SportsLine Flags LaPorta, Smith as 2026 Fantasy Sleepers
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- SportsLine's model simulated the 2026 NFL season 10,000 times and released fantasy rankings flagging sleepers, breakouts, and busts across every position.
- Lions tight end Sam LaPorta, cleared for training camp after a 2025 herniated disc, is projected as a sleeper with an ADP of 72; his career-high 54.3 receiving yards last season and Detroit's loss of David Montgomery (who averaged 11 touchdowns per year over three Lions seasons) should generate more red-zone work, with LaPorta averaging 0.7 TDs in six games without Montgomery versus 0.4 in 36 games with him.
- Eagles wideout DeVonta Smith is flagged after a 1,000-yard 2025 in a bottom-10 passing offense; he now becomes Philadelphia's top receiver after A.J. Brown was traded to New England, with the model drawing parallels to Jaxon Smith-Njigba's OPOY-winning 2025 after DK Metcalf departed Seattle.
- De'Von Achane validated the model in 2025 by finishing as RB6 with 1,838 scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns, comfortably outperforming his RB12 ADP.
- The model is also projecting an unnamed veteran wide receiver as a top-10 fantasy option ahead of stars like CeeDee Lamb and A.J. Brown — a name gated behind SportsLine's subscription paywall.
- Joe Burrow and Malik Nabers are cited as potential bounce-back candidates from injury-plagued seasons, following the 2025 model hits on Dak Prescott, Christian McCaffrey, and Chris Olave.
Why it matters: The model has correctly called multiple league-winning breakouts in past seasons, including Achane's RB6 finish in 2025 and Jonathan Taylor's 2021 monster year. With LaPorta healthy and cleared after a herniated disc, and Smith ascending to a clear WR1 role after Brown's trade, the model flags two players whose current ADPs (72 for LaPorta, outside the top 25 WRs for Smith) sit well below the projections — the kind of late-round gap that swings fantasy championships.
