6 Sleepers to Target in Sleeper Fantasy Football Leagues

Aug 18, 2026

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In terms of fantasy football apps and platforms, Sleeper continues to be one of the fastest-growing and most adaptive platforms to host a league. Leagues on Sleeper can have between eight and 24 teams. Everything in the scoring roster is customizable, and you can add or remove categories to your heart's content. The default league today is PPR, one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, two flex, one defense, and five bench spots. But anything and everything can be changed.

For this piece, we will focus on sleeper picks on the Sleeper platform (Sleeper sleepers, perhaps?) based on Sleeper's average draft position (ADP) for default redraft leagues. The list of players who are going outside the top 100 picks on that site will be where we focus our attention. These picks might have other ADPs on alternate sites, and what it makes them valuable is that they might be going much earlier on other sites, based on the 4for4 Multi-Site ADP Tool.

Below are six sleepers to target this draft season on the Sleeper app.

Kenny Gainwell, RB - Buccaneers (Sleeper ADP: RB40, 109.7 overall)

Towards the end of the 2025 season, Kenny Gainwell became an indispensable fixture in the Pittsburgh passing game while also earning more carries and goal-line opportunities. His receiving ability (73 catches for 486 yards and three touchdowns) gave him a very safe floor from week to week, even if he wasn't the nominal starting running back. From Week 11 to the end of the season, Gainwell averaged 14.7 fantasy points per game, which was a top-12 number in that span.

Now, Gainwell comes to Tampa Bay and enters an offense that no longer has its passing-down back (Rachaad White), and Bucky Irving has not been trusted along the goal line in his tenure in Tampa Bay. At this price, and knowing that Sleeper is a default PPR format, I am taking Gainwell whenever I can. He is going in the 10th round, when he could end up being a top-24 running back if things break right for him.