8 Fantasy Football Sleepers for Week 4

Kyle Juszczyk, RB, San Francisco 49ers

I can safely say that this is the first time I have advocated for a fullback in fantasy football. Outside of ultra-deep dynasty leagues and maybe super-contrarian plays on a single-game slate, that's just not a position you need to pay any attention to in fantasy football this century.

Kyle Juszczyk is different though. 2017 was his first year in the Kyle Shanahan-led San Francisco 49ers offense, and while he didn't see any rushing volume (his seven carries were a career-high though), his 42 targets in the passing game were in line with the 49 and 56 he had seen in his last 2 seasons.

His 10 targets through 3 games in 2018 put him on pace to top last year's mark, and things are looking even more promising with Matt Breida (knee) not practicing and C.J. Beathard set to start for San Fran.

Juszczyk was already out-targeting Breida 10 to 9 this season, but Breida was the only other back getting any real work in the passing game, as the two have accounted for 86% of the team's running back targets. Juszczyk was also on the field for a season-high 77.9% of the 49ers' snaps in Week 3, when Breida got hurt. For comparison, he played 39.4% in Week 1 and 62.5% in Week 2.

He may be a fullback by name, but he should have a real role in the passing game. And with Beathard at the helm, that becomes even more interesting.

Jimmy Garoppolo has targeted running backs on only 61 of his 263 pass attempts (23.2%) in San Francisco, while Beathard has done so on 78 of his 221 (35.3%). Running back Carlos Hyde was Beathard's most targeted player by a huge margin in 2017 (his 50 targets were 20 more than anyone else saw), and there should be no shortage of volume available for Juszczyk.