Fantasy Football Week 15 Cheat Sheet: Deep Sleepers to Target
This is it, folks.
Week 15 of the 2022 NFL season means the fantasy football playoffs have arrived. The stakes are at an all-time high, as one mere misstep could shatter your dreams of a fantasy title—and a year's worth of bragging rights.
Let's not allow that to happen, yeah?
To help give you the best chance for success this weekend, we're spotlighting our favorite sleeper—rostered in fewer than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues, per FantasyPros—at each of the three marquee positions.
Quarterback: Mike White, New York Jets (28 Percent Rostered)
The injury bug has become an increasingly annoying presence in the fantasy football world, and it hasn't spared Mike White. Unlike recently sidelined signal-callers Kyler Murray (torn ACL) and Jimmy Garoppolo (foot), though, White at least has a chance to play this weekend.
He's officially questionable with a rib injury that limited him at Wednesday's practice, but if you have a need at quarterback, his upside is high enough to make a waiver claim now and hope for the best.
While White hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in two weeks, he is averaging better than 300 passing yards per contest. He also has a chance to bounce back in a massive way against a leaky Detroit Lions defense.
Detroit has allowed the most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season, per Yahoo, and most recently allowed Kirk Cousins to throw for 425 yards and two scores.
Running Back: Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers (37 Percent Rostered)
If you have the time, you might want to track injury reports before making your additions at running back. With question marks swirling around players like Rhamondre Stevenson (ankle), Dameon Pierce (ankle) and, to a lesser extent, Josh Jacobs (finger), it's possible that an injury replacement would shoot to the front of the line of potential pickups.
If you can't wait that long, though, Chuba Hubbard is an intriguing option.
He may not get as many opportunities as D'Onta Foreman, but the Panthers clearly want to keep both running backs involved. Hubbard has handled 31 carries over the past two weeks (Foreman, for context, has received 45) and caught all three of the passes thrown his way. That has given Hubbard 164 scrimmage yards and a score over this stretch.
The Steelers have a decent run defense, but it's leaky enough to allow multiple fantasy-relevant performances by opposing running backs. Just last week, J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards combined for 186 yards and a score on 28 carries against this defense.
Wide Receiver: DJ Chark, Detroit Lions (49 Percent Rostered)
Detroit's aerial attack is heating up, and DJ Chark is a big reason why.
His last three weeks have all helped out fantasy managers savvy enough to roster him. He's had two touchdown catches and two games with 90-plus receiving yards over this stretch. In one outing, he checked both boxes.
There's a bit of risk here, to be clear. He's only seen 18 targets in this stretch, and the Jets aren't an easy matchup for opposing wide receivers (third-fewest points allowed).
Still, he's hot enough to perhaps overcome all of that, and if he does, he should be worth keeping around. The schedule softens going forward, as he'll draw the Carolina Panthers next week and the Chicago Bears after that.