Wide Receiver Sleepers to Target in 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts

Brett (@FadeThatMan) offers up a list of wide receivers that could exceed expectations in 2026.

Brett Ford
Rankings 2026 3 Hours Ago

Wide receivers are an enigma. All of them. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But NFL teams need to keep them happy to make their offense hum like a well-oiled machine… and so do fantasy managers.

So how do we identify the ones that will exceed expectations in the upcoming season so that we can scoop them up before our league mates do?

 

Ricky Pearsall, SF

ADP: 99 Overall, WR41

I’m on the record as a certified Brock Purdy hater. But the main argument that I’ve made consistently is that the only reason he has been so good on paper is because of the elite weapons around him. Enter Ricky Pearsall.

I don’t know why, but his name kind of reminds me of an 80’s action hero – like the plucky underdog who overcomes adversity to win whatever martial arts competition he’s entered to avenge his relative. He’s definitely going to be the subject of a training montage at some point of the movie. 

Anyway… Yes, I know. The 49ers brought in the future Hall of Famer Mike Evans, and still have the best pass-catching running back in the league lining up in the backfield, and will likely have one of the league’s premier pass-catching tight ends returning from injury, and they drafted a wide receiver in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft. I know all of these things, and yet I still can’t stop myself from drafting Pearsall as my WR3.

Both of Pearsall’s pro seasons have been derailed by injury. He’s only played 20 of a possible 34 regular season games. But we saw a significant improvement in his per-game stats last season from his rookie year, a sign of growth and development. Pearsall jumped from 4.2 targets per game in 2024 to almost 6.0 per game in 2025, from less than 3.0 receptions per game to 4.0, and should continue that growth trajectory in 2026.

Of his nine games in 2025, I believe we really only saw Pearsall truly healthy in five of them – the first three complete games of the season before he suffered his injury in Week 4, and then the final two games of the year after the bye week against Tennessee and Chicago. In those five games, Pearsall played 80% or more of the snaps and recorded at least 80 receiving yards in four of them, ending up with four top-24 WR finishes. I realize this is cherry-picking at its finest, but when the draft cost is cheaper than names like Michael Wilson, Makai Lemon, and DK Metcalf, the cherries that we’re picking are the size of watermelons. The ceiling is there for solid WR2 production if he stays on the field. And the draft price is too good to ignore so far this preseason.

Cue the montage.

 

Stefon Diggs, FA

ADP: 156 overall, WR55

No doubt about it, Diggs is a risk entering the season, especially with the pending allegations and all the other off-field nonsense that he may or may not have been involved with. There are concerns here, but they’ve been more than baked into the draft cost. Diggs came into 2025 with a similar question mark surrounding his fantasy performance (albeit more injury-related than conduct-related) and shattered expectations with a 1,000-yard season in New England. AND he managed to get there without ever playing more than 46 offensive snaps per game. He was on the field for less than 60% of the Patriots’ offensive snaps in all but three games in the regular season, averaging a hyper-efficient 2.74 yards per route run (5th in NFL). He ranked first in the NFL with an 83.3% catch rate and dropped just two targets all season long. Diggs came out and said that he’s better than every WR2 in the league. And you know what… he’s (mostly) right.

As of this writing, Diggs has yet to sign with a team. It’s almost a guarantee that as soon as he puts pen to paper on a new contract, his draft price will skyrocket. Currently, he’s being drafted as WR55 all the way down in the 14th round of 12-team drafts with lottery ticket guys like Rashid Shaheed, Denzel Boston and Jalen McMillan. Unlike any of those names, Diggs has a legitimate chance to register 100+ targets and gain over 1,000 yards yet again, assuming he falls into the right situation. I’d happily rank him inside my top-36 at the position, making him a WR3/Flex play with the ceiling to be even more than that. The latest news as of late July is that both the Ravens and Commanders are interested in the former University of Maryland Terrapin. He would immediately become the second-best wide receiver on either of those rosters.

 

Tory Horton, SEA

ADP: 284 overall, WR101

The Seattle Seahawks stormed through the playoffs, won the Lombardi Trophy, marched through their city in a huge parade, and did it all without their breakout rookie wide receiver, Tory Horton. Granted, Horton really only broke out in the first half of Week 9 against a below-average Washington secondary, but man, it was beautiful to watch. Horton hovered around 40-50% snap share for the first few weeks of the season, but after the Seahawks’ Week 8 bye, it appeared that they made it a goal to get Horton more involved. Not only was he heavily targeted in that Week 9 game against the Commanders, but he was also on the field for 72% of offensive snaps. Now with a full offseason to learn and develop into the Seattle system (and with Cooper Kupp another year older), Horton has the chance to grow into a larger role.

Granted, the Seahawks acquired Rashid Shaheed immediately after Horton’s injury and then re-signed Shaheed in the offseason to a long-term deal, so there are certainly some obstacles to overcome. However, I fully believe that we have more to see from Horton and that he has a chance to cut into Shaheed and Kupp’s workloads this season. And he’s absolutely risk-free in pretty much every draft format.

I know that July in the NFL is “The Best Shape of My Life” season, but to see Horton – who missed the final three months of the 2025 season with a shin injury – do THIS on the first day of training camp? Chef’s kiss.

 

 

Treylon Burks, WSH

ADP: N/A – He isn’t even listed.

This one is downright nasty and could be completely derailed if Diggs signs with the Commanders in the coming days, but Burks is exactly the type of receiver that Washington requires for Jayden Daniels to be successful. The stats look terrible, the game logs are paltry. But Burks had one of the most electric catches of 2025, highlighting just how good he CAN be if given the chances (especially in the red zone).

Some of the reason that Burks’ game logs look so gosh darn awful is that over half of his targets were categorized as “Uncatchable” (which should include his highlight reel touchdown below, even though he obviously caught it). Burks has battled injury, fought for playing time, and worked almost exclusively with below-average quarterbacks and mostly suspect offensive play-callers throughout his entire career. Now he enters 2026 with a clean bill of health, the best quarterback he’s ever played with in Daniels, and a highly-thought-of play-caller in David Blough.

Still only 26 years old, there’s still time for the once-revered wide receiver (who was drafted as Tennessee’s heir apparent to AJ Brown) to break out, and what better place and time to do it than in Washington’s shallow receiver room? His main competition for WR2 this season is Luke McCaffrey, Dyami Brown, and rookie Antonio Williams. There aren’t many places that Burks would have a shot at consistent snaps, but Washington is one of them for sure.

 

Photo by Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)