Fantasy Football Sleepers Experts Love to Draft (2025)

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 sleepers below. And check out all of the fantasy football sleepers experts love in our consensus sleeper rankings.

Fantasy Football Sleepers Experts Draft

Here are fantasy football sleepers the experts love to target in drafts.

Who are Fantasy Football Sleepers?

Fantasy football sleepers are players who have a strong chance to exceed expectations and become surprise difference-makers for fantasy managers.

Fantasy Football Sleepers: Running Backs

Our RB sleepers are based on a poll of experts who selected their favorite RBs with high upside. Each RB had a consensus draft rank below #45. as of early July.

Rank	Running Backs	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	J.K. Dobbins	DEN	12	9	41	40
2	Bhayshul Tuten	JAC	8	9	48	48
3	Jaydon Blue	DAL	10	8	49	44
4	Jaylen Wright	MIA	12	5	52	56
5	Austin Ekeler	WAS	12	3	47	47

Bhayshul Tuten (JAC)

Tugboat 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.
– Derek Brown

Fantasy Football Sleepers: Wