FantasyPros Staff | Sat, Aug 16th 2025, 7:19am EDT

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy & Advice (2025)

Pat Fitzmaurice has gone position-by-position to provide you with fantasy football draft strategy and advice. Here’s how Fitz is preparing for his fantasy football drafts. His primers include fantasy football draft strategy, targets, rankings, tiers, and more.

Here are each of Fitz’s complete Fantasy Football Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE

Below we dive into some of his fantasy football draft strategy and advice for each position.

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy & Advice

Let’s explore some fantasy football draft strategy and advice from Pat Fitzmaruice for each position.

Quarterbacks

The big question is how much to invest in the quarterback position. Is it best to draft one of the top quarterbacks in an early round, or to focus on other positions in early rounds and draft a quarterback later?

There is obvious appeal to investing in a top quarterback. The quarterbacks who provide needle-moving rushing stats on top of their passing stats are highly valuable.

Josh Allen has averaged 24.2 fantasy points per game over the last three years, never averaging fewer than 22.6 fantasy points per game in any of those seasons.

Allen’s average draft position (ADP) is 28 overall, so he’s typically drafted early in the third round in 12-team leagues. Players with similar ADPs include receivers Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Terry McLaurin, and backs Chase Brown and Kyren Williams.

If you wait to draft your top quarterback, Kyler Murray and Jared Goff are among the other options. Murray has averaged 18.5 fantasy points per game over the last three years (but has missed 15 games over that stretch). Goff has averaged 18.2 fantasy points per game over the last three years.

While Allen is either the first or second quarterback selected in most fantasy drafts, Murray has an ADP of QB0 (78 overall) and Goff is at QB10 (85 overall).

Murray is typically drafted in the mid-seventh round of a 12-team draft; Goff in the early eighth round. Wide receivers with ADPs between Murray and Goff are Deebo Samuel, Calvin Ridley and Rome Odunze. The one running back with an ADP in that range is Tyrone Tracy.

You could draft Allen in the early-to-mid third round and one of Samuel, Ridley, Odunze or Tracy in the early-to-mid seventh round.

You could also draft one of Wilson, Smith-Njigba, McLaurin, Brown or Williams in the early-to-mid third round, and either Murray or Goff in the early-to-mid seventh round.

Is the 2025 fantasy scoring gap between Allen and Murray/Goff going to be bigger than the gap between the third- and seventh-round wide receivers/running backs?

The key factor to this is opportunity cost. At what point do we get an affordable opportunity cost for drafting a quarterback rather than a player at another position?

In a 1-QB league, you only have to start one quarterback, but you have to start somewhere around 5-6 running backs and wide receivers, depending on lineup configurations. And it’s good to have depth at those positions to guard against injuries and underachievement.

You can probably guess which way I lean in the early versus late quarterback debate. I tend to load my shopping cart with receivers and backs early on and find my quarterback somewhere from the sixth to eighth round range.

I don’t want to be underpowered at wide receiver in any PPR league or in any league that requires you to start at least three wideouts. While I’m willing to be a bit more patient at running back, I generally like to get one in the first three rounds and another by the end of the seventh round.

QB2s to Target & Avoice

Target: Drake Maye

Drake Maye is my favorite draft target at the quarterback position. We want quarterbacks who add rushing value, but the most prolific running quarterbacks of 2024 — Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels — are all going to be expensive in 2025 drafts.

Meanwhile, Maye’s potential rushing value isn’t as obvious, but it’s there. As a rookie, Maye started 12 games and had 421 rushing yards and two touchdown runs. As a sophomore at the University of North Carolina, Maye had 698 rushing yards in 14 games.

Remember that college quarterbacks’ sack yardage counts against their rushing yardage. Maye lost about 200 yards from his rushing total that year. In his two seasons as a college starter, Maye had 16 touchdown runs in 26 games, so it’s probably fair to expect more than two touchdown runs this year.

