Deep fantasy football sleepers - Romeo Doubs among names to keep an eye on

Anyone can play fantasy football, but to be the most successful manager possible, knowledge of more than merely the top 160 mixed-league picks is essential.

This game changes dramatically and unexpectedly. Injuries are certain to happen, roles will quickly shift, and by October you might have already turned over one-quarter of your roster — even if you're winning. Be prepared to pounce when pickups present themselves, when angling to balance trades with creative throw-ins, or even simply when your good buddy calls you on the Wednesday before opening night saying he has an opening in his 14-team half-PPR league (to which, naturally, you do not want to reply, «Wow, that's deeper than I'm used to!»).

Ready for kickoff? Sign up now to play with friends and family. Get started >>

All that is where this column comes in. Every preseason, I compile a list of deep sleepers, players who by all accounts will not — and arguably should not — be drafted in a standard 10-team ESPN PPR league, but who have decent-to-good odds at contributing sometime during the season. If an opportunity arises for any one of them, they could be just the key to a fantasy championship run.

To be clear, this is a deep sleepers column, not a space where you'll find «regular» sleepers such as Trevor Lawrence, Dameon Pierce, Rondale Moore or Irv Smith Jr., though I very much like all four as value selections. This list takes the sleeper exercise a step deeper, digging into the pool of less-familiar names, and of course with the heightened challenge comes a greater rate of failure. Often in this space we're seeking skills over roles, and roles sometimes don't align, even over 17 games.

Eno Benjamin, RB, Arizona Cardinals

As a strong example of roles failing to