There have been 24 wide receivers drafted outside the position's top 50 in preseason ESPN ADP since 2016 who went on to post top-24 numbers in PPR points per game. Aka ... there have been roughly 2.4 AWESOME late-round sleeper wide receivers per season over the last decade.
You know what that means: It's time to identify this year's BEST sleeper wide receivers in an effort to win our fantasy league and own bragging rights over friends, coworkers, family and enemies alike.
As always: It's a great day to be great!
Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Sleepers
| WR SLEEPER | TEAM | ADP |
|---|---|---|
| Xavier Worthy | Chiefs | 50 |
| Josh Downs | Colts | 52 |
| Travis Hunter | Jaguars | 63 |
| Jerry Jeudy | Browns | 56 |
| Ryan Flournoy | Cowboys | 76 |
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Xavier Worthy, Chiefs
Ian rank: WR38
ADP: WR50 (pick 120)
Xavier Worthy's first two seasons in the NFL haven't exactly been filled with fireworks, but he did really get going in the back half of his rookie year. Overall, he averaged a robust 17.1 PPR points per game (WR15!) from Weeks 11-Super Bowl, though his decrease in aDOT (11.9 vs. 7.5) reflected the potential for some of these opportunities to dry up when Rashee Rice is healthy and available.
Which happened … after Worthy returned from dislocating his shoulder via Travis Swift-Kelce friendly fire on his third snap of the season. That is the big thing: Andy Reid himself said the Chiefs didn't want to put certain plays on Worthy's plate even after he returned:
"That was a unique deal … We kind of, after that, were afraid to do certain things with him. I think him coming back healthy opens up that whole picture you saw during [last year's] training camp, where he had a whole bunch of different routes in there."
Even giving Worthy a complete redshirt for working as just the WR57 in PPR points per game upon returning from injury doesn't exactly lead to an open-and-shut evaluation. As mentioned, Worthy didn't really get a ton going as a rookie until the Chiefs started leaning into more layups for the skinny speedster, and the deep ball has been a work in progress to say the least (though not all the deep-ball miscues have exactly been on the receiver).
Conclusion: Still just 23 years young, Worthy enters his third year as the clear-cut No. 2 WR in this Patrick Mahomes-led attack. The team's OTA MVP (!) worked as an upside WR2 the last time we saw him healthy for a two-month stretch. This really seems like a good opportunity to draft a first-round talent in a potentially great offense far closer to this floor than ceiling — especially when considering a bet on Worthy is a bet on Rashee Rice finding another way to mess things up and end up in jail on the sideline. This goes wrong if the Chiefs add one of the remaining free-agent WR uncs to this offense, but for now I'm a BIG fan of Worthy's upside at the Round 10-11 turn.
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Josh Downs, Colts
Ian rank: WR41
ADP: WR52 (pick 126)
While Josh's brother Caleb has understandably gotten most of the attention this offseason, the Colts' rising fourth-year receiver has actually had a lot break his way ahead of the season:
Field-stretching extraordinaire Alec Pierce is back in Indy, but Michael Pittman was shipped to Pittsburgh. Removing Pittman really opens up more targets in the underneath and intermediate areas of the field for Josh Downs and Tyler Warren — it's not a coincidence Downs racked up 19 targets in his only two career games with Pittman sidelined.
It'd make a lot of sense if we see a less-mobile Daniel Jones more willing to get the ball out quickly coming off last year's season-ending *right* Achilles tear (aka his power/plant foot).
The only added pass-game competition during free agency was Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, whose one-year, nothing-burger deal hardly solidifies him a major role. Downs has a better chance than ever to finally earn a full-time spot in two-WR formations — something the coaching staff has been happy to back up.
And hey, don't just take my word for it: RotoWire Projections rank Downs 28th in targets among all wide receivers. That's good for a top-5 difference between projected targets and APD at the position! And that's before even considering the reality that Pierce (ankle) is still recovering from offseason surgery, which COULD mean even bigger things for Downs from a volume perspective … as long as that injury doesn't cause the Colts to take a look at someone like Keenan Allen or Stefon Diggs in free agency.
Conclusion: 25 in August, Downs is firmly in his prime years and suddenly profiles as a candidate for triple-digit targets in an offense that flashed an elite ceiling with Jones healthy in 2025. Throw in the potential for the injury gods to maybe chill out for once — people forget Downs had annoying August ankle and hamstring injuries to deal with in each of the last two seasons — and you have a talented separator looking at the biggest workload of his career in an offense with a high ceiling priced outside of the position's top-50 players. That sounds like a pretty solid late-round dart to me!