Also, Maye acquitted himself reasonably well as a passer despite seeing NFL defenses for the first time and having a terrible supporting cast. The Patriots have since made upgrades to their offensive line and pass-catchers.

If you want to wait it out at quarterback and still draft one with top-10 or even top-five potential, Maye is your guy.

Avoid: C.J. Stroud

C.J. Stroud was terrific as a rookie in 2023 and disappointing in 2024. His decline last year was more about a terrible offensive line than it was about Stroud himself.

The thing is, Houston hasn’t significantly upgraded its offensive line, so a return to 2023 glory probably isn’t in the cards.

Check out Fitz’s full Quarterback Fantasy Football Draft Primer

Running Backs

Running back is usually a volatile, unpredictable position. Weirdness at the RB position is the norm in fantasy football.

It’s unusual to get a season in which there’s relative stability and predictability at running back. The lack of RB weirdness made 2024 a weird year.

The Christian McCaffrey affair was an exception, of course. McCaffrey was the consensus 1.01 in fantasy drafts, and it wound up being a Hindenburg-level disaster for the people who drafted him.

McCaffrey had calf and Achilles issues in training camp that 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and McCaffrey himself downplayed. McCaffrey missed the first eight games of the season and wound up playing only four games.

There were some pleasant surprises, too, including Bucky Irving, Chase Brown, Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle.

But otherwise, the RB position was unusually stable. Of the top 12 running backs by half-point PPR average draft position, eight actually finished as RB1s, and two of the misses (McCaffrey and Isiah Pacheco were injury-related).

Of the 12 running backs with ADPs in the RB13-RB24 range, nine finished as RB2s or better in half-point PPR scoring, and two more (Rhamondre Stevenson, Kenneth Walker) were near-misses.

One reason for the unusual predictability at the RB position was an atypical dispersion of injuries. Normally, running backs have higher injury rates than wide receivers, Last season was an exception. McCaffrey and Pacheco were the only running backs to miss significant chunks of the season due to injury.

Meanwhile, the upper reaches of the WR position were shredded, with Brandon Aiyuk, A.J. Brown, Nico Collins Stefon Diggs, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Tee Higgins, Puka Nacua and Rashee Rice all missing at least three games.

What does this mean for 2025?

After a year in which we had less RB volatility than usual and more injury-related WR volatility than usual, we might see more of a lean toward running backs in the early rounds of 2025 fantasy drafts.

The question is whether it’s wise to load up on running backs in the early rounds.

The key consideration is the number of wide receivers you’re required to start every week.

If you only have to start two wide receivers, you aren’t obligated to aggressively attack the WR position. It’s acceptable to merely keep up with your competitors at wide receiver as long as you’re building positional advantages elsewhere.

But if you have to start three receivers, investing heavily in the WR position is imperative.

Wide receiver is a crucial position in 3WR leagues simply because receivers make up such a large percentage of your starting lineup. If your league requires you to start 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE and 1 FLEX, at least 37.5% of your non-defense, non-kicker starters will be WRs. That percentage jumps to 50% if you put a WR in the flex spot.

In a league where you only have to start two wide receivers every week, drafting a pair of running backs in the first two or three rounds is a viable strategy.

In a league where you have to start three wide receivers every week, pounding the RB opposition in the early rounds puts you at risk of shorting yourself at the WR position — a position that has amplified importance because you have to start so many.

Later-Round RBs to Target & Avoid

Target: Austin Ekeler (WAS)

He’s falling through the cracks in drafts, but Ekeler is a proven performer playing in an ascendant Washington offense. Ekeler scored double-digit PPR points in 8-of-12 games last season and finished RB31 in fantasy points per game. When Brian Robinson Jr. missed a pair of midseason games with a hamstring injury, Ekeler had 134 yards from scrimmage and scored three touchdowns in those two contests.

