If you're reading this Early RB Sleepers for fantasy football piece in late March, you're just as much the fantasy football degenerate that we are. Welcome. What follows are three of our favorite early-offseason sleepers, one from each of Matthew Freedman, Dwain McFarland and Pete Overzet, to get you started with a leg up on your leaguemates this offseason. And, in case you missed it, make sure to check out the rest of our early positional sleepers for 2026:

• QB Sleepers for 2026 fantasy football
• WR Sleepers for 2026 fantasy football

Fantasy Football RB Sleepers For 2026

Nicholas Singleton | Rookie

Freedman: Nicholas Singleton is a rookie currently ensconced in the deepest of slumbers. He has little chance to be a true difference maker in 2026: That's why he's a sleeper.

But if circumstances break his way, he could massively capitalize on his opportunity and become a league winner.

The No. 1 RB in the 2022 recruitment class, Singleton received offers from almost every major college program.

At Penn State, HC James Franklin preferred a rotation at RB, so Singleton (playing alongside classmate Kaytron Allen) never had a dominant campaign with the Nittany Lions, but he was consistently productive (4,448 yards, 54 TDs in 53 games), and as a junior, he had a borderline great season (1,474 yards, 17 TDs in 15 games).

So what makes me enthusiastic about him in the NFL if he never owned his college backfield?

First, Singleton has legit speed. He didn't work out before the draft because of a foot injury suffered in Senior Bowl practices, but we know he's an athlete: Basically, every five-star recruit is, and in college, he hit a top-end speed of 23.6 mph via GPS tracking. Dude can scoot.

On top of that, across his four-year college career, Singleton demonstrated that he has the size (219 pounds) to be a workhorse, the receiving (102-987-9) to be a three-down player and the kick returning (48-1,138-1) to be an all-around weapon.

After Jeremiyah Love, Singleton might be the No. 2 RB in the 2026 draft class.

Jonathon Brooks | Panthers

Dwain: Jonathon Brooks is not only a player who will leave you second-guessing how to spell "Jonathon" for the rest of your life—he's also an RB who could leave you second-guessing why you passed on him late in 2026 fantasy drafts.

The 2024 second-round pick missed most of his rookie year due to a late-season ACL tear in college. Once he returned, he tore the same ACL, missing the remainder of 2024 and all of 2025. Damn those injury gods. That means we're depending on modern medicine to unlock an electric playmaker with passing-game upside—which makes him a sleeper.

If Brooks were in this year's draft class, he'd rank as my RB2 behind Jeremiyah Love. The former four-star recruit bided his time behind Bijan Robinson before breaking out with 1,139 rushing yards, 10 TDs and 6.1 yards per carry in his third season at Texas. He added 25 receptions for 286 yards and a score.

Brooks was hard to bring down. His career 34% missed-tackles-forced rate sits in the 83rd percentile since 2017, and his 4.1 yards after contact lands in the 60th percentile. He was a capable pass blocker who rarely fumbled—a back with multiple paths to playing time and the electricity to carve out a larger role.

Chuba Hubbard figures to open the season as Carolina's No. 1 back, but Brooks could challenge as the year progresses. Just last season, Rico Dowdle took over this backfield. This coaching staff rides the hot hand, and Brooks offers oven-mitts-hot upside.

Blake Corum | Rams

Pete: I know it might seem like Kyren Williams is immortal at this point, that he will outlive us all … but he is, indeed, human. In fact, he's a 5-foot-9, 195-pound back who has now logged three straight seasons of 250-plus touches.

And last year we finally saw hints that a changing of the guard is underway …

After essentially redshirting his rookie season, Corum pushed Kyren into a timeshare down the stretch of the 2025 season. From Week 14 on, Corum wrestled away 37% of the rushing attempts, as well as 40% of the attempts inside the 15-yard line.

Most importantly, though, Corum has been more efficient with his touches, averaging 5.1 yards per carry on 145 attempts vs. Kyren's 4.83 YPC on 259 carries.

Considering there is a 70-pick gap between the two Rams RBs in most fantasy formats right now, there are two ways you can win by selecting Corum in your draft:

• Corum flips Kyren as the 1A back for a Rams offense that will once again be tops in the league in scoring
• Kyren gets hurt and Corum becomes an automatic top-10 start every week
   

Even in worst-case scenarios—the backfield split remains the same in 2026—there's still enough standalone value for Corum to justify the selection in the back half of drafts.

That means at current prices, Blake Corum has almost zero downside risk and plenty of upside to smash his ADP.

Corum isn't the backup because he's worse … he's the backup because he got there second. And this is the year that chronology no longer matters.

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