Anyone can play fantasy football, but to be the most successful manager possible, knowledge of more than merely the top 160 mixed-league picks is essential.
This game changes dramatically and unexpectedly. Injuries are certain to happen, roles will quickly shift, and by October you might have already turned over one-quarter of your roster -- even if you're winning. Be prepared to pounce when pickups present themselves, when angling to balance trades with creative throw-ins, or even simply when your good buddy calls you on the Wednesday before opening night saying he has an opening in his 14-team half-PPR league (to which, naturally, you do not want to reply, "Wow, that's deeper than I'm used to!").
All that is where this column comes in. Every preseason, I compile a list of deep sleepers, players who by all accounts will not -- and arguably should not -- be drafted in a standard 10-team ESPN PPR league, but who have decent-to-good odds at contributing sometime during the season. If an opportunity arises for any one of them, they could be just the key to a fantasy championship run.
To be clear, this is a deep sleepers column, not a space where you'll find "regular" sleepers such as Trevor Lawrence, Dameon Pierce, Rondale Moore or Irv Smith Jr., though I very much like all four as value selections. This list takes the sleeper exercise a step deeper, digging into the pool of less-familiar names, and of course with the heightened challenge comes a greater rate of failure. Often in this space we're seeking skills over roles, and roles sometimes don't align, even over 17 games.
Eno Benjamin, RB, Arizona Cardinals
As a strong example of roles failing to crystallize, Benjamin made the 2020 list only to see no action in games, as Kenyan Drake and Chase Edmonds managed 336 of 338 carries from the Cardinals' backfield that season. Benjamin did see time spelling James Conner and Edmonds last season, but with lackluster results, averaging 3.3 yards per carry (playoffs included). Nevertheless, offseason reports on Benjamin were glowing, particularly on his improvement in pass protection, and he's very much in the competition for the No. 2 role with Edmonds gone. Benjamin's elusiveness was on full display as a two-year starter for Arizona State, rushing for at least 1,000 yards and 10 scores each season. Speaking of potential opportunity, remember, Conner has missed 14 games combined in four seasons as an NFL starter.
Romeo Doubs, WR, Green Bay Packers
Selected 98 picks later than fellow 2022 Packers draftee Christian Watson, Doubs mostly gets overshadowed due to his "small-school" (Nevada) college prospect status, but he made waves early in the offseason by capitalizing on an expanded opportunity while Watson recovered from June knee surgery. Most notably, Doubs hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass in his preseason debut, exhibiting his big-play potential. Then in the second preseason game, he caught a 4-yard TD, showing his red zone potential. While it's possible that his best-case scenario is stepping into Marquez Valdes-Scantling's deep-threat role, the fluidity in the Packers' wide receiver depth chart means that any player getting talked up by Aaron Rodgers needs to be taken seriously in the sleeper conversation.
KJ Hamler, WR, Denver Broncos
A repeat from my 2021 list, Hamler often gets lost in all the excitement surrounding other members of the Broncos' passing game, following their offseason acquisition of Russell Wilson. The fact that Hamler was lost for the year to a torn ACL in Week 3 of 2021, an injury that might linger into this season's opening weeks, doesn't help as far as getting him on the radar. Still, his field-stretching ability would be a welcome complement to Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy and Albert Okwuegbunam, and he did his best work during his rookie season out of the slot, a role that is now wide open for the taking following Tim Patrick's season-ending knee injury. Hamler's upside makes him well worth watching in the opening weeks.
Velus Jones Jr., WR, Chicago Bears
A Senior Bowl and NFL combine standout for his blazing speed, Jones had an otherwise ordinary college career. Many of the raves directed at his final-season performance at Tennessee were tempered by his age advantage as a fifth-year player. Still, the Bears, who overhauled their wide receiver corps during the offseason, tabbed him as their first skill-position pick off the board, going with a speed-oriented strategy at the position. This is more of an opportunity-driven pick, being that Jones' long-term ceiling probably isn't as high as a typical rookie wide receiver's, but I do see a possibility that the Bears could get creative with him, even testing him in a hybrid role that could boost his fantasy production. He's a player you should be watching closely for the remainder of the preseason.
Isaiah Likely, TE, Baltimore Ravens
To be clear up front, Mark Andrews isn't going anywhere as the Ravens' go-to tight end. Andrews is the obstacle in Likely's path, and he's a massive one, but let's also not forget that both Nick Boyle and Hayden Hurst delivered at least 75 PPR points for the 2019 Ravens, and the team did open up a good share of targets by trading Marquise Brown on draft day. Likely is a tad undersized (6-foot-4, 235 pounds), particularly compared with Andrews (6-5, 256), and might need some work as a blocker, but there's a very real path to his seeing some red zone work or even lining up occasionally as a wide receiver. Regard Likely as more of a dynasty stash, but I see a potentially bright future for him.
Isiah Pacheco, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
If you're a big fan of combine numbers, know that Pacheco matched Pierre Strong Jr. for the fastest 40 time (4.37), which captured plenty of attention after he displayed forgettable numbers as a three-year starter at Rutgers (4.2 yards per carry, 15 total touchdowns). In the rookie seventh-rounder's defense, however, he ran behind a brutal offensive line, whereas in Kansas City he'd run behind one of the league's best. Pacheco tallied a pair of touches in the Chiefs' opening drive of their first preseason game, a hint that the team is taking him very seriously in its backfield competition. The Chiefs' backfield depth chart is similarly fluid to that of the Packers' wide receivers, and I definitely want a share from this backfield. Pacheco's ADP makes him a wise and efficient way to get it.
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Trey Sermon, RB, San Francisco 49ers
The No. 4 running back off the board in the 2021 NFL draft, Sermon was a Week 1 healthy scratch on the heels of a pedestrian preseason, only to be thrust into starting status two weeks later after the injury losses of Raheem Mostert and Elijah Mitchell. Sermon failed to impress in either game, scarcely played after Mitchell's Week 5 return and was ultimately lost for the rest of the regular season to an ankle injury in Week 12. Entering his sophomore season, however, Sermon is firmly a top-four running back in Kyle Shanahan's backfield, highly likely to make the team, and he's still every bit the downfield runner with passing-game chops that he was at this time last year. Shanahan loves his backfields-by-committee, but he's also apt to lean on the hot hand. What if Sermon's rookie-year struggles were just that, typical struggles that rookies face at this level?
Zach Wilson, QB, New York Jets
Quarterback is a notoriously difficult position from which to find deep sleepers, as every one of the 32 projected starters and the highest-drafted rookies are all well-known names, but Wilson fits for this exercise because of the questions surrounding his recovery from knee surgery, which is expected to cost him anywhere from two to four weeks. That makes him a near-certainty for a questionable tag in Week 1 -- I'd argue you have no business expecting anything from him before Week 3. That's a tough pill to swallow when the position is so deep and fantasy roster spots are so precious. Still, once he heals, he's in a make-or-break position, as the Jets have fortified their offense during the draft and given him a good number of playmakers to throw to, and he spent his own offseason adding bulk. Wilson merely needs to polish his short game, having posted league-worst completion (61.0%) and off-target (19.0%) rates on throws shorter than 10 yards downfield, hardly easy but also a realistic goal considering his skill set. He's the late-round quarterback -- especially post-surgery -- I'd love to stash where I can swing it.