Avoid: Rico Dowdle (CAR)

He’ll draw late-round interest after his 1,000-yard rushing season for Dallas, but the Panthers gave Dowdle a one-year, bare-bones contract to be Chuba Hubbard‘s backup.

Check out Fitz’s full Running Back Fantasy Football Draft Primer

Wide Receivers

The most important setting is the number of wide receivers you have to start each week.

If you’re only required to start two wide receivers, it’s OK to be somewhat laissez-faire in your approach to drafting wide receivers. It’s acceptable to merely keep pace with your competitors at the WR position, provided you’re building positional advantages elsewhere.

But if you’re required to start three receivers, you should invest heavily in the WR position.

Your goal in 3WR leagues should be to overwhelm your competitors with superior WR firepower. Ideally, your WR4 will be better than everyone else’s WR3 and perhaps even better than some people’s WR2.

In my 3WR leagues, at least three of my first five draft picks are wide receivers, and in many drafts, four of my first six picks are receivers.

The scoring system is another important league setting.

Full-point PPR leagues tend to drive up the overall value of wide receivers — particularly the high-volume receivers. Standard (or, if you prefer, “non-PPR”) leagues reduce the overall value of receivers and close the gap between high-volume receivers such as Garret Wilson and lower-volume, big-play receivers such as Jameson Williams.

Middle-Round WRs to Target & Avoid

Target: Calvin Ridley (TEN)

Ridley has topped 1,000 yards in each of the last two seasons. He averaged 15.9 yards per catch and 1.86 yards per route run in 2024 ,even though the Titans had one of the worst QB situations in the league. No. 1 draft pick Cam Ward is an aggressive downfield thrower who should help boost Ridley’s fantasy value, and Ridley has little target competition in Tennessee.

Target: Jerry Jeudy (DEN)

Jeudy hit career highs last season in targets (145), receptions (90) and receiving yards (1,229). Jeudy should remain the top target earner in Cleveland despite the Browns’ offseason addition of mercurial WR Dionte Johnson. The Browns’ QB situation is messy, but veteran Joe Flacco is one of the quarterbacks in the mix, and he’s been a rainmaker for pass catchers late in his career. Over the last three years, Flacco has averaged 283.9 passing yards and 1.9 TD passes a game over 15 starts.

Avoid: Travis Hunter (WR, CB – JAC)

Hunter was a two-way star in college, shining as both a WR and CB. The Jaguars have said they plan to use Hunter primarily as a WR but will also give him snaps at CB. I’m worried Hunter might play less WR and more CB than people are expecting in 2025. If Hunter gets significant playing time on defense, he isn’t going to have a snap share of 90% or higher the way most top receivers do. His snap share could be closer to 70%. And Jacksonville does not have a good group of cornerbacks. It might be very tempting for the Jags to ramp up Hunter’s defensive usage if opposing WRs are lighting up the Jacksonville D. And it’s hard to see Hunter drawing enough targets to be a fantasy difference-maker as long as Brian Thomas Jr. is healthy.

Avoid: Josh Downs (WR – IND)

The Colts are likely to have mediocre quarterbacking this season, with Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones competing to be the starter. Even if the Colts get better QB play than expected, rookie TE Tyler Warren could quickly become a focal point of the Indy passing game and steal a lot of the short-range targets that Downs thrives on. In 31 career games, Downs has scored only seven touchdowns.

Check out Fitz’s full Wide Receiver Fantasy Football Draft Primer

Tight Ends

Rookies have led all tight ends in fantasy scoring the last two years. First, it was the Lions’ Sam LaPorta in 2023, then the Raiders’ Brock Bowers in 2024. Kelce hasn’t hung ’em up yet — he just had 97 catches last year in his age-35 season — but Bowers looks like the new standard bearer at the TE position.

Trey McBride is coming off an 111-catch season and is only 25. LaPorta’s second NFL season wasn’t quite as successful as his first, but he still finished TE7 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring.

