10 Draft Picks Experts Target (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 our analysts like more than the expert consensus rankings.

Players to Target

Wide Receivers

Derek Brown’s Rank	Player	ECR	Diff.
4	Brian Thomas Jr. JAC – WR	8	4
11	Davante Adams LAR – WR	17	6
12	Mike Evans TB – WR	16	4
18	George Pickens DAL – WR	34	16
19	DeVonta Smith PHI – WR	25	6

Brian Thomas Jr. (JAC)

Overall, last year, Brian Thomas Jr. was a stud as the WR11 in fantasy points per game, ranking fifth in deep targets and 15th in red zone targets. As good as those numbers are, they still underrate his upside in 2025 if he can continue what he did down the stretch last year. In Weeks 13-18 last season, he was the WR2 in fantasy points per game. During that span, among 72 qualifying receivers, he was fourth in target share (31.6%), seventh in yards per route run (2.78), fifth in receiving yards per game (98.8), and 17th in first downs per route run (0.108, per Fantasy Points Data). Thomas Jr. posted those numbers with Mac Jones tossing him passes. What do we think he’ll do in 2025 with Liam Coen at the controls and Trevor Lawrence back? It could be a magical season for Thomas Jr.
– Derek Brown

Running Backs

Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Player	ECR	Diff.
20	TreVeyon Henderson NE – RB	25	5
24	Kaleb Johnson PIT – RB	29	5
28	Travis Etienne Jr. JAC – RB	34	6
30	Jordan Mason MIN – RB	38	8
36	J.K. Dobbins DEN – RB	57	21

Kaleb Johnson (PIT)

The Steelers jettisoned Najee Harris and drafted his replacement as their lead back in the third round of the NFL Draft. Last year, Harris operated in an offense that was fourth in rushing attempts as Harris soaked up 299 touches (10th-most). Even if we lower those year-one expectations for Johnson, even 250 touches would have ranked 21st in the NFL. Johnson brings a big play ability that has been lacking over the last 2-3 years. Last year, not only did he rank fifth in breakaway percentage, but he was also eighth in yards after contact per attempt and 14th in elusive rating (per PFF). My love for Jaylen Warren hasn’t dissipated, but we have to listen to the Steelers with their move to acquire Johnson’s services. Warren will likely operate in his usual role while Johnson does the heavy lifting for Arthur Smith’s run-centric offense. Johnson is an RB2/3 who could be an RB1 down the stretch in 2025 if he can distance himself further from Warren better than Harris ever could.
– Derek Brown