Lineup Fantasy Football Show - 5 SNEAKY Sleepers You NEED to Buy Now | Redraft & Dynasty Fantasy Football

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

You build a base in your first few rounds of a fantasy draft, but fantasy football sleepers are the difference makers that can you can rely on to help you win your leagues in both redraft and dynasty fantasy football Timestamps: 0:00 - Fantasy Football Sleepers for 2026 0:30 - Demond Claiborne 4:37 - Greg Dulcich 7:36 - Romeo Doubs 11:41 - Rachaad White 16:14 - Josh Downs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome into the line of fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, wake up. It is time to talk about five of our favorite players that your league mates are sleeping on. We're honestly at this point flat out ignoring. Let's start with a deep sleeper for the 2026 NFL season. And then we're going to wrap it up with a guy that I think is going to crush his ADP.

Mello, give us the first sleeper of the episode. Like you said, I'm going deep here. Sometimes I like to ease into it with these sleepers. I'm going all the way fully deep here with this guy. and that is Demand Claiborne. I talked about him already as a rookie sleeper on a previous episode, and now I'm ready to talk about him again, now that he is a Viking.

And first things first, I love that he ended up in Minnesota. We're projecting this offense to take a major step forward. One unbelievable landing spot. Like, I don't think I could have fought up a better landing spot than Minnesota. I'm so happy he ended up there. This offense is going to be a lot better this year than they were last year. This running back room is lackluster to say the least.

Aaron Jones is 31 years old. He had the worst yards per carry of his career last year. He had to take a pay cut just to stay on the roster. Jordan Mason, he was the running back 36 last year, despite playing 16 games and being the bell cow while Aaron Jones missed five games. Yeah. He offers very little as a pass catcher, as an explosive play threat. And now enter Demon Claiborne. I talked about him on that rookie episode I mentioned earlier as a big play waiting to happen.

And that's really what he is. He has incredible speed, explosiveness, just what this offense could use at running back. Aaron Jones might have said it best himself. He referred to Claiborne about a week ago as someone who reminds him of Jemir Gibbs in terms of speed and burst. Mitch, I would eat 10 whole crows if Clayburn ever actually put up Jemir Gibbs numbers on a consistent basis. I would eat a murder of crows, Mello, an entire murder of them. A whole murder of crows showing off your vocab over here. I don't think that's likely, but it's still high praise.

that, you know, we're hearing him be compared compared to a player like Jamir Gibbs. But let's be a little bit more clear with what expectations we actually should have. Right, right. Because Claiborne was a sixth round pick. He is a rookie. It is highly unlikely that he's super involved right out of the gate. I do think, however, that usage could increase throughout the season until hopefully he's eventually the 1A by the end of the season. I really do think that is in his range of outcomes.

And is it a lock to happen? Of course not. That's why he's being ranked as the RB 81 right now in redraft. Free. I mean, he's a free player at the end of drafts. I prefer him in Dynasty more for obvious reasons, but I don't mind him at all as a late-run flyer in deeper redraft leagues or best ball leagues as well. I'm certainly targeting him at the end of best ball drafts.

And at the very least, if nothing else, if you don't want to draft him in your redraft leagues, you don't want to just hold him on your roster and wait to see what happens. Just keep an eye on him. He's a guide that if he starts getting a little bit of usage at some, point in the season, he could be a phenomenal midseason addition because once that usage starts, it could keep going up and up until eventually he is a great asset down the stretch. So I would want to get him before that explosion happens because there is so much upside there. Yeah, and I has checked his keep trade cut dynasty price right now is running back 75, so it's not a whole lot higher than the

running back 81 redraft price. So we talked about him and honestly more so you talked about him a few months ago pre-draft and we mentioned him as our favorite hidden gem deep sleeper of this entire draft and then he goes to a situation that's so perfect in Minnesota and now that we've entered June, I've been like ramping up my best ball drafts and I keep just like looking at they're literally back to back right now in ADP Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones and it's just like yeah I do not want either of them Aaron Jones comes with a litany of like age and injury concerns with me Jordan Mason like you said like comes with a litany of I just don't think he's that good concerns And so if there's ever been a situation for a guy to break out and take an immediate role this late in a draft, a day three pick, like I think Tobon Claiborne has an unbelievable chance to do that.

And at this price, man, this is as much of a flyer as you're going to get in redraft. This is truly your last round or your second to last round pick. He is the epitome of a sleeper. He is a deep, deep sleeper. But let people sleep and take that shot. You have nothing to lose at that cost. He's in that REM cycle. Absolutely.

