Our mission here is simple. We’re in search of the football holy grail. The fantasy football breakouts. Not some dynasty taxi squad stash for next year. Not some handcuff insurance policy. And not some long-term sleeper who is going to snooze on our bench until Week 14. We want guys who are going to wake up and breakout THIS week.

It’s a pretty difficult task that we’ve assigned ourselves, only looking at players under 40% rostered on Yahoo and asking them to show up and ball out. By the nature of this self-assigned torture, we probably aren’t going to hit on a name from this article every week. Luckily, we did in last week’s article with Tre Tucker, who had 5 catches on 7 targets for 119 yards and a touchdown. But there is a reason most of these guys aren’t rostered. There are also some reasons that they COULD break out this week. So let’s take our stabs. 

Week 3 Quarterback Sleepers

Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns

Look, I totally get it if you don’t want to roster this guy in fantasy football - especially in casual leagues. Fantasy football is supposed to be fun. But some of us play in high-stakes leagues like the ones over on sites like FFPC. Some of those leagues are tournaments with literal million-dollar prizes. I really don’t care how I get the fantasy points needed to win a million dollars. Even if I win that million dollars, I’m probably not going to buy a Deshuan Watson jersey any time soon. And, because of the stigma around this guy, he’s available in virtually every single QB league. He’s probably out there in shallow superflex leagues even.

And, I have to admit, it’s suddenly not that crazy to envision him breaking out for fantasy football. Despite the lowlights that have been thrown at us, Watson has actually been pretty serviceable throwing the ball when you sit down and watch every play from both games. He has pretty interesting weapons in Denzel Boston, Harold Fannin, KC Concepcion, and Quinshon Judkins. And, on the other side of things, if you take all QB run plays and remove the scrambles, kneel-downs, and sneaks to just get actual designed runs, there are three guys tied with the most at five. It’s Josh Allen, Tyler Shough, and Deshaun Watson. Todd Monken is trying to use Deshaun Watson the way he was used when he was actually good, and so far, he’s QB13 in fantasy. The Panthers allowed Caleb Williams to hang 59 points in Week One (in Week Two they faced a team that doesn’t have a QB). With all the QB injuries, folks might end up having to hold their noses and add Watson next week. 

 

 

 

Week 3 Running Back Sleepers

 

Kaleb Johnson, Green Bay Packers

Kaleb Johnson has not had a good start to his NFL career. He was drafted fairly early during the last year of the Mike Tomlin era but hardly played. Then the Mike McCarthy crew came in, and they didn’t like him either. So they shipped him off to the Green Bay Packers, who are dealing with a Josh Jacobs off-field conundrum. 

The season started with Marshawn Lloyd handling early work and Chris Brooks taking on the pass duties, especially the pass blocking. But neither has been particularly exciting. What if Kaleb Johnson is the best back in that room and he just needed to get up to speed with the playbook to show it? In Week One, he played zero snaps while Brooks played 38 and Lloyd played 30. This past week, Brooks played 27 while Lloyd played 16 and Kaleb Johnson also played 16. What if that continues to trend in Johnson’s direction here in Week 3? With Jacobs potentially coming back at some point from this suspension, all three of these guys have a limited window to show they deserve to be the guy before that happens. 

Eli Heidenreich, Pittsburgh Steelers

We originally had Jonah Coleman in the article but he was ruled out with an ankle injury. So we are pivoting deeper. In Week One the Steelers ran a split backfield that saw Jaylen Warren start and Rico Dowdle skew towards pass protection. Dowdle actually got all nine pass block snaps to zero for Warren. That saw Dowdle play more in a negative game script. In Week Two, however, Dowdle got hurt and landed in a walking boot. It's probably just a veteran rest day but it's worth noting that Jaylen Warren did not practice today. 

The Steelers went thin at running back so they have only been carrying those two guys and rookie Eli Heidenreich. With Dowdle likely out, they will likely call up one of Lew Nichols or Travis Homer from the practice squad for depth. But that could see Heidenreich get some work in the pass game where he thrived in college. In fact, Heidenreich was primarily a pass-catcher with 109 receptions in college and 169 carries (a fairly low number for a running back). That usage earned him the nickname The Swiss Navy Knife and we could see him operate in a pass-catching role this week. Aaron Rodgers absolutely loved dumping that ball off last year which saw Kenneth Gainwell get 73 targets so anyone operating in that role could have relevance in PPR. 

 

Week 3 Wide Receiver Sleepers

Malachi Fields, New York Giants

We write two different waiver wire articles. We have a free one that covers the top adds here. Then we have a members-only one called Streamers & Stashes that gets into the real deep-cut waiver options. So, while everyone is adding guys like Denzel Boston, Rashod Bateman, Adonai Mitchell, and Tre Tucker (our sleeper WR hit last week), we try to pull a sneaky on folks by getting one step ahead with this article and that top-secret waiver article.

Malachi Fields really isn’t that big of a secret - nor should he be. He was great at Notre Dame and, through two games, he’s basically a full-time NFL wide receiver opposite Malik Nabers. The fact that he is already playing over veteran Darnell Mooney as a rookie right from the rip tells you how the Giants feel about him. Well, now his quarterback is Jameis Winston, who loves playing “huck it, chuck it” football. In fact, in that one game Monday night, Malachi Fields had 132 air yards (top 12 for WRs) as Winston could not help but just bomb the ball down the field to him. He only had 25 yards because he couldn’t haul them in, but we have to ask ourselves - what if he starts catching some of these bad boys? 

Jahan Dotson, Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons offense has been aggressively bad. And that's largely because they their top TWO quarterbacks have been hurt. Not only have Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix been out, but both players are left handed so the Falcons needed to make some pretty big last minute adjustments to cater the offense to the right handed Cooper Rush. Rush, as we know, was terrible which saw Jack Strand enter the game and promptly throw a pick six on his first pass.

Now Michael Penix is ready to take over. And that creates a new catalyst for change here that could lead to a number of outcomes. Historically Kevin Stefanski's offense has run through the X and the Y which will hopefully boost Kyle Pitts. But Jahan Dotson has quietly been playing virtually the whole game and maybe Penix will have an affinity for him. There are a lot of situations around the league right now where a WR is playing more because anotther WR is hurt - with this one, there is nothing stopping Dotson from holding this role down. 

 

 

 

Week 3 Tight End Sleepers

Kenyon Sadiq, New York Jets

I know we had Sadiq in here last week. And he didn’t break out last week. But we have a new development here. This thumb injury to Mason Taylor is reportedly more serious than we originally expected. It’s now looking like he’s going to miss some time. And even just a brief window of opportunity is sometimes all our guy needs to run with it, as we saw with Harold Fannin and David Njoku last year. The same could be said for Trey McBride, where they inevitably traded Zach Ertz away after. 

Sadiq is a freak athlete with explosive upside given his literal 100th percentile speed for the position, so we want him on our benches BEFORE he rips off some 60-yard touchdowns. With Omar Cooper Jr. on IR and now this injury to Mason Taylor, the Jets are running low on meaningful weapons alongside Garrett Wilson and Adonai Mitchell. 

Where Do We Rank The Fantasy Football Breakout Sleepers This Week?

The toughest question, week in and week out, is whether you should just start the “safe” guys you have or whether you can just throw a dart at this week’s possible breakout. Lucky for you, we rank every one of these guys for PPR, half PPR, and standard rankings every single week. So check out the Fantasy Alarm Weekly Rankings to see exactly where these guys fall compared to the other options out there. If it’s anywhere close, it’s always more fun to throw in that sleeper!