Fantasy Football Sleepers

Fantasy football sleepers can give you a clear advantage over your league. In order to give you sleepers, we need to define what is a sleeper. I take how many starters in each position in your league, and any player outside of that number is by definition a fantasy football sleeper. A sleeper in a 12 team league with 1 Quarterback per team is anyone outside of the top 12. I look at Running Backs and Wide Receivers a little differently when talking fantasy football sleepers. Because most leagues have at least 1 Flex (sometimes 2) I take 150% of the starting positions and any player outside of that is a sleeper.

When we talk about Fantasy Football Sleepers, we're talking upside! Once you've filled out your starters, selected your handcuffs, and taken some safe backups, go out on a limb. A Wide Receiver who gives you 8 points/week is not going to win you anything. I would much rather take the guy 3rd on the depth chart who is an injury away from becoming a serious starting options. Amon-Ra St. Brown won a bunch of fantasy leagues last season. After not surpassing 70 receiving yards prior to week 11, he ended the season with 51 receptions for 470 yards and 5 touchdowns over his final 6 games.

2022 presents the fantasy footballer with plenty of fantasy football sleeper opportunities. I have identified 9 players who can help your fantasy team with the title this year. 4 Running Backs and 5 Wide Receivers that you should target in the late rounds of your draft. A word for the wise though; don't overreact. If you use a draft pick on a guy you should have the confidence to keep him on the roster, even if the first month of the season isn't great. In the words of the Philadelphia 76ers: TRUST THE PROCESS. Your Fantasy Football sleepers for 2022.

Isiah Pacheco will be the #1 back in KC by the middle of the season. He has been taking reps with the starters throughout Training Camp, took all of his snaps in the 1st preseason game with the starters, and has been turning heads in KC all off season. I will be taking Pachero in a bunch of my drafts.

We've seen the RB position in Atlanta pop off recently. Just last season Cordarrelle Patterson was a fantasy darling. Most people won't think that a rookie would supplant a player like Patterson... WRONG! Patterson only averaged 3.9 yards per carry last season. This team is in need of a real Running Back, and Allgeier fits that bill.

The Raiders have real question marks at Running Backs. The team opted not to pick up josh Jacobs fifth year option, Kenyon Drake has had issues staying healthy, and the regime that brought those 2 guys in are now gone. The Raiders clearly don't believe in Jacobs, and don't want to pay him next offseason, so they'll phase him out of the offense. White will have an opportunity to take over the lead back role ahead of Jacobs and Drake. I don't expect him to take over that role early on in the season, so if you draft him be patient and let the first few weeks of the season play out before ditching him.

It is always difficult trying to forecast the Patriots Running Back room. This team has used a committee going back years. But this year looks different. Beyond Damien Harris there isn't a lot of competition for the lead back role. Stevenson already has the 3rd down role carved out, but he has looked better than Harris this Training Camp.

There are 159 targets missing with the departure of Tyreek Hill from Kansas City. There is some competition for those targets with JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, and Mecole Hardman all in the mix. Why would the Chiefs use a 2nd round pick if they felt comfortable with their WR corps? They wouldn't. They used a second round pick on Moore for a reason. He reeled in all 3 of his targets in the team's first preseason game against the Bears.

The Packers also had one of the games best receivers leave the organization this offseason. The Packers took Christian Watson out of North Dakota State in the 2nd round, and Doubs in the 4th. But Doubs has the big play ability that Watson doesn't possess. It will take some time for him to see consistent playing time, but once he gets on the field he is a big play waiting to happen.

Pickens was maybe the most talented receiver in this years draft class. He was coming off an ACL tear in 2021 for the Dawgs, and couldn't show off his full capabilities with a small-armed Stetson bennet throwing him the ball. Fellow Steelers WR Dionte Johnson called Pickens a freak and added that defenses simply cannot cover him. This is a sleeper who should pay dividends in week 1.

How is a Pro Bowler from last year a sleeper? I'm still not entirely sure on that one, and maybe this one is cheating. After all, he's being drafted around WR40. With Davante Adams in the fold and taking a lot of the coverage away from Renfrow, I expect Hunter to follow up a 2021 where he had 103 receptions for over 1,000 yards and 9 touchdowns with another spectacular season. Adams will not take away targets from Renfrow, so he should still get his 125+ targets.

Thornton has a great opportunity to carve out a role in an offense that has lacked weapons on the perimeter for a few years now. His combination of speed and ability to high point the football will give Mac Jones a target that can stretch the field. Right now his is listed as 4th on the WR depth chart. But as we've seen in Foxboro that doesn't mean much. I like Thornton to be a big play receiver for the Pats early in the season and hold down that role through the end of the year.