Fantasy Football ADP & How to Use for Drafts (2025)

Average draft position or “ADP” gets tossed around a lot this time of year, in the peak of fantasy draft season, but what does it mean and how should you use it?

What is Fantasy Football ADP?

As the name suggests, average draft position (ADP) is a representation of when a player is typically selected in fantasy drafts. You’ll notice that ADP can often vary based on the platform and/or the scoring system.

For example, players are valued much differently in redraft, best ball and dynasty, which could be something to take advantage of by comparing the largest discrepancies. Since ADP is primarily driven by projections, full PPR versus half-PPR versus non-PPR can also create a significant change in value.

How to Use Fantasy Football ADP in Drafts

Although ADP is a useful tool to gauge the market and see when players are coming off the board, it isn’t an exact science, especially in home leagues. The data tends to be more accurate in high-stakes leagues or large field tournaments such as FFPC’s Main Event and Underdog’s Best Ball Mania. That said, every draft room is different, and players will still get selected a lot earlier or later than expected.

This is even more apparent in the midst of late-breaking news, where projection models and ADP sources have yet to adjust to the news. If you’re drafting this week, you may see Commanders running backs Austin Ekeler and Jacory Croskey-Merritt, or “Bill” for short, get selected far ahead of their ADP, continuing to rise after the recent report that Brian Robinson Jr. could be on the move, opening up the backfield.

There isn’t anything wrong with “getting your guys,” but it’s important to try to stay within the parameters of ADP to ensure you draft the best team possible. As mentioned earlier, reaching ahead of ADP can sometimes be encouraged if a player is mispriced in their new role or a change in situation.

However, if you’re participating in a large-field tournament, you may be better off passing on the big-time risers, likely getting them at their worst price. The inverse can be said about fallers, who might be worth scooping up at a discount depending on the circumstance. Due to a lot more uncertainty and volatility in projections, ADP becomes less of a factor the later you get in drafts.

Here at FantasyPros, we gather a composite ADP that consists of consensus draft values across the most popular league hosts that can be filtered based on the scoring setting and also includes redraft, best ball, dynasty and even rookies. We also now feature Real-Time ADP: