Players Experts Target & Avoid (2025 Fantasy Football)

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. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players below. And you can check out which experts are higher or lower than our expert consensus rankings using our Fantasy Football Rankings Comparison Tools.

Fantasy Football Draft Advice

Let’s dive into players I like more or less than the expert consensus rankings.

Players to Target

Derek Brown’s Rank	Player	ECR	Diff.
19	Davante Adams LAR – WR	37	18
23	Kenneth Walker III SEA – RB	42	19
41	RJ Harvey DEN – RB	76	35
42	DK Metcalf PIT – WR	54	12
46	Tony Pollard TEN – RB	62	16
47	Travis Hunter JAC – WR	64	17
48	Tetairoa McMillan CAR – WR	68	20
56	Evan Engram DEN – TE	95	39
57	Kaleb Johnson PIT – RB	86	29
68	Ricky Pearsall SF – WR	105	37
69	Justin Fields NYJ – QB	104	35
78	J.J. McCarthy MIN – QB	139	61
79	Cam Skattebo NYG – RB	120	41
87	Stefon Diggs NE – WR	101	14
101	Tre Harris LAC – WR	164	63

RJ Harvey (RB – DEN)

IT’S R.J. HARVEY’S WORLD & WE’RE ALL JUST LIVING IN IT! I couldn’t be happier for Harvey and the Broncos. This is a wonderful pairing of situation and talent. Harvey and his second-round NFL draft capital land in a backfield where his only direct competition is Audrice Estime and Jaleel McLaughlin. Before the NFL Draft, Harvey was my RB5 of this class, but now, after the conclusion of the draft, he has risen to my RB3. I’m sky-high about his prospects and will be heavily overweight in the rookie draft season. It’s hard not to love a player that ranked inside the top 20 among FBS running backs in each of the last two seasons in breakaway percentage and elusive rating (per PFF). Add in Sean Payton’s running back usage, and Harvey looks primed to smash. Over the last two years, Payton has ranked fifth and first in running back target share. Harvey is in play as high as the 1.05 in every dynasty format. He’s currently my 1.07 in super flex rookie rankings.

Kenneth Walker III (RB – SEA)

It will fly under the radar that Walker was the RB12 in fantasy points per game last season. Unfortunately, his season was cut short by injuries, but if Walker can stay healthy in 2025, he could finally put it all together with a top-five running back season. Walker proved last year that not only is he still one of the best pure rushing talents in the league, but he is also a true three-down back with passing-catching chops. Among 45 qualifying backs, Walker ranked third in first downs per route run, sixth in target per route run rate, and sixth in receiving yards per game (per Fantasy Points Data). Add all of that on top of leading the NFL in missed tackles forced per attempt and ranking tenth in yards after contact per attempt, and Walker could be a league-winner in 2025.

Players to Avoid

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Derek Brown’s Rank	Diff.
10	Nico Collins HOU – WR	26	16
25	Jaxon Smith-Njigba SEA – WR	45	20
27	Kyren Williams LAR – RB	52	25
35	Breece Hall NYJ – RB	55	20
43	Rashee Rice KC – WR	80	37
44	Zay Flowers BAL – WR	61	17
53	Sam LaPorta DET – TE	66	13
55	David Montgomery DET – RB	67	12
56	Xavier Worthy KC – WR	75	19
57	Jameson Williams DET – WR	70	13
59	Chris Godwin TB – WR	91	32
79	Kyler Murray ARI – QB	100	21
80	Rome Odunze CHI – WR	93	13
87	Khalil Shakir BUF – WR	106	19
90	Deebo Samuel Sr. WAS – WR	109	19