I'm going to switch to a guy here that people are starting to wake up. You know, when you do that thing where you kind of shake in the middle of the night because you like had a dream that you were going to fall? That's kind of where we're at right now with Greg Dulcich. And Mello, could Greg Dulcich be the most valuable pass catcher on the dolphins this season outside of Devon A-chan? It's possible. I think there is a very real argument because last year he was already third on the entire

Dolphins roster and receiving yards with 330. which is quite possibly the most disgusting statement I've ever uttered on this show. Right now, his price tag at 26 years old in Dynasty is the tight end 39, which is a screaming, screaming value. In redraft, he's the tight end 29, and oh yeah, they have the single easiest schedule versus tight ends in 2026. So now on to the reports we've seen already, per Omar Kelly, tight end Greg Dolsich appears to be Malik Willis's number one target so far. Grant Gordon from NFL.com has reported that Greg Dolsich could be the top target from Malik Willis and this Dolphins reclamation project moving forward. And then some numbers from last year per Derek Brown and this data comes from fantasy points.

Among 59 qualified tight ends, Greg Dolsich was fifth in targets per route run, second in yards per route run, second in yards after the catch per reception, and fifth in first downs per route's run. He's so unbelievably cheap, I just don't understand why we're ranking him this low right now. I agree. It doesn't make sense. And you're right. People are starting to wake up and I've been asleep. I've been guilty of it. I've been in deep sleep on dual chitch because we're like, he's not only a post-hype sleeper. He's like three years removed from his hype. It's like so far, we're so far removed from thinking he would be a good fantasy asset. But now all of a sudden, he has such a golden opportunity to be a high volume receiver and maybe not a great offense, but one where they're going to have to throw the ball quite. a bit. Absolutely. Unless you're in a super deep league where you're starting multiple tight ends or you have a

pretty hefty tight end premium, he's free. He is a free lottery ticket at the end of drafts. Dynasty, he doesn't cost you a lot. And he's a guy I think his price is going to shoot up over the next couple months. So now is the best time to get him. It's going to get bad as we get into July. It's going to get worse once we get into August, how much this guy is going to get propped up.

And to me, he's a perfect guy at this point that you could send like a really late, like what, like a third round or maybe a. a fourth rounder in Dynasty. Someone might even just have a few tight ends. They're willing to get some capital for him. And then in redraft, unless you're in a league with someone else who's watching our show or pretty plugged in, you're going to be able to get Greg Dulcich as a second tight end, pair him with a guy, like maybe like Isaiah likely that isn't as like strong of a tight end

one. And you are golden in the tight end room. Yeah. He's a guy I'm certainly going to be targeting a whole lot of. And also, we've talked about him in the show. You and Malik Willis are both going to be targeting him a lot. There we go. I love that.

We love Malik Willis on this show. Like we think even though he's in a horrible situation, he's a good quarterback, somebody has to catch those passes. So I love taking the shot on Dulcich. I'm going to pivot now, though, to somebody Malik Willis used to throw the ball to in his days in Green Bay. And that is Romeo Dobbs, now a New England patriot. You're loving your Patriots receivers. I know.

My bias is showing, but I really am in on Dobbs, not a deep sleeper, at least not as deep as the last couple of guys we talked about. But I do think he is a value with where he's going in drafts. He was tied for eighth in red zone targets last year among all wide receivers. And he was also tied for eighth in targets inside the 10 among all wide receivers in the entire NFL. We're projecting this explosive New England offense next season. So a great red zone threat in an offense like that is obviously very valuable. And I'm not going to say he has like, you know, top 12 finish upside.

I really don't think that he does. But he was the wide receiver 37 overall last. year and he's now going as the wide receiver 53 and redraft substantially lower and that doesn't make any sense to me when he's probably in a better situation i think playing with drake may as the clear number two in this offense and i think that might be where people lose interest number two receiver in this offense behind a true alpha like a j brown and i hear that i get it but davontas smith is an incredible example of a wide receiver being able to put up incredible numbers behind a j brown devontas as finish as the wide receiver 9, 19, 27, and 20,

and his four years with A.J. Brown on the same team. And I'll be the first to admit. I think Smith is almost certainly a much better player than Dobbs. But I'll counter that by saying, first of all, Romeo Dobbs is also a very good player. But also, I think he's in a better situation in New England than Devonza Smith was in Philadelphia, that Eagles have been run heavy the last few years,

with Jalen Hertz and a quarterback and no disrespect to Hertz. So I think is a good player in his own right. He's not nearly as good of a pure passer as Drake. May is. Also, this Patriot's offense, throw the ball a lot more than the Eagles have. Philly was dead last in pass rate in 2024. They were 27th in 2025. New England was admittedly 25th last year on pass rate, but that number will definitely go up this year with the 100 percent. The development of Drake May, the much harder schedule, they're going to have to throw it. They were running the clock in a lot of games last year. So it's going to be a pass heavy offense. Romeo Dobbs is going to be

