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Everyone is looking for something different when they're looking for sleepers. Some people want players they've never heard of — I'll have a few of those for you later in the week with a deep sleeper for every team.
This list isn't quite that deep. It's more about players you surely know about, but Average Draft Position data suggests we're sleeping on either their upside or even their projection. Below are 10 players with an ADP outside of the top 100. Every one of them should give you more value than their current cost.
Want to make sure you get feedback on a sleepers article? Lead with one of the best running backs of all time. Adrian Peterson made his debut with Washington and shockingly looked like a good NFL running back. Not great — not like his old self — but certainly good. He pushed piles, fell forward, and made people miss in the open field.
Peterson is currently being drafted as the No. 40 running back off the board in the 10th round, which is excellent value considering he may get 15-18 touches a game starting in Week 1. Maybe he doesn't hold up for an entire season, but I'd expect he gives you top-25 production for as long as he does.
Peterson is a great pick to pair with backs like Mark Ingram, Sony Michel, or Rashaad Penny. He should dominate early down work and pile up touchdowns for as long as he stays healthy.
I don't know how much longer I need to scream this, but: Kenny Stills is the No. 1 receiver on the Dolphins. Maybe that's not the best spot for Fantasy production, but he's outproduced his current ADP each of the past two years and now Jarvis Landry is gone. That means more targets for Stills, and it quite possibly means a top-30 season at wide receiver — maybe better with some good red zone luck.
Stills is being drafted behind Alshon Jeffery, who is still on the PUP list. The funny thing is Stills had more catches and yards than Jeffery last year despite Landry's presence. While Stills' ADP suggests taking him in the 11th round, I wouldn't let him slide past the ninth. He's a great value even two rounds early.
Isaiah Crowell was scheduled to be featured in this column, and I still think he's the most likely back to lead this committee, but Bilal Powell deserves the sleeper tag more. He is being drafted early in the 12th round, behind the likes of Nick Chubb, C.J. Anderson and both backup Packers backs.
We've always thought Powell deserved more run than the Jets gave him and with a new offensive coordinator in town he may finally get that chance. The realistic upside here is he wins a 60/40 split with Crowell and is a viable flex on a week-to-week basis. But it's also worth noting what happened when he got 14 carries in a game last year, something that happened five times. In non-PPR he scored 9.7, 25, 6.1, 11, and 20.5 Fantasy points in those five games. In 2016, he topped double digits in three of the four games he reached that mark.
Austin Ekeler was going to be on this list before his most recent performance in the preseason. But it's still instructive to show what his upside looks like if Melvin Gordon misses time. Ekeler ran six times for 50 yards and caught three passes as well. If Gordon goes out you're starting Ekeler in any format. But this isn't just a handcuff pick.
With the Chargers lack of talent at tight end, I expect they're going to have to use both running backs a lot more in the passing game. Because of that I have Ekeler projected for 870 total yards even if Gordon plays 16 games. He's a viable flex play in PPR as things stand right now.
I'm sure some people bumped Eric Ebron up a little after he caught five passes from Andrew Luck for 54 yards and a touchdown. For me it was just enough to not drop him in the rankings, because he's already in my top 12.
Yes, Jack Doyle is going to play a lot of snaps and see plenty of targets as well. But this is a team that will throw the ball 600-plus times and has one starting-caliber wide receiver on the roster. Both Ebron and Doyle can be useful in Fantasy much like Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen were back in 2014.
I prefer Ebron because he has more big play ability, and we've heard a ton of buzz from camp about the relationship between him and Luck. This could be a situation where Doyle plays more snaps, but Ebron has better production. Regardless, both tight ends will be on the field together a lot.
If you know anything about me, you know that I love Giovani Bernard. For years, I believed the Bengals should have given Bernard more work than Jeremy Hill. Now he's stuck behind Joe Mixon. Just know that when Bernard is behind, he's never far behind. Since he arrived in Cincinnati no running back has seen more than 55 percent of the team's rush attempts.
Like Ekeler, I expect Bernard will be flexworthy in PPR even without an injury. But if Mixon goes down? We got a taste of that last year. Bernard topped 10 PPR Fantasy points in each of the Bengals' final five games and had a monster game in Week 16 with 168 total yards and a touchdown.
The Colts running back situation is a mess. Marlon Mack isn't yet ready for the start of the season; Robert Turbin is suspended for the first four games of the season; Nyheim Hines can't hold on to the ball. It got so bad Christine Michael started a preseason game for them. But there may be one late round pick you can make to profit on this nonsense, that's Jordan Wilkins.
Wilkins has been a favorite of Jamey Eisenberg's all summer, and I'm starting to come around. He's much more likely to have success between the tackles than Hines, and he's far more exciting than Michael. Mack is still my favorite back in Indianapolis, but at this point in the draft I'm willing to take a flier on the likelihood that Mack can't stay healthy.
Speaking of staying healthy, that's all we need from John Brown. It's also something he's been unable to give us the past two years. But remember that 2015 season? He caught 65 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns. He's had a spectacular camp with the Ravens and may just be Joe Flacco's favorite target in this offense.
It's not often you find a potential No. 1 receiver with a 1,000-yard season under his belt in the 13th round. Brown's health is something to monitor, but he looks like a legitimate Fantasy option to start the season.
Andy Dalton is, for some reason, a polarizing player. So I won't try to convince you that he's better than an average starting quarterback in the NFL. But we do have a pretty strong history of him being good in Fantasy when he has weapons. All indications are he'll have A.J. Green, Mixon, Bernard, John Ross and Tyler Eifert at his disposal Week 1. His opponent will be the Indianapolis Colts. If you're streaming quarterback this year, wait until the last round and draft Dalton. You may just start him longer than you plan.
Let's get one more once-great player in this column. Brandon Marshall had a nice performance in Week 3 of the preseason, and looks like he'll begin the year as one of the Seahawks top three wide receivers. He's most likely to impact the team in the red zone, and they desperately need it. Jimmy Graham, Paul Richardson and Luke Willson scored 20 touchdowns last year. None of them are on the roster any longer.
So what Fantasy Football sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And which wide receiver can you wait on until late? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy Football cheat sheets from the model that called Alvin Kamara's huge breakout last season and find out.
