Fantasy football’s allure never wanes, and the thrill is ever-present with the rise of best ball leagues. Even now, as we embrace and look forward to the summer time, diehards are already drafting for the 2025 fantasy football season, eager to leverage the latest roster shifts and fresh talents from the draft. That means it’s time to talk fantasy football best ball draft targets.
As the new NFL league year starts with the conclusion of the 2025 NFL Draft, we’ve got fresh starts for veterans and rookies alike. It’s the prime moment to dive into drafting. Whether you’re honing your strategy or embarking on your first best-ball journey, my essential list of prime best ball targets will steer your draft strategy on course.
Get ready, best ball excitement is about to hit fever pitch with the launch of Underdog’s Best Ball Mania VI, Drafters’ NFL Best Ball Championship and FastDraft’s 2025 flagship Flex 4 contest. Draft price can vary depending on platform, so be sure to check the 2025 best ball average draft position (ADP) tab to evaluate the best price.
This article is simple: A handful of my favorite best ball targets with brief analysis. There are two to six players per position for a total of 12 players.
Fantasy Football Best Ball Draft Targets
Quarterbacks
Justin Fields (QB – NYJ)
In 2023, Justin Fields averaged nearly 22 points per game from Week 4 onward. In his six starts during the 2024 season, Fields was the QB6 overall and QB7 in points per game (19.1). He was fourth in fantasy points per dropback (0.62).
According to Derek Brown, Fields rushed for at least 27 rushing yards in five of his six starts (surpassing 50 rushing yards three times).
The Jets’ new QB1 has similar fantasy upside to the elite QB Tier with his rushing ability. One that new head coach Aaron Glenn is all too familiar with during his tenure in Detroit as the defensive coordinator. Fields faced the Lions five times during his time with the Bears, rushing for 100+ yards in three of those contests.
The Jets’ new head coach has already expressed a desire to utilize Fields’ legs, which should be of interest to fantasy football drafters.
The passing is not nearly good enough compared to the S Tier QBs, but having his former Ohio State teammate in Garrett Wilson might help him take another step as a passer.
The Jets have also added to their offense via the NFL Draft with offensive tackle Armand Membou and tight end Mason Taylor. Both players are expected to make immediate impacts as offensive starters.
I’d also say Fields’ job security as the starter is relatively safe. They didn’t select a quarterback in the NFL Draft, and Tyrod Taylor is the backup. There will be no pressure to put Taylor in as the starter unless Fields is stringing together weeks of poor performances.
Fields is currently being drafted as the QB14 in early best ball ADP.
Drake Maye (QB – NE)
Drake Maye should be included in the top 12 fantasy quarterback conversation this season. The offensive environment in New England has only improved for Maye with offensive additions in NFL free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Pats drafted offensive tackle Will Campbell, running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receiver Kyle Williams and center Jared Wilson. In free agency, they acquired wide receiver Stefon Diggs, offensive tackle Morgan Moses and center Garrett Bradbury.
And fantasy gamers can’t afford to ignore Maye’s dual-threat skill set.
Among the seven passers in 2024 that recorded 30+ rushing yards per game (including Maye), five finished inside the top six scoring signal-callers on a per-dropback basis.
What Maye was able to achieve as a rookie in a terrible situation cannot be understated. He threw at least one touchdown pass in the 10 games he played fully as a rookie. That resulted in 18.1 fantasy points per game, which would have ranked QB15 on the year.
Maye’s current draft position is QB17, according to our consensus best ball ADP.
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Best Ball Draft Kit.
Running Backs
Chase Brown (RB – CIN)
We made it, fam. Chase Brown SZN is full-go. The Bengals’ lone addition during the 2025 NFL Draft was Texas Tech back Tahj Brooks, whom they selected in the sixth round. Zack Moss is still on the roster, but he is coming off a season-ending neck injury.
Cincinnati brought running back Samaje Perine back after his one-year stint with the Chiefs.
Ergo, the Bengals feel comfortable rolling with Brown and Perine as a one-two punch with Brooks providing a reliable depth option.
That means Brown’s fantasy ceiling and elite role (or at least close to elite) is firmly back on his 2025 projection. His role last year was elite.
Similarly to how the Rams have deployed Kyren Williams, Zac Taylor’s coaching staff has shown a willingness to deploy one back who plays almost all the snaps.
After Moss went down in 2024, Brown took over the Cincinnati backfield in Week 9. He had an eight-game streak of 90+ yards from scrimmage.
Brown was the RB5 in points per game (18.4) and the RB1 in expected points per game (22.3).
The Bengals’ emerging star was Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) 14th-highest graded rusher and unquestioned bell-cow back — exactly like his final season at Illinois.
