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 I like more or less than the expert consensus rankings.

Players to Target

Running Backs I Like More Than ECR

Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Player	ECR	Diff.
16	Omarion Hampton LAC – RB	20	4
23	Kaleb Johnson PIT – RB	28	5
25	Travis Etienne Jr. JAC – RB	31	6
29	Jordan Mason MIN – RB	39	10
33	J.K. Dobbins DEN – RB	44	11

Travis Etienne (JAC)

Etienne was a borderline disaster in 2024. He carried over his sluggish finish in 2023 losing work to Tank Bigsby playing in a bad offense heralded by a backup quarterback for the majority of the season. He was a flat-out bust after being a star in 2023. Although to be fair, Etienne still had a higher rushing success rate than Bigbsy, who flashed more as a boom-or-bust rusher. Etienne also battled through several different injuries.

But Trevor Lawrence will be back and healthy for 2024, and the Jaguars have hired former Buccaneers OC Liam Coen as their head coach to bring this offense back to expectations.

There will be no allegiance to either Etienne or Bigsby as the team’s starting RB and the new coaching staff could easily deploy a committee in a similar fashion to last season. In his opening presser, Coen stated that the Jaguars had two running backs who they could do many good things with. They also drafted two RBs in this year’s draft (albeit on Day 3).

But in totality, this running game is going to improve dramatically. Coen’s rushing attacks have been prolific at each stop, coming from the Sean McVay-style run game. This guy got Rachaad White over 4 yards per carry. Wizardry.

Even if the 26-year-old doesn’t get back to top 3 RB status, his one-down season hardly warrants such a drastically low ADP in a situation that looks favorable for his outlook in 2025. And so far, early offseason reports suggest he is going to stay in DUVAL county despite all the offseason trade rumors swirling around the Jaguars’ backfield.

He’s done everything the new coaching staff has asked of him, and his connection with starting QB dates back to their time spent at Clemson together. It’s too early to write off Etienne entirely after an injury-riddled 2024 season, with him going outside the top 100 in back-end RB3 territory in early best ball drafts. Bigsby and Tuten still need to prove themselves to this new coaching staff as well, given their ball security issues. I love Tuten as a rookie sleeper (keep reading), but I can acknowledge it’s not his backfield from the jump.

And if ETN gets traded to the Bears, Cowboys or some other RB-needy team, that might also be a WIN for his fantasy value.

We love targeting ambiguous backfields for upside. That is Jacksonville’s backfield. If Etienne wins the starting job, he has easy top-15 upside in this Coen offense. Etienne has an RB3 and RB17 finish on his resume after falling off in 2024 (RB36).

Wide Receivers I Like More Than ECR

Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Player	ECR	Diff.
19	Tetairoa McMillan CAR – WR	28	9
20	Xavier Worthy KC – WR	27	7
21	Jaylen Waddle MIA – WR	29	8
22	Jameson Williams DET – WR	26	4
30	Rome Odunze CHI – WR	37	7

Tetairoa McMillan (CAR)

Tetairoa McMillan lands in an ideal situation to emerge as the alpha wideout in Carolina. Drafted with top-10 capital (8th overall) the former Arizona star joins a Panthers offense in need of a true WR1. McMillan brings size, production and opportunity to a WR room featuring an underwhelming Xavier Legette and a promising but undrafted Jalen Coker. T-Mac was just one of 3 WRs in the FBS in 2023 to hit 1,396 yards, 10 TDs, and 89 receptions. The others being fellow top-10 WR draft selections: Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze. If Bryce Young takes even a modest step forward and continues to fuel fantasy success for his No. 1 target, McMillan could be this year’s breakout rookie receiver.

Players to Avoid

Running Backs I Like Less Than ECR

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Diff.
8	Josh Jacobs GB – RB	12	4
14	Alvin Kamara NO – RB	19	5
21	D’Andre Swift CHI – RB	31	10
22	David Montgomery DET – RB	27	5
26	Tony Pollard TEN – RB	30	4

D’Andre Swift (CHI)

D’Andre Swift fits the classic “dead zone RB” mold – a projected volume play with an RB2 ceiling. He finished as the RB23 in points per game last year (RB19 overall), but it was an empty workload propped up by opportunity, not efficiency. From Week 9 on, he was the RB32 in points per game. Swift ranked dead last in rushing yards over expectation per attempt on the season (-0.7). He rushed for 60-plus yards just three times in his last 10 games played. He now reunites with Bears HC Ben Johnson – the same coach who phased him out in Detroit back in 2022. Despite no clear threat to his touches, Swift’s inefficiency last season (career low in yards per carry and PFF’s 6th-lowest graded RB) makes him a low-ceiling RB2 fantasy managers should be cautious of over-drafting in 2025.

His career finishes are as follows in half-PPR: RB18, RB19, RB22, RB23, RB19. Do you really want to draft a mid-range RB2 ceiling player as the fantasy RB25 (and rising)? Again, a small win that might not be worth the risk if the bottom falls out completely. Because I don’t think that Swift rules this backfield as a true bell cow. Johnson’s tenure in Detroit should tell us that much, given how he operated with a one-two punch between David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. I also expect the Swift price to CLIMB given the lack of additions in the backfield.

All that’s behind him in Chicago’s backfield is third-year RB Roschon Johnson and 7th-rounder Kyle Monangai out of Rutgers. It should be easy for Swift to be the RB1 in the Bears’ backfield. But watch out for the rookie in this backfield. Monangai has already caught the attention of his new HC, impressing him at minicamp with his attention to detail and by picking things up quickly. Also, it wouldn’t be the first time a 7th-round RB from Rutgers took over a backfield on a team with Eric Bienemy on the coaching staff. Yes, Bienemy is the Bears’ new RB coach…

Wide Receivers I Like Less Than ECR

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Diff.
14	Tyreek Hill MIA – WR	23	9
20	DJ Moore CHI – WR	25	5
22	DK Metcalf PIT – WR	29	7
23	Courtland Sutton DEN – WR	28	5
24	DeVonta Smith PHI – WR	32	8

Tyreek Hill (MIA)

Tyreek Hill was a mega bust in 2024, but so much of his poor performance can be placed on the injury to Tua Tagovailoa. Now, admittedly, even when Tua was healthy, Hill still underperformed vs. draft expectations. In those 11 games with his southpaw starting QB, Hill went over 100 yards twice, averaging 12.4 fantasy points per game (WR18). He had a wrist injury that he dealt with from Week 1 and his yards per route run cratered to a 1.75 mark – less than half of his 2023 yards per route run. Not to mention, the Cheetah just turned 31 years old, suggesting the age cliff might be near. And let’s not forget Hill’s outburst at the end of the 2024 season, which could lead to Miami moving on from the veteran WR.