Every draft season has a handful of players who slide past their true value because of crowded depth charts, unproven quarterback situations, or simple name recognition gaps. This year’s board is no different. Below are five sleepers: a tight end, a pair of wide receivers and a pair of running backs who all carry legitimate paths to fantasy relevance at a low ADP worth the risk.

Isaiah Likely, TE, New York Giants

Likely went from Baltimore to New York this offseason, landing in an offense that just lost slot WR Wan’Dale Robinson’s :( roughly 140 targets to free agency and is still waiting on Malik Nabers to fully return from injury. That’s a massive amount of vacated volume for a Giants passing game quarterbacked by Jaxson Dart, who led all high-volume QBs not named Patrick Mahomes in slot target rate last season exactly the kind of underneath, move-the-chains role Likely can fill.

Likely’s game has always featured downfield ability that’s rare at the position, and he arrives with built-in scheme familiarity under head coach John Harbaugh, who was his HC in Baltimore. With Nabers’ timeline uncertain, Likely has a real shot at functioning as Dart’s No. 1 pass-catcher for at least the opening stretch of the season.

Likely is being drafted as TE15 in Mike Clay’s early PPR rankings, which is in TE2 territory and behind names like Jake Ferguson and Tucker Kraft but with a much clearer path to a featured role than most tight ends drafted around him. I’ve picked him up in a couple drafts already way later than I would’ve expected. He’s one of the more consistently mentioned late-round TE sleepers across multiple outlets this summer.

Tre Tucker, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

Tucker enters 2026 coming off a season in which he led the Raiders in play-action targets (32), and he returns to a receiver room that added Jalen Nailor and second-year man Jack Bech but hasn’t unseated him from the target share behind Bowers.

Vegas also upgraded its offensive line this offseason, which should mean more clean pockets and more downfield opportunities for a receiver whose game is built on vertical speed. Tucker’s role as a play-action specialist gives him week-to-week big-play equity even in a run-funnel offense.

ESPN’s early PPR rankings have Tucker at WR64 overall, squarely in “late-round dart throw” range which is good value for a player with a clear pecking-order spot behind only Bowers in the target share. Kirk Cousins is not as bad as people say and should give Tucker a good run early.

Keaton Mitchell, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

Mitchell is no longer a Raven. Baltimore chose not to tender him as a restricted free agent, and he signed a two-year, $9.25 million deal with the Chargers, reuniting him with new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. He joins a backfield led by Omarion Hampton and Kimani Vidal.

The efficiency profile is what makes Mitchell interesting. Across three seasons in Baltimore he carried the ball 112 times for 767 yards — a 6.34 yards-per-carry average — and last season he posted a 10.2% explosive run rate and 1.37 yards per route run on just 68 touches. That’s league-leading big-play action on a tiny sample. McDaniel’s scheme has historically produced explosive rushing numbers, and while Hampton is the lead back, Mitchell profiles as exactly the change-of-pace, home-run-hitting complement that offense wants.

Mitchell is being described as a sleeper candidate rather than a lock for touches, he’s not being drafted for a definite weekly role, but as a change-of-pace flier who could spike into flex value on a big-play week, with real weeks-long value if Hampton or Vidal were to miss time. I have been drafting him in the 130 range in almost every draft because this fit and upside is just off the charts.

Malik Washington, WR, Miami Dolphins

Washington is the wild card of this group. Miami’s receiver room got overhauled. Tyreek Hill is gone, and the team added rookies Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas and Kevin Coleman Jr. through the draft but Washington’s 46 catches in 2025 were the second-highest total on the roster behind only De’Von Achane, and he’s shown real versatility as a slot receiver and gadget-package weapon (including 17 carries for 110 yards and a score on the ground).

Washington played nearly 50% of his professional snaps from the slot, which puts him in direct position battle with fifth-round rookie Kevin Coleman Jr., considered his most direct threat for that role. His per-target efficiency was rough in 2025 (4.9-6.9 yards per target depending on the source), so this is a volume bet, not an efficiency bet. The projections have him around 60 catches, 600 yards and five touchdowns if the role solidifies, which would be quiet but usable PPR production.

ESPN has Washington at WR70 in PPR rankings which is basically priced as an afterthought, even though the target competition around him is thinner than the headlines suggest. The Dolphins will inevitably find themselves in terrible game scripts (throwing a lot) so a ton of action could sneaky come from there as well.

Sean Tucker, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tucker returns to a backfield anchored by Bucky Irving, with Kenneth Gainwell brought in as the new complementary pass-catching back. Multiple training-camp previews have Tucker as the clear No. 3 back, but with real competition from Gainwell for early-down and passing-game work.

Tucker led the Buccaneers in touchdowns last season with eight, and he’s repeatedly been described as a capable three-down option and a strong goal-line weapon, the kind of role that produces spike weeks even without a heavy target share. If Irving deals with injuries again (he battled shoulder and knee issues in 2025), Tucker has already shown he can handle expanded volume in this offense.

The Syracuse bias is clearly showing, sure, but I will ride Tucker’s skills until he retires, there is so much to offer. Tucker is consistently mentioned in sleeper running back lists this summer, typically going undrafted or in the very late rounds which is cheap enough that his goal-line role and clear RB3 standing make him a solid handcuff plus touchdown equity pick even before considering the injury-driven upside case.

Thank you for reading & to RateGame for giving me this platform to write about whatever, whenever! -Philip Frank