Two tight ends were selected in the top half of the first round in this year’s NFL Draft. The Bears took Michigan’s Colston Loveland 10th overall, and the Colts took Penn State’s Tyler Warren 14th overall.

The Packers’ Tucker Kraft is another promising young tight end. And we’re still lighting prayer candles in hopes that Dalton Kincaid and Kyle Pitts will start living up to their early-career hype.

Mix the young tight ends with the quality veterans — Kelce, Pitts, Andrews and perhaps a handful of others — and suddenly the TE position looks pretty fertile relative to years past.

Tight end is now a buyer’s market, giving fantasy managers a number of different ways to attack the position. There’s solid value at a variety of price points.

Want to spend up for Bowers, McBride or Kittle? I think you can justify it.

Would you prefer to wait a bit and grab LaPorta, Kelce or T.J. Hockenson? OK, cool.

Wait even longer and try to get value on Andrews, Evan Engram or David Njoku? Sounds good.

Or punt the position until the double-digit rounds and gamble on Kincaid, Pitts or some other bargain-basement tight end? Hey, as long as you’re building advantages at other positions in the early rounds, go for it.

I’m not wedded to a single approach to the TE position in my 2025 drafts, but I’m more amenable to drafting a tight end in the early rounds than I used to be. That said, there will be at least a few drafts in which I punt the position and go dumpster-diving in the later rounds.

TEs to Target & Avoid

Here are some of the tight ends I’m targeting and avoiding this year:

Target: Brock Bowers (LV)

Bowers finished third among all pass catchers in receptions, behind only Ja’Marr Chase and Amon-Ra St. Brown, and he did it as a 21-year-old tight end playing with bad quarterbacks. His new quarterback is Geno Smith, who threw for 4,320 yards last year. Bowers’ phenomenal rookie season was no fluke. He had 882 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns in 15 games as an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Georgia, playing in the SEC, the toughest conference in the nation. Bowers is a unicorn. I think he’s worth drafting as early as the Round 1/Round 2 turn.

Target: George Kittle (SF)

Kittle continues to amass outstanding seasons. He cleared 1,000 receiving yards in 2024 for a second straight year, finishing with 78-1,106-8 despite missing two games. Since his second NFL season, Kittle has finished TE3, TE2, TE3, TE4, TE2, TE5 and TE1 in half-point PPR fantasy points per game. Kittle turns 32 in October, and his violent style has led to some injuries over the years, but he has shown no signs of slowing down, and he has a bright 2025 target outlook for a 49ers offense that might not have a clear alpha wide receiver.

Avoid: T.J. Hockenson (MIN)

Hockenson had a mid-June ADP of TE5, 85th overall. That’s too rich. The veteran tight end tore his ACL and MCL late in the 2023 season and didn’t make his 2024 debut until Week 9. From that point on, he was TE19 in PPR fantasy points per game. Granted, Hockenson was unlucky not to score a single touchdown last season, but it’s not as if he’s been a TD machine at any point in his career. Hockenson has never scored more than six touchdowns in a single season. Hockenson will be sharing targets with stud WRs Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

Avoid: Jonnu Smith (PIT)

After seven NFL seasons without a TE1 fantasy finish, Smith hit career highs in catches (88), receiving yardage (884) and touchdowns (8) last year to finish TE4 in fantasy scoring. The Miami offense was heavy on short passes last season after QB Tua Tagovailoa returned from a concussion, which meant target bumps for Smith and RB De’Von Achane. Smith is now in Pittsburgh, and he’s not the only tight end in town. The Steelers also have veteran Pat Freiermuth. The narrative is that Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith loves Jonnu — they’ve previously been paired together in Tennessee and Atlanta. But Jonnu had never seen more than 70 targets in any season with Arthur Smith as his playcaller.

Check out Fitz’s full Tight End Fantasy Football Draft Primer

NFL

MLB

NBA

NHL