Alright, Week 10 is breathing down our necks, and you know what that means. Time to dive deep and try to unearth some sleepers. My lineup needed a bit of juice, felt like I was leaving points on the table, so I rolled up my sleeves this week.
My Process for Digging Up Sleepers
First things first, I just scanned who was even out there. Checked the waiver wire in my league, saw the usual suspects. Then, I started thinking about what a ‘sleeper’ really means to me. It’s not always some super unknown guy. Sometimes it’s just a player folks are down on, or someone whose situation changed.
Here’s kinda how I approached it:
- Matchups, Matchups, Matchups: This is always big for me. I started looking at which defenses are struggling against the run or the pass. Who’s got a leaky secondary? Who can’t stop a goal-line plunge? That helps narrow things down fast. I saw some talk about maybe looking at receivers against Dallas, for instance. Got me thinking about guys like Jalen McMillan – could he find some space there? It’s that kind of thinking.
- Opportunity Knocks: Injuries are rough, but they create chances. I spent a good chunk of time checking injury reports. Who’s out? Who’s questionable? The backup often steps into a ton of work. So, I looked hard at those situations. Who’s the next man up?
- Usage Trends: I don’t go super crazy with stats, but I do look at snap counts and targets from the last couple of games. Is a guy quietly seeing more field time? Is the quarterback starting to look his way more often? Sometimes you spot a trend before it blows up.
- Gut Feeling & Filtering Noise: Yeah, I see what the experts say. Some of those guys are sharp, no doubt. I might read a few takes just to see if I missed something obvious. But you gotta take it with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, I try to trust my own eyes and gut based on the matchups and opportunities I see. Too much noise can just confuse things.
Where I Landed (Kind Of)
After going through all that, I’ve got a short list. I’m definitely keeping an eye on that McMillan situation I mentioned, just based purely on the potential matchup giving him a shot to outperform expectations. Found a running back or two who might get more work if the starter is limited. Looked at a tight end playing a team that struggles to cover that position.
It wasn’t about finding some magic bullet. It was about putting in the time, looking at the matchups, seeing who might get more chances this week than usual. You try to connect the dots.
Honestly, you do all this homework, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it busts. That’s fantasy football, right? But going through the process, doing the digging myself, feels better than just grabbing a name off a list. Now, we just wait and see what happens Sunday. Fingers crossed one of these guys hits.
