When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Here are players to target or avoid with early, middle, and late first-round draft picks in 2025 fantasy football leagues.
Fantasy Football Draft Advice & Strategy
Early-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice
Players to Target at 1.01 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Redraft average draft position (ADP) is still taking shape, with very few changes in the past month. The most significant news has been Tyreek Hill‘s boost in value following the Jonnu Smith trade, but he’s still not a first-round selection this year. The next biggest change is Christian McCaffrey, who, now seemingly healthy, is almost a top-seven selection. If McCaffrey remains healthy through the offseason, when we revisit this in August, he might be creeping towards the first half of drafts, but for now, the top remains the same.
Making the wrong pick at 1.01 can destroy your fantasy football season before it even gets started. Just ask those who drafted McCaffrey in 2024. We’ll make the case for and against each player you should consider at the top of your drafts.
For some, this will be as simple as preferring to draft a running back at the top of the draft, and that thought process is understandable, but Ja’Marr Chase does warrant your attention. In 2024, Chase led all wide receivers in receptions (117), receiving yards (1,612) and touchdowns (16), along with scoring two more full PPR points per game than the next nearest contender, Justin Jefferson.
There used to be a thought process that Chase only blew up when Tee Higgins was injured, but last year, Chase scored more points when Higgins was healthy at a rate of 24.68 versus 21.36 points per game. The Bengals’ porous defense caused them to rely heavily on the passing game, and with very little added to solve that this offseason, it’s fair to expect more of the same in 2025. Chase has recorded over 100 receptions in back-to-back years and has gone over 1,200 receiving yards in three of his four seasons. He is as reliable as they come.
Coming off an unbelievable season, Saquon Barkley might very well be the easiest click for many heading into 2025. Barkley overcame having a lack of goal-line touches because of the Eagles’ tush push by simply rushing for 330 more yards than the next nearest running back. Barkley also notched 15 touchdowns and was a top-five fantasy back in seven weeks.
The doubts about Barkley’s role in the receiving game turned out to be fair, with him recording a career-low 33 receptions, but it simply didn’t matter because of Barkley’s efficiency in this excellent Eagles offense. The negatives for Barkley would be whether that efficiency continues, along with him having over 400 combined touches in the playoffs and regular season.
The history of running backs seeing that much volume tends not to be kind to them in their next season, which is why it’s not as straightforward as some may like. The last time a running back repeated as the fantasy RB1 in back-to-back years was Priest Holmes in 2003. History is very much against Barkley’s odds here.
Unlike Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson has had to deal with a healthy or perhaps unhealthy amount of quarterback turnover in his time with the Minnesota Vikings. That hasn’t stopped Jefferson from producing, though, averaging 96.5 receiving yards per game throughout his career with no year below 87.5. For reference, only five players averaged above that mark in 2024, one of whom was Jefferson.
The last time that Jefferson was the WR1 was 2022, and he’s been a mainstay in the top five receivers in PPR points per game since 2021. That kind of consistency can be worth paying up for. The case against Jefferson would be that he’s playing with an inexperienced quarterback in J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury. If both Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson are also on the field, there are a lot of mouths to be fed.
Sometimes, rather than going off who finished highest last year, it can pay to take a more forward-thinking approach. Bijan Robinson ranked third among running backs in rushing yards (1,456) and scored only two fewer touchdowns than James Cook and Derrick Henry, who led all backs with 16 scores during the fantasy season.
Robinson also ranked first out of 46 running backs in the lowest proportion of his runs being stuffed at the line of scrimmage and ranked in the top two in success rate in both man and zone scheme runs, per Fantasy Points. In the receiving game, Robinson trailed only Jahmyr Gibbs with 58 receptions. He scores touchdowns, accumulates a lot of yards and earns targets — it’s the recipe we want to look for in the potential overall fantasy RB1.
Middle-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice
Roster Constructions to Consider at 1.05 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
The 1.05 opens up many roster construction possibilities, but it will largely come down to how you start your draft for how you want to proceed. If you take CeeDee Lamb, there will still be top running backs available when it’s your turn to pick again, like Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs, and you’ll have access to the top-end quarterbacks and tight ends.
If you go running back to start the draft, the receivers who make it back are a little less appealing, with A.J. Brown and Ladd McConkey both having enough doubts surrounding them to stop them from being first-round talents. Because of this, you might find it easier to go with a Hero RB build with your first running back coming from either the first or second round. If you lean into a Dual RB build, it can become much harder to build a nice wide receiver room.
Fantasy Football Mock Draft From the 1.05 Pick
We used our FREE fantasy football mock draft simulator to show you an example of a draft from the 1.05 position. You can sync your league for free and mock draft against your fantasy football league settings to prepare more specifically for your draft.
Here’s how our fantasy football mock draft from the 1.05 position turned out.
Late-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice
Players to Avoid at 1.10 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
It was a strange 2024 season for A.J. Brown. He recorded the second-highest target share among wide receivers (31.1%) and the fifth-most receiving yards per game (83). However, he finished as just the fantasy WR16 in total PPR points. Even on a per-game basis, this only jumped to WR13.
Brown’s 7.5 targets per game ranked 23rd among receivers, which highlights the uphill battle he faced while Saquon Barkley had a season for the history books.
Perhaps if Barkley regresses this year, or if the Eagles trend differently under new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, Brown can move back into the top tier of receivers. For now, the pick 1.10 is too costly for a player with question marks.
Let’s be clear, Ladd McConkey had an excellent rookie season, culminating in a dominant performance in the playoffs with 9/197/1 against the Texans. However, there are reasons to be skeptical that he could live up to his current ADP, which is edging towards round one.
Last year, the Chargers’ run game wasn’t effective, despite J.K. Dobbins‘ best efforts, and the Chargers elected to clean house and move on from both Dobbins and Gus Edwards, while seemingly sending Sione Vaki to the shadow realm. Najee Harris was signed in free agency and Omarion Hampton was added in the draft.
Both represent significant upgrades and should allow long-time ground-game lover, Greg Roman, to play to his strengths more. If that generates a more efficient offense, the need for passing could drop slightly. That is always a concern for receivers, like McConkey, who depend on volume. McConkey is an OK pick in the second round, but drafting him here would be a mistake.
Draft Advice for Every First-Round Pick
