Lords and Ladies, welcome to the 2025 fantasy football season. After several excruciating months without football, we have finally entered the beginning of the preseason, with opening kick-off just a few weeks away. Teams will begin to whittle down their rosters and make essential decisions on positional battles, injuries will make fantasy managers lose their collective minds and we will start to hear of how many “shares” of a particular player you’ve invested in.
Fall is right around the corner. Wahoo.
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Fantasy Football Stashes to Draft
I’ve already started to receive my fair share of questions on social media (follow me over on X @Roto_Wizard) about keeper selections, sleeper picks and which rookies I’m high on for 2025. I cannot wait to share my opinions with everyone. Yet my recommendations aren’t blanket statements — everyone participates in different league formats, sizes and rulesets.
Playing in an eight-team league where every squad is loaded with talent forces a different mindset with bench slots and streaming positions like tight end and defense. Fantasy football rankings and point values will differ for managers participating in a standard format versus PPR. And so on.
Deep leagues (in my opinion) are those with at least 12 managers. Ten is the typical-sized format, and anything smaller is typically reserved for more recreational purposes. Playing in a deep league is undoubtedly a challenge — the waiver wire is usually pretty barren, competition for adding talent is heightened and trades between owners will have a dramatic impact.
I love playing in a league like this, where research and effort are rewarded, rather than point totals mirroring an NBA All-Star game. Competition creates innovation. How are you going to strategize building your squad? Should you punt a particular position in favor of loading up another? And are there some players you might be willing to stash in the hopes they pan out?
Lesser-rostered players (in this article, I’ll set the bar at 35% rostership) with breakout potential can carry managers to the playoffs, providing necessary bench depth and security. Yet, not every player should be considered a stash. Filtering out the options that would need to catch 4-5 breaks to reach relevance will make this an easier task.
Philadelphia Eagles running back Will Shipley is one Saquon Barkley hamstring pull away from being the week’s top waiver wire add. It would take more chaos to have someone like Dameon Pierce, George Holani or Carson Steele find themselves in that position.
I’d encourage managers to consider factors like depth chart competition, the team’s offensive potential and play-calling scheme when choosing stash candidates. It is much easier to envision a scenario where Keaton Mitchell could potentially break out in a run-heavy Baltimore Ravens offense than Tahj Brooks of Cincinnati, considering how often the Bengals pass the ball.
Here are a few players I consider upside stashes worth adding in deeper formats, who have the potential to be league-winners if they catch lightning in a bottle.
Fantasy Football Deep-League Stashes
Trey Benson (RB – ARI)
I was elated when Arizona drafted Trey Benson in the third round last season, having watched plenty of his game film while at Florida State. A 6-foot-1, 211-pound back with fantastic burst and soft hands, Benson seemed like the perfect complement to veteran thumper James Conner, especially considering Conner’s lengthy injury history.
Sadly, the Cardinals didn’t give Benson a real opportunity. He finished with just 69 touches in 13 games as a change-of-pace option alongside Emari Demercado. When given a chance, he performed well enough, averaging 4.6 yards per carry (YPC) behind a middling Cardinals offensive line.
I’m optimistic the team realizes they need to ease Conner’s workload in his age-30 season, and this will become more of an actual split in 2025. Benson is an upside handcuff with the potential to explode. Banking on Conner to remain healthy for a full season in consecutive years isn’t wise.
Luther Burden III (WR – CHI)
Luther Burden checks off all the boxes one would hope for with a stash candidate. Elite athletic traits? Yes. High draft status to ensure quality reps? Yes. Playing on a team that will throw the ball early and often? Absolutely. Under a head coach with a brilliant mind who knows how to get the ball in the hands of his playmakers? Double check. Any glance through Burden’s projections and bios will result in finding the phrase “a lot of mouths to feed in this offense.”
What happens if they were slightly whittled down? Burden is expected to slide in as the primary slot option instantly for the Bears, a role that produced a 70/744/7 season from elder statesman Keenan Allen in 2025. Burden has significant big-play potential and is a nightmare to tackle in open space. He is set to find himself in plenty of single-coverage snaps, with opposing defenses focusing on fellow wideouts DJ Moore and Rome Odunze. He’s well worth a dart throw later on.
Ben Sinnott (TE – WSH)
Am I going to include a player who barely saw the field in his rookie season, catching just five passes for 28 yards and a score? You bet. Fans who watched Ben Sinnott during his time at Kansas State constantly compared his skillset to George Kittle or Sam LaPorta — an outstanding athlete who isn’t afraid of getting dirty in pass protection, with upside as a receiving threat down the seam.
Yes, the presence of veteran Zach Ertz looms large ahead of him on the depth chart, but Ertz is now 34 years old, and I refuse to believe he will duplicate his 66/654/7 statline from last year. Ertz provided a security blanket for then-rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, but I foresee the Commanders getting Sinnott, the former 53rd overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, involved early and often this season. I’m willing to add pieces of this potent Washington offense in the hopes that things break correctly.
Cedric Tillman (WR – CLE)
Cedric Tillman appeared to be on his way to a breakout season last year before a concussion derailed his sophomore campaign. The primary beneficiary of the trade that sent Amari Cooper to Buffalo, Tillman’s sharp uptick in snaps resulted in three consecutive weeks of at least six receptions and 75 yards, making him a popular waiver wire add during the bye weeks for fantasy managers.
Tillman’s ability to work all over the field, coupled with the Browns needing to claw back during “garbage time” constantly (thanks to a porous defense), led to him averaging nearly 10 targets per game from Weeks 7-11. The quarterback situation for Cleveland is uninspiring, at best, with journeyman Joe Flacco the presumed Week 1 starter.
Say what you will about Flacco, but he can still sling the ball downfield (he threw multiple touchdowns in 10 of his 12 starts last season). Tillman will compete with Diontae Johnson for the No. 2 WR duties, and I expect him to win this camp battle in short order.
Will Shipley (RB – PHI)
Is there a more valuable handcuff running back than Will Shipley in 2025? Call me crazy, but I was dumbfounded to see his rostership percentage sitting at 3% in ESPN leagues. Why? What? Look, though it pains me to say this as a diehard New York Giants fan, Saquon Barkley is an absolute stud. But even studs break down.
Barkley is coming off a season where he led the league in carries (despite sitting all of Week 18) and totaled 482 touches last year (including the playoffs). That amount of wear and tear is unsustainable, and Barkley has a track record of dealing with lower-body soft-tissue injuries that force him off the field.
Shipley is a former fourth-round selection out of Clemson, capable of holding his own if afforded the opportunity. He runs behind the league’s best offensive line, capable of opening up massive running lanes to exploit at will. Shipley started the Eagles’ first preseason game against Cincinnati, dominating touches on the first two drives of the game. He appears to have locked down the backup role over A.J. Dillon, and he would be an immediate RB2 if an untimely injury popped up.
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