Dark Horse Winners

These four players are forgotten or written off, but all have a sneaky opportunity to surprise your league in the fantasy playoffs. Read on to find out why … in two minutes or less.

RB: Trey Benson (ARI) 

Trey Benson looked like the Cardinals’ long-term answer at running back the moment James Conner went down, immediately stepping into lead-back duties in Weeks 3 and 4 and showing the burst and versatility that had Arizona talking about him as a future centerpiece before a knee injury slammed the brakes on his breakout.

But while he’s been stuck on IR, the backfield has completely unraveled… Conner is done for the year, Demercado has been dealing with a high ankle sprain, and the team has been forced to lean on Bam Knight and Michael Carter as stopgaps for a 3-8 offense that still hasn’t found a consistent difference-maker at the position. The twist is that Arizona’s remaining schedule quietly turns into a dream for whoever owns this backfield down the stretch, with the softest projected RB slate in fantasy from Weeks 15–17, including playoff matchups against Atlanta and Cincinnati that have been bleeding production to opposing backs.

So if Benson returns in Week 14 and turns it up over the following week, in a backfield desperate for his talent and in the friendliest RB playoff corridor on the board, he has a very real path to be the league-winning hammer people are talking about all offseason.

TE: Darren Waller (MIA) 

Waller’s been parked on IR and mostly forgotten in fantasy circles, but when he actually got on the field for Miami he immediately became Tua’s red-zone safety valve, piling up ten catches and four touchdowns in just three games while running the bulk of the routes in the passing attack.

This is an offense that already showed it can feature the tight end in its short-area game, and early in the year there were clear signs McDaniel kept that TE-focused scheming in place with Tua naturally working the middle.

His pec injury doesn’t require surgery and he already came back for Week 13 and chipped in against the Saintss. So in Weeks 15-17, he steps right into the easiest fantasy playoff schedule for tight ends: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Tampa Bay, with the Steelers and Bengals both giving up top-6 fantasy production to the position. That means Waller has an actual shot to help bring home your title.

WR: Jameson Williams (DET) 

Jameson Williams opened 2025 with the full “JaMo rollercoaster”… bottled up by Green Bay, then detonating for long scores against Chicago, before sliding back into low-yardage, drop-filled weeks that even led his OC to admit they hadn’t done right by him. But that frustration around his usage out of the bye pushed Detroit to actually build the passing game around more than just occasional go routes.

Since then, with Dan Campbell taking over the call sheet, he’s been treated like a real focal point instead of a gadget: 6–7 targets, back-to-back blowup games over Washington and Philadelphia, and deep usage that already has him near the top of the league in yards per catch, air yards, and route participation, so you’re finally getting both the volume and the nuclear plays in the same player.

The Lions have already shown they can hang big numbers on teams all year, and their playoff run of Rams–Steelers–Vikings is graded as one of the softest three-week stretches for wideouts, so if you make it to Weeks 15–17, Williams is exactly the kind of late-season detonation that can win you a title almost single-handedly. He’ll even get a bump if Amon-Ra’s Thanksgiving injury is worse than initially feared.

QB: J.J. McCarthy (MIN)

Plenty has been written about J.J. McCarthy’s season and the disaster box-scores and metrics. And now he’s dealing with a concussion that kept him out in Week 13. But hear me out. He’s shown flashes that matter: three total touchdowns in his debut comeback vs. Chicago, a road win over Detroit built on early scoring drives plus a rushing TD and game-sealing throw, and a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive against the Bears even on an off day.

The Vikings’ schedule has quietly been setting up the payoff to that story, too: they get the easiest quarterback schedule in fantasy playoffs with Dallas, the Giants, and the Lions on deck… defenses that rank first and second in fantasy points allowed to opposing QBs, with Detroit sitting 12th and capable of forcing a pass-heavy shootout.

So if you zoom out from the ugly midseason stretches and focus on a young quarterback who’s already shown clutch drive-winning plays just as he walks into a dream Weeks 15–17, McCarthy becomes the exact kind of “shock the world” fantasy league winner you want to bet on when titles are on the line.

So add these players and look smart in the playoffs… As promised, in two minutes or less.

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See you tomorrow,

-Joe

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