Fantasy Football Sleeper: Opportunity Knocks For De'Zhaun Stribling

With training camps finally underway, we are finally poised to get some meaningful news and nuggets.

I think it’s fine for us to constantly calibrate based on “coachspeak” and things of that ilk—I mean, what else are we supposed to do in June?—but ultimately we want to be indexing on things like usage/deployment, which unit they are getting reps with, and, of course, injuries.

Speaking of which, yesterday we learned that Niners WR Christian Kirk strained his calf on the first day of camp.

That might not sound like a big deal with the first San Francisco game still 44 days away, but Grant Cohen, a plugged-in beat reporter, thinks it is unlikely that he will be on the active roster for Week 1.

That’s a pretty relevant nugget for a team in which we are definitely interested in knowing who the WR3 will be behind Mike Evans and Ricky Pearsall.

It certainly gives me more confidence that rookie De'Zhaun Stribling has a clearer path to playing time to start the season as opposed to being blocked by a wily veteran.

In that same piece I linked to above, Cohen slotted him into the “good” column from Day 2 of Niners camp:

“When he gets a free release and can run a stop route, a go route or a crossing route, he's brutally difficult to stop, particularly on play-action passes … He's not a great route-runner, but he's a great athlete who's built like an NFL wide receiver.”

Stribling is our consensus WR58, so don’t go crazy or anything, but the fact that he could be on the field right away in 3-WR sets would alter his projection.

He’s cheap enough now—ADP 171.13 on Underdog, even cheaper in redraft—that he’s worth a speculative dart.

And speaking of consensus rankings …

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Check out both his superflex and 1QB rankings, all in one spot. ⤵️

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Published Jul 28, 2026, 6:00 AM ET