a big part of it. And he's going in like the last few rounds of drafts in a lot of formats. He's not that expensive in Dynasty. And I think he could very well be a very consistent flex start or maybe even a wide receiver too for you. He was the poster child for an article I wrote a few months ago about the four boring players that are going to win you your league in 2026. And a lot of people commented saying like, oh, well, you don't understand that AJ Brown is going to come to New England. And I was like, I know he's going to come to New England. And I still don't care. I still think the opportunity is that good. And I love that you added that in the end. I think the pass rate is going go up a lot. I think we just didn't have the weapons last year in New England. And I also think

this harder schedule, like, you're not just going to be able to assault the game away on the ground with Romandre and Trevi on the way they might have been able to in 2025. And I love what you said about Devontas Smith. We've seen a team with a lot less passing volume, be able to support a wide receiver two behind A.J. Brown's not a, like, insane target hog. He's a guy who does a whole lot with the volume he gets. And so I think there's going to be plenty to go around for Romeo Dobbs. And at this price, I'm completely buying in. Exactly, yeah.

And it's not even like, I think there are other guys who could be the number two weapon in this offense. I don't expect Kayshan Bouti to be on this team. DeMario Douglas is, I mean, he's DeMario Douglas, and there's rumors he could not even make this team. Kyle Williams isn't somebody who's a real threat. Romeo Dobbs is going to be a huge part of this offense. We always talk about follow the money.

And we just simply saw him get. paid a bunch of money. While it was clear that honestly from a while ago, New England's had plans to get A.J. Brown. So I think they paid Romeo Dobbs with the plan already in place that A.J. Brown was going to be the one year. Absolutely. 100% agreed. On to our fourth guy, but before we hit that, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe if you've been enjoying the videos. If you're watching now on Apple Podcasts, as we just got that enabled, make sure to leave a five-star review. And Mello, let's talk about a guy you talked about a few months ago. That's Rashad White. You talked about him back in March. And Mello,

this take has aged so gracefully, like a fine wine, probably from all of the beauty sleep that Rashad's been getting, being way too far down everyone's draft boards. Redraft ADP of running back 38, Dynasty ADP of running back 42, that obviously makes sense at the age. But is this just the starting running back into Jaden Daniels-led offense?

And we're just drafting him as the running back 38? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I'm going to break this one down completely ignoring the fact that Bill has already been missing OTAs due to a soft tissue injury, which is not a good start. I was so fired up for him last year, Jacori Kroski Merritt, but as a day three running back was given the opportunity, he just simply didn't come through.

And the back half of the year, Chris Rodriguez outsnapped him in every single game they were on the field together. Rashad White also offers a skill set that Bill doesn't, which is the passing work. In 176 snaps last year, Rashad was as reliable as they come, targeted 42 times for 40 receptions, zero drops, 218 yards.

Bill was on the field for well over 200 snaps, who's targeted 11 times for nine receptions and 68 yards. If you don't feel like there's enough reason to believe that Bill could be losing this coaching staff's trust, he was also tied for the most fumbles in the NFL for any player not named James Cook, as opposed to Rashad White, who had zero. And then in terms of protecting the QB,

White was honestly not the best. He was 99th ranked in the entire NFL among running backs, but Chikori Crossi Merritt was 140th. And so this has been a lot about what Bill can't do and what Rashad can. I want to really focus on what Rashad truly can do. And he was Pro Football Focus's fifth ranked rusher in the NFL last year. No qualifiers. The fifth ranked rusher in the NFL we keep talking about guys like Kyram Williams,

Blake Corum, A. Chan, Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet, all in that top six. The one guy we haven't talked about is Rashad White, who's the 38th running back off the board in your drafts. He's also got that connection to Jaden Daniels that you talked about back in March. They had the time at Arizona State together. They're still very close friends to this day. I think there's a ton of value to be had here, specifically redraft. I think obviously at his age, the running back 42 price tag and dynasty is a great deal. You're just getting it for a shorter lifespan. I just, I don't know if there's like a truer smash hit at running back right now for Sleepers than Rashad White. I'm in with you. And when I had that take back in March, I,

I really felt to adamant, but also icky at the same time. I felt a little gross. I don't even think it's gross anymore. I just think this is a, such a clear-cut value. I'm all in on Rashad White at cost. I think he's going to be the favorite to get the early down work,

even if not all of it. I think he's going to get most of that. Like you said, he was a top five running back for pro football focus last year. He was really good in the absence of Bucky Irving for stretches last year. And then as a pass catcher, too,

we're projecting this offense to be good or at least better than last year as long as they're healthy. We're expecting them to have to throw the ball quite a bit, And outside of Terry McLaurin, there are not proven pass catchers on this team. Like they brought in Chica Conquo and they drafted Antonio Williams. I know. Everyone's so excited by Antonio Williams, but nothing's like set in stone that he's just going to be great.