With an elite receiving role to boot, Brown projects like a more explosive Kyren Williams in 2025. Brown ranks in the top 10 in my 2025 running back rankings and is the RB13 in early best ball ADP.
Jordan Mason (RB – MIN)
The Minnesota Vikings traded for Jordan Mason this offseason, and he is one Aaron Jones injury away from a full workload. The Vikings didn’t draft any backs in this year’s draft, and Ty Chandler fell out of favor on the depth chart last season.
I believe this is a backfield situation where Jones isn’t the clear-cut No. 1 rusher.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah spoke this offseason on his excitement for the Aaron Jones/Jordan Mason pairing in 2025. This is going to be a two-headed monster in Minnesota behind a revamped interior offensive line that has done nothing but upgrade with the acquisitions of Ryan Kelly, Will Fries and Donovan Jackson.
I fully expect Mason to take on a larger role near the goal line, given that Jones struggled immensely in this area in 2024.
Jones’ overall -17.8 rushing expected points added (EPA) was a career low.
Jones was objectively the worst running back in goal-to-goal situations last season (-14.4 EPA). I can’t tell you how many times I was convinced Jones’ touchdown regression was going to hit, just to be disappointed week after week of him getting stuffed.
Jones scored nearly six touchdowns below expectation based on his workload in the Vikings’ offense, per PFF. He led all backs in red-zone targets, resulting in an expected output that was of a high-end fantasy RB2.
In addition to finishing fourth in yards over expected per attempt and seventh in rushing yards after contact last season, Mason finished second-to-last in rushing EPA in goal-to-goal situations. Not a ringing endorsement for his future goal-line usage, but he was still better than Jones.
The ex-49ers back also ranked second in total rushing yards (667) before his injury in Week 8. Mason is being drafted as the RB38 in early best ball drafts.
Wide Receivers
Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ)
Garrett Wilson hit career-highs across the board in his third season, totaling over 100 catches for 1,104 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. The Jets’ undisputed No. 1 WR finished as the WR11 in half-PPR despite fending off top-tier competition in the form of Aaron Rodgers‘ best friend, Davante Adams.
With both Adams and Rodgers gone, Wilson is firmly back atop the Jets’ targeting pecking order with little competition behind him. Justin Fields is Wilson’s new starting quarterback, and they were former teammates at Ohio State.
Given that we have seen Fields fuel a WR6 fantasy finish before — DJ Moore in 2023 on 136 targets on an offense that ranked in the bottom-five in pass attempts per game — it’s possible Wilson’s fourth season could be his best.
Wilson has finished no worse than sixth in total targets (averaged 156 targets per season) in his three NFL seasons. The only receivers with more targets than Wilson since he entered the NFL are Davante Adams and CeeDee Lamb.
I think Wilson has a higher floor than his WR15 ADP as a late third-round pick suggests. Can you say arbitrage Malik Nabers?
Jaylen Waddle (WR – MIA)
I just can’t quit Jaylen Waddle. Even after he averaged barely nine points per game with Tua Tagovailoa last season and finished as the WR46 in half-PPR (WR56 in points per game). Jaylen Waddle took a backseat in the Miami offense with Jonnu Smith and De’Von Achane vacuuming up the underneath targets. The games Tagovailoa missed further cratered Waddle’s numbers.
It was bad.
Even so, Waddle had just as many 100-yard games with Tagovailoa as Tyreek Hill (two), although he averaged nearly three more yards per target (8.0 vs 11.0).
Waddle is also just 26 years old, and part of his down year was related to a lack of touchdowns. He scored six touchdowns in the last two seasons, compared to 14 in his first two years in the NFL.
Given how the Miami Dolphins’ season ended, I can’t imagine they run back the same offense they deployed in 2024. If Hill continues his downward trajectory or Miami moves on, Waddle will benefit greatly. We saw glimpses of his upside at the end of the year.
In three of Waddle’s last four full games in 2024, he commanded nine or more targets, going over 99 receiving yards twice and averaged over 13 fantasy points per game.
Despite the two down years, Waddle ranks in the top 15 in receiving yards through his first four seasons.
I’ll take my chances with Waddle as a fantasy WR3.
Calvin Ridley (WR – TEN)
Calvin Ridley quietly delivered solid fantasy football value in 2024, finishing with over 1,000 yards for the second straight season while leading the NFL in team air yard share (48%). While he only finished as the WR26 in total points and WR40 in points per game, he did outperform his WR35 ADP.
Ridley’s late-season surge — 11.6 points per game (WR26) after DeAndre Hopkins was traded, essentially doubling his fantasy points per game — showed what he can do as the undisputed top option.
With Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and his nine touchdowns gone, and first-overall pick Cam Ward now under center, Ridley could thrive as the clear No. 1 WR in a Brian Callahan-led offense. According to 4for4’s Justin Edwards, the Titans rank top-five in vacated targets to receivers and first to receiver targets inside the 10-yard line.
If Ward is even average, Ridley’s elite usage profile makes him a strong bet to exceed his WR37 best ball ADP. The Titans’ No. 1 WR could be a huge success in fantasy football, given his finish as the WR29 in expected points per game and WR17 in total expected fantasy points in 2024.
Keep in mind that Ridley has never finished worse than WR26 in any healthy season he has played during his NFL career.
Marvin Mims (WR – DEN)
Marvin Mims is one of the young third-year wideouts yet to fully break out that I gravitate toward drafting in 2025. I know I traded a second-round rookie pick to DBro in the FantasyPros Invitational Dynasty league last season after the Jerry Jeudy trade. And boy, did that look horrible.
But give Mims some credit because he turned it on in the second half of the season. After essentially doing nothing in the first half of the season, he exploded in the second half. From Week 11 onward, no receiver averaged a higher yards per route run (3.63).
Mims also averaged 62 receiving yards per game over this span. The Broncos wideout finished 13th in the NFL last season in target rate per route run (28%).
Mims just turned 23 years old and could take another step forward in his third season as the Broncos look to build in Bo Nix‘s second season.
Tight Ends
Evan Engram (WR – JAX)
Evan Engram is primed for a bounce-back season in 2025 after signing with a Broncos team desperate for established pass-catching help behind Courtland Sutton.
While injuries limited him to nine games last year (TE16 in points per game), Engram still averaged over five catches per contest — classic PPR production. Engram has a history of strong Year 1 impacts with new teams (TE6 in first seasons with both the Giants and Jaguars). He now steps into a likely high-volume role in Denver. If he stays healthy, a return to top-five fantasy tight end status is well within reach.
Joker tweet confirmed.
Tucker Kraft (TE – GB)
Tucker Kraft broke out in 2024, leading all tight ends in yards after the catch per reception (8.8) with an eye-popping 15 missed tackles. The Packers’ tight end ran away with the starting job over Luke Musgrave and never looked back, finishing as the TE8 overall and 10th in points per game (8.3).
The Packers’ passing game never fully got unlocked with Jordan Love constantly banged up, but this receiving corps is wide open for somebody to step up. Especially with Christian Watson suffering a torn ACL injury late in the year. The Packers did add two rookie receivers in this year’s draft — Matthew Golden and Savion Williams — but neither profiles as alpha target-earners.
Head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed at the end of last season that Kraft has the potential to be a George Kittle or Travis Kelce-type of player.
I might have already found “my guy” for tight ends in 2025.
Dalton Kincaid (TE – BUF)
The Bills’ tight end was a major disappointment in his second season, finishing as the TE29 in 13 games played. He showed virtually no weekly ceiling with just a 15% top-12 finisher rate as the TE26 in points per game (5.6) — although he left production on the table as the TE16 in expected points per game (9.0).
The usage was middling as Kincaid ran a route on just 57.5% of dropbacks, ranking outside the top 24 at the position. His saving grace was that he was hyper-targeted at a 26% clip — the fifth-highest mark among tight ends with at least 150 routes run.
Kincaid was also hurt throughout the season (reportedly playing through a torn PCL), which is likely the best justification for his sophomore slump, as noted by head coach Sean McDermott in some of his pressers after the season ended. With better health and Josh Allen at the helm, the third-year tight end could be a major fantasy steal in 2025.
Pat Freiermuth (TE – PIT)
I was very low on Pat Freiermuth until the team traded away George Pickens. This moves Freiermuth up to No. 2 in the target pecking order behind only DK Metcalf.
But what do we know about Metcalf? As much as he looks and feels like a true No.1 WR, he’s always been a 1A. Whether it was in college with A.J. Brown or during his tenure in Seattle with Tyler Lockett, the size-speed hasn’t prevented others from being productive around him.
Now, if it’s Mason Rudolph or Will Howard under center, take this suggestion with a grain of salt. But presuming the team gets Aaron Rodgers under center, Freiermuth should be set up extremely well as a late-round tight end target.
The Steelers tight end is coming off career-highs in catches (65) with seven touchdowns, finishing as the TE10 in half-PPR in 2024. He has finished as a top-10 fantasy tight end in two of the last three seasons and has finished no worse than TE14 while playing at least 16 games.
Since stats are fun, Freiermuth averaged 41 receiving yards and 8.8 fantasy points per game (backend TE1 fantasy numbers) in all games not against the Baltimore Ravens, who had his number last season.
Freiermuth is a steal as the TE20 in early best ball ADP.
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