Get ready for your fantasy football draft with our fantasy football draft day cheat sheets. Our analysts dive into their favorite fantasy football draft targets and sleepers, as well as overvalued players and busts they’re avoiding in drafts. Let us help you prepare for your fantasy football draft with our cheat sheets! And use our Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet Creator to create your cheat sheet using our expert rankings, notes, and player tags.
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Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet
Fitz’s Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet
Let’s start with three guiding fantasy football draft principles:
1. Tailor your draft strategy to the number of WRs your league requires you to start each week.
I can’t emphasize this enough: The number of wide receivers you’re required to start each week is the most important setting in your league.
If your league requires you to start only two receivers each week, you can choose between RBs and WRs in the early rounds based on where the value is. You have tactical flexibility.
If your league requires you to start three receivers each week, WR becomes a critical position, and you should attack it aggressively in the early rounds. Your goal should be to outgun nearly every team in your league at the WR position since you’re starting so many WRs each week.
2. Take advantage of discounts on high-upside rookies.
This should be a tenet of your draft plan every year, but it’s an especially good approach this year, with an outstanding group of rookie running backs entering the NFL.
The top rookies are often underdrafted because they haven’t played in the NFL yet, and it’s human nature to fear the unknown. But rookies with early-round draft capital have historically been good fantasy bets.
3. Chase Upside
Upside is important. You need to draft a lot of players with plausible ways of delivering high-ceiling outcomes. Even if such players have rock-bottom floors in their range of possible outcomes, invest anyway.
You’ll miss on a few of these types. That’s what waivers are for. The potential rewards outweigh the risk of a low-end outcome.
Five-Word Draft Tip: Pay attention to league settings.
DSTs to Target
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Minnesota Vikings
- Detroit Lions
- New York Jets
DSTs to Avoid
- Houston Texans
- San Francisco 49ers
Check out Fitz’s full Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet 
DBro’s Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet
Late-Round Value Picks
- J.J. McCarthy
- Dak Prescott
- Brock Purdy
- C.J. Stroud
- Matthew Stafford
- Evan Engram
- Cam Skattebo
- Mark Andrews
- Jordan Mason
- Jayden Higgins
- Christian Kirk
- Darnell Mooney
- Tre Harris
- Bhayshul Tuten
- Tank Bigsby
- Joshua Palmer
- Mason Taylor
- Jarquez Hunter
- Brashard Smith
Bhayshul Tuten found a port in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Liam Coen and company hope that Tuten can pull their offense up the scoring ranks in 2025. Ok, that’s enough tugboat references. Tuten will compete from the jump for touches with holdovers Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby. Etienne looked like a shell of his former self last season, so Bigsby might be the most formidable adversary to a Tuten takeover. That doesn’t mean that Tuten and Bigsby couldn’t form a solid committee. Tuten has the juice to make the most of his touches. During his final collegiate season, he ranked tenth in yards after contact per attempt and breakaway percentage and eighth in elusive rating (per PFF). Tuten is an upside flier who could pay off handsomely in 2025, much like Bucky Iriving did last year.
Check out DBro’s full Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet
Erickson’s Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet
Early-Round Value Picks
- CeeDee Lamb
- Christian McCaffrey
- Nico Collins
- Drake London
- Davante Adams
- George Kittle
- Xavier Worthy
- Kenneth Walker
- Tetairoa McMillan
- James Conner
- George Pickens
Despite entering his age-30 season, James Conner showed no signs of decline in 2024. He finished as the RB11 overall and RB14 in fantasy points per game, matching Kenneth Walker while playing 13-plus games for the first time since 2021. His 283 touches translated into 1,508 total yards and nine touchdowns, reaffirming his bell-cow status in an improving Arizona offense. Over the past two seasons, Conner ranks 10th among all RBs in total yards from scrimmage,
Check out Erickson’s full Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet
Joe’s Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet
Rookies to Target
- QBs: Cameron Ward
- RBs: Ashton Jeanty, TreVeyon Henderson, RJ Harvey, Kaleb Johnson, Cam Skattebo
- WRs: Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, Jayden Higgins, Tre Harris, Kyle Williams, Jack Bech
- TEs: Tyler Warren
The Panthers finally gave Bryce Young a true WR1 this season with their selection of Tetairoa McMillan. The Carolina Panthers selected McMillan inside the top ten in the NFL Draft. McMillan could be a wonderful volume hog this year in what looks to be an ascending passing offense. Last year, in Weeks 12-18, when Young was hitting his stride, the Panthers ranked 13th in neutral passing rate. We could see that number increase this year with a true number one option leading the way. Last year, during that same stretch, Young ranked eighth in CPOE, fifth in deep throw rate, 12th in highly accurate throw rate, and second in hero throw rate (per Fantasy Points Data). McMillan is an incredibly talented receiver who can step up quickly. During his final two collegiate seasons, he ranked 17th and 21st in yards per route run. He’s a battle-tested man coverage beater as well. In 2023-2024, McMillan had the third-most and the tenth-most man coverage targets (among FBS wide receivers) while also ranking eighth and tenth in yards per route run against man coverage (per PFF). Don’t be surprised if McMillan is a WR1/2 in his rookie season.
Check out Joe’s full Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet
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