I think we're more excited about the situation. Exactly. And that's the same reason we should be excited for Ashad White, this situation. He is a great opportunity where I think he's the clear best running back. And we're just letting him be almost free in drafts. And it does not make any sense to me. We literally just talked about two guys going above him. Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, you cannot look at me with a straight face and be like,

yeah, I'm feeling better about the upside of Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason this year than Rashad White, who could just be the lead back in this Washington Commander's offense. Yeah, and he's another guy too. Like, I wouldn't be surprised to see his ADP, his rankings, his dynasty price, however you want to gauge his value. It's going to go up, I would think, over the next couple of months. But based on where he is now, I don't think it'll be substantially enough that he won't be a value by, like, August.

I think he'll continue to be a great. value. I think the gap between where he is and where he should be valued, there's no shot. It's going to close that much, unless he ascends similar to his teammate, Jacori Kroski Merritt from last off season. Nobody will ever do that again. He was a god in the eyes of the fantasy community. Yeah, he honestly, he truly was. All right, Melo, let's get into our biggest sleeper. This is a guy that we've been so excited about when we've talked about in a past episode and he would not have hopped into this spot, I don't think, without a lot of the recent news coming out. and talk about another guy who is going to be benefiting from a great situation.

That's Josh Downs. We've got to talk about the potential wide receiver one for the Indianapolis Colts sitting well outside of the top 36 receivers. I'm seeing him right now is the redraft wide receiver 47 and dynasty wide receiver 36, which is a little bit more acceptable. That's because he's going to be 25 years old right before kickoff. He's 24 right now. Mello, you talked up Josh Downs before in our boring players episode,

but I want to really lock in on why he's going to call. crushes ADP now. Alec Pierce, the report just came out, he's expected to at least miss the start of training camp. Just two years ago, Josh Downs led this Colts team interceptions with 72 and 107 targets. In fact, he's out-targeted Alec Pierce in every season since he entered the league. I understand that a lot of people are worried about Tyler Warren's entrance into this offense. And, you know, after Daniel Jones injury, like, I don't want to count really much of that for what happened with his production. He's obviously going to command a lot of targets suppressing Downs volume. Michael Pittman is vacating 111 targets from last year. I promise there's going to be

plenty to go around for Josh Downs. I will say this if you want to knock him in any regard. I do think this is a much, much stronger play if you're in a PPR league. I think in other scoring formats, it's a little bit more murky, but he's talked about his role expanding with the media. We've already seen him connecting with Daniel Jones a lot in OTAs. I just think it's not very often you get to pay for a guy at almost exactly his floor, which this feels like at Y Receiver 47. Absolutely. And this is one of my other guys.

I think this take his age like fine line. I've had plenty of takes age like milk, so I'm not going to go too high on my horse here. We'll shout out Camp Scadaboo, just to be humble and say we hadn't take that age like milk. I'll take an L on Camp Scataboo. But Josh Downs, I'm even more in than I was earlier this spring when I was.

was really starting to buy in. You mentioned those 107 targets a couple years ago. He had a career low last year of 88, but with Michael Pittman gone, like you mentioned, I could easily see him topping the 107 from two years ago and setting a new career high in targets, nuclear high in receptions. People are still excited about Alec Pierce with this contract he got. Tyler Warren, like you mentioned, people are still excited about. But they're letting Josh Downs hide in plain sight.

All the reports the last couple weeks have been, he's developing this. really great rapport with Daniel Jones and then of course Alec Pierce is injured like you mentioned so everything's starting to come together I don't think Downs necessarily has like wide receiver one upside sure to me he's so obviously underpriced especially in PPR like you said you put it best he's being valued at his floor and I just think that's ridiculous well I think you put it best when you say he's hiding in plain sight because I feel like every time the Colts social media is posting anything it's Daniel Jones connecting with Josh Downs at OTAs right now and I'm just, I'm so fired up.

I feel like, I felt like a Josh Downs truther, I felt like last year didn't quite go my way, but this one, all the stars are aligning in such a way that it feels so difficult to imagine him performing under his ADP outside of injury. Yeah, another post-type sleeper because like you said, last year was a little bit disappointing, but I'll plant my flag right now.

I think he leads his team in receptions. I think he will lead the Coltson receptions in 2026. I will plant the exact same flag with you. Hell yeah. And that is our five sleepers heading into the 2026 fantasy football season. If you have any sleepers we miss, leave them down below. If you agree with them or disagree with any of the ones we had, also let us know down below.

We love chopping it up with you guys in the comments. And, Melo, do you miss anything? Nothing for me. All right, we'll catch you guys next episode.