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Travis Hunter, Jaguars
Ian rank: WR54
ADP: WR63 (pick 165)
It would make sense if the team's depth at receiver, and lack thereof at corner, leads to more snaps on defense compared to offense for Travis Hunter this season, although that's not a guarantee. After all, Coen said, "The plan has not changed at all" when discussing Hunter's position in the 2026 offseason. This was backed up even more recently in late July.
Look, Hunter's relatively slow start out of the gate wasn't ideal for fantasy managers looking for an early boom, but he did flash some serious upside with an 8-101-1 performance the last time we saw him (with most of the production coming in the second half of a blowout, to be fair). Still, my eyes tell me this is a special talent in terms of his ability to make contested catches and pick up yards after the catch. This is EXACTLY the sort of talent fantasy managers should target at receiver in the later rounds of drafts.
Conclusion: Ultimately, in crowded situations like these, I've typically leaned toward just taking the cheapest involved talent — and that is Hunter ahead of 2026. Not to suggest Brian Thomas Jr., Parker Washington and/or Jakobi Meyers are bad picks at cost, but a rotation certainly feels possible, and who's to say Hunter can't emerge as the best of the bunch? Reminder, we are talking about the No. 2 overall pick from the 2025 NFL Draft! Don't you think the Jaguars might want to prove to the world that they weren't crazy to trade up for a WR/CB in the first place? Hunter checks the boxes we want in terms of talent, age and offensive environment — let's not completely fade a late-round dart at the position because we aren't super sure of his volume in July.
Check out our fantasy football ADP report for a comprehensive tool with live-updated ADP data for multiple league formats and sites.
Jerry Jeudy, Browns
Ian rank: WR56
ADP: WR65 (pick 173)
Here's my three-pronged pitch for why Jeudy is a quality late-round pick:
1. Jerry Jeudy is one of just 11 receivers to gain 1,200-plus receiving yards in a season since 2024. Eight of those have a top-15 ADP among the position. Malik Nabers would be too if not for his injury. Brian Thomas Jr. is at WR31. And Jeudy? WR66! Did having Jameis Winston help? Sure, but watch some of the tape yourself: This is a good football player!
2. The man just turned 27 in April and still showed some underlying goodness despite last season's porous counting numbers. Consider: Fantasy Points had Jeudy as the league's 14th-best receiver in separation win rate, and his average separation score (ASS, lol) was 34th — right in line with guys like Chris Olave, Ladd McConkey and Jameson Williams.
3. Browns GM Andrew Berry said Jeudy was still their bell cow when asked about the decision to draft Concepcion and Boston. The Browns have 58 million reasons to continue keeping this man heavily involved in their offense.
Conclusion: It's pretty rare to find receivers in the middle of their prime *one* season removed from a 1,200-yard season in Round 16, ya know? And hey, where would Jeudy rank if he DID get traded to a WR-needy team like the Commanders, Colts or Chiefs? I'm guessing much higher!
Ryan Flournoy, Cowboys
Ian rank: WR62
ADP: WR78 (pick 221)
Do me a favor and watch this.
Ryan Flournoy is fun, man!
Sure, the 2024 sixth-rounder didn't do much of anything as a rookie, but he effectively forced out former third-rounder Jalen Tolbert (now on the Dolphins) and supplied 6-114-0 and 9-115-1 booms when CeeDee Lamb was out. His numbers in yards per route run (1.75, 31st among 78 WRs) and targets per route run (20.6%, 38th) were solid, while both ESPN (WR25) and PFF (WR22) said he was certifiably good.
I get it: Flournoy isn't someone we're going to feel excited about slotting into lineups in September. Even then, he's the No. 3 WR in a high-octane passing attack who will be featured in waiver-wire articles of all shapes and sizes should the Boys be without either of their top two receivers at any point this season.
Conclusion: Flournoy is a deeper-league target more than anything in the early going; just realize he's one of those late-round receivers who is *one* injury away from having fantasy nerds of all shapes and sizes SCREAMING to pick him up on the waiver wire. So if you have the bench room, be a cool kid and have him stashed before it's the cool thing to do!
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