE27 there is virtually no opportunity cost. If the camp usage translates into an every-down receiving role, Dulcich has a legitimate path from undrafted in many leagues to a weekly top-12 tight end.' – Ryan Linkletter ( Blitz Sports Media ) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify