20 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 our analysts like more or less 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

Players to Avoid

Wide Receivers

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Derek Brown’s Rank	Diff.
5	Malik Nabers NYG – WR	10	5
12	Jaxon Smith-Njigba SEA – WR	20	8
14	Tyreek Hill MIA – WR	22	8
20	Marvin Harrison Jr. ARI – WR	29	9
21	DJ Moore CHI – WR	27	6

Jaxon Smith-Njigba (SEA)

Jaxon Smith-Njigba broke out in a big way in his sophomore season. He was the WR17 in fantasy points per game and really exploded down the stretch. In Weeks 9-18, he was the WR8 in fantasy points per game, ranking 11th in target share (25.4%), tenth in receiving yards per game (82.4), and ninth in yards per route run and first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). I was very bullish about Smith-Njigba last year, but I find myself worried about his 2025 outlook. The Seattle Seahawks are going to lean on their ground game more this season after ranking sixth in pass rate over expectation and fourth in neutral passing rate in 2024. Even if Smith-Njigba proves that he can pick up right where he left off, his raw target volume could dip this season. I’m also worried about him playing more on the perimeter this season. Last year, during that insane stretch, he ran out of the slot on 81.3% of his snaps. Last year, his separation (0.035 vs. 0.068) and route win rate (9.4% vs. 10.4%) were notably worse as a perimeter wide receiver, while also noting that his overall numbers in these metrics were surprisingly poor. Overall, among 112 qualifying receivers, he ranked 62nd in separation score and 88th in route win rate. Smith-Njigba could return low-end WR2 value this season, but he’s a tough player to click as a high-end WR2/ borderline WR1.
– Derek Brown

Running Backs

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Diff.
11	Kyren Williams LAR – RB	15	4
17	Chuba Hubbard CAR – RB	21	4
21	David Montgomery DET – RB	25	4
22	D’Andre Swift CHI – RB	32	10
26	Tony Pollard TEN – RB	31	5

Kyren Williams (LAR)

It feels like Groundhog Day all over again – another offseason, another round of analysts fading Kyren Williams. But this year, the concerns are more justified, in the last year of William’s rookie contract. Despite a monster workload in 2024 (nearly 400 touches, 87% snap share, both second to only Saquon Barkley), Williams was wildly inefficient – ranking near the bottom in explosive run rate, missed tackles, and YAC per attempt (akin to Najee Harris’ numbers in 2024) with fumbles to boot. The Rams spent legit draft capital on Blake Corum in 2023 (who Sean McVay thinks is a stud) and Jarquez Hunter in 2024 (who the Rams traded up for) while publicly embracing the NFL trends of a more committee-driven backfield approach this offseason. Williams could still deliver RB1 numbers on sheer volume alone, but if that volume even slightly dips, it will be tough for him to live up to his ADP.
– Andrew Erickson