Fantasy Football Sleepers for the Conference Championships: Samaje Perine, Jahan Dotson, John Bates

We have reached the Conference Championship Round of the NFL Playoffs! With just four teams left, we will have to dig very deep to find fantasy football sleepers. In fact, some positions (quarterback) are so shallow at this point that there aren’t any sleepers left. At the other positions, though, there are still under-the-radar fantasy football plays to be found. Let’s get started!  

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Conference Championship Fantasy Football Sleepers 

Quarterback 

With only four quarterbacks on this slate, including three dual-threat fantasy stars and the best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes, there are no true sleepers at the position this week. If you’re in a desperate enough situation where you have to start a backup, my pick would be Kenny Pickett. Jalen Hurts is banged up, and we know that the Eagles will run the Tush Push no matter who they have under center. 

Running Back

Samaje Perine, Kansas City Chiefs

I considered highlighting Ty Johnson in this spot for the third straight week, but we may actually be deep enough in the playoffs that the Bills’ pass-catching back doesn’t truly count as a sleeper. After all, Johnson is the RB7 in consensus rankings for this week. Instead, let’s slide further down to the receiving back on the other side of the AFC Conference Championship. Perine wasn’t particularly involved in the Chiefs’ first playoff game. He played just 10 snaps (20%), saw zero carries, ran eight routes, and failed to catch his only target. However, those eight routes still tied him for the lead among Kansas City’s RBs with a 26% route share. This continued a trend from the regular season, as Perine averaged a non-negligible 28% route participation rate on the year. 

While he didn’t turn that role into many points during the regular season (4.0 Half-PPR points per game), Perine should benefit from this week’s matchup against a Bills team that led the league in receiving yards per game allowed to running backs. Especially in a game where the Chiefs might be in some long third downs, Perine is a good bet to at least score a few fantasy points this week.

Kenneth Gainwell, Philadelphia Eagles

Despite being the Eagles’ clear RB2, Gainwell is the RB9 in consensus ranks this week. He is behind not just all four starters and the three other teams’ RB2s but also a third Buffalo back in rookie Ray Davis. However, Gainwell is just involved enough to have a chance to score a point or five on Sunday. 

So far in the playoffs, Gainwell has just five touches (four carries and one target) for 3.9 Half-PPR points in two games. Chances are, he will still only be involved when Saquon Barkley needs a breather. But in a game where the Eagles are six-point favorites, there’s also a marginal chance that he will get some carries late in this contest in mop-up duty. That, plus his current backup involvement, is enough to make him stand out as a sleeper for this week.

Wide Receiver 

Marquise Brown, Kansas City Chiefs

Brown isn’t a super-deep sleeper, as he is obviously one of the top receivers in the Chiefs’ offense. However, he was injured for most of the season and is coming off a complete goose egg in the Divisional Round. As a result, he is ranked outside the top receivers on a slate without many options, behind even his teammate DeAndre Hopkins — this is clearly a mistake.

Even though it didn’t translate to the stat sheet, Hollywood was the Chiefs’ clear WR2 in the Divisional Round. He tied Travis Kelce with a 71% route participation rate, good for second on the team behind Xavier Worthy. Hopkins, meanwhile, was all the way down at 42%. Brown also ranked fourth on the team in targets … he only saw two, but that still counts for something. He also showed impressive target-earning ability in his two regular-season appearances for Kansas City, posting an absurd 43% target per route run rate. If that can come through this week, he should easily outperform expectations as Patrick Mahomes’ WR2. 

Jahan Dotson, Philadelphia Eagles

Among wide receivers on teams that are still alive in the playoffs, here are the players who posted higher route participation rates than Jahan Dotson in the Divisional Round: DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin, and Xavier Worthy. That’s it. His two superstar teammates and one receiver each from the Commanders and Chiefs. The Bills, with their WR-by-committee approach, didn’t have a single receiver with a participation rate as high as Dotson’s 73%. 

Of course, route participation rate isn’t everything, and there are other clear issues with Dotson’s profile. Even in the playoffs, the Eagles have had very low passing volume. Given that Dotson is arguably the fifth option in their receiving game (behind Brown, Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Saquon Barkley), he is looking at a very small share of a very small pie. But that small slice puts him in a very comparable spot to higher-ranked players like Amari Cooper and DeAndre Hopkins, who won’t even be on the field for over half of their teams’ pass plays. I can’t use the word confidence, but fire Dotson up with hope this weekend. 

Tight End

Dawson Knox, Buffalo Bills

Despite generally being thought of as the Bills’ TE2, Dawson Knox actually ran one more route than fellow tight end Dalton Kincaid last week. Sure, he still just ran 11 routes for a 48% route participation rate, but we will take what we can get at a position that is shallow even during the regular season. Knox also tied Kincaid with two targets, a 9.1% target share. Against a Chiefs team that led the league with over 70 yards per game allowed to opposing tight ends, I like Knox’s chances to come through with an at least respectable outing this Sunday.

John Bates, Washington Commanders

After Knox, the other obvious pick for this spot is Noah Gray, who has maintained a real role as the Chiefs’ TE2. However, there is one more tight end playing a non-negligible role in their offense who deserves a shoutout. Outside of the obvious suspects (each team’s starting TE, plus Knox and Gray), only one TE ran double-digit routes in the Divisional Round. That player was also the only tight end outside of the "Big 6" to record a target. 

In case you somehow hadn’t guessed it already, that man was John Bates, the Commanders’ TE2, who saw two targets (6.5% share) on 10 routes (27% participation) against the Lions. That usage isn’t great, and he doesn’t have a great matchup with the Eagles’ defense, which was the second-toughest matchup for TEs during the season. But Bates deserves recognition as the best fantasy option at the TE position once we’re past the top six obvious names.

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.