Our Sleepers and Top Targets for 2026

**Danny Heifetz** (0:20)
Welcome to The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifetz, and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlbeck. And today we are turning our keys on the top targets and sleepers for 2026 What are our favorite players?

**Danny Kelly** (0:30)
Yeah, we're.

**Danny Heifetz** (0:33)
Yeah. Yeah. Favorite players. Yeah.

**Danny Kelly** (0:34)
Yeah.

**Danny Heifetz** (0:35)
A couple of things before that. First of all, Netflix. We're doing the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Sorry. Ringer Fantasy Football League is back. So we're going to have Bill Simmons, Cousin Sal, Van Lathan, Sean Fantasy, Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin. Dave Chang is in the league this year. Oh, yeah. Tate Frazier. I'm forgetting someone that I forgot to say Joe House is in the league. We have everyone from The Ringer and we're going to be live drafting The Ringer League at 11 a.m. Pacific or as they call it at the East Coast, 2 p.m. or 1 p.m. Central on Friday, August 28th, live on Netflix. So check that out on Friday, August 28th.

**Danny Kelly** (1:11)
Live, baby.

**Craig Horlbeck** (1:12)
And the day before that, August 27th, the three of us will be doing a live show in Los Angeles, Thursday, the 27th at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, famous theatre that has seen acts like The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. And also is the opening for fucking Jaws. And Jaws premiered at this theatre. And that's where, where for some reason, the three of us get to do a show. So we'll be there. So come join us. There are some tickets still available. You can go to the link in the description of this episode by tickets, come see us, say hi.
It'll be a good time in Hollywood.

**Danny Kelly** (1:47)
Craig, we're going to need a bigger boat.

**Craig Horlbeck** (1:49)
There you go. You've seen it.

**Danny Kelly** (1:51)
Oh, yeah. Jaws reference Heifetz.

**Danny Heifetz** (1:54)
Oh, yeah, no, thanks.

**Craig Horlbeck** (1:56)
Jaws dies. Spoiler, I mean, I get them. They get them.

**Danny Kelly** (2:02)
Not before he takes some people out, though. Craig.

**Craig Horlbeck** (2:04)
True. Yeah, he got his licks in.

**Danny Kelly** (2:06)
Chomps them.

**Danny Heifetz** (2:07)
All right, we're going to get to our favorite players. But first, we're going to take a quick break.
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We're going to go over our top targets and sleepers for 2026 And we say top targets and sleepers because these are our favorite players based on everywhere. So it could be a first round or it could be a 14th round. The point is, in every given season, there's like somewhere between 20, 25 players that are true difference makers in drafts, like over the course of the season.

**Craig Horlbeck** (3:18)
Honestly, it's maybe even closer to like 10 to 15 that are true. Kind of like the storyline of the fantasy season. These guys changed my entire year and brought me to the playoffs.

**Danny Heifetz** (3:28)
And what it really comes down to is guys that could just having them on your team, looking at Yahoo's data or ESPN data or whatever platform you're on. Certain players can double or triple your odds of making the playoffs or winning your championship just by having them like like people with that person. Twice as likely to make the playoffs. And so what this is going to be is we're going to try to identify those huge swing home run players based on where they're going. So obviously, a 14th rounder is different than a second rounder. With that said, we're going to do it like Seinfeld style, which is the George Costanza trying to break up with his girlfriend in Seinfeld. And it's like nuclear submarine. And she's like, we both have to turn our key to break up. And he's like, turn your key, Mora, turn your key.

**Craig Horlbeck** (4:09)
No, that was a gun right from from Breaking Bad.

**Danny Heifetz** (4:12)
It is a gun from Breaking Bad. And Bryan Cranston is also in. Oh, yeah, he's in that. He's the best.

**Craig Horlbeck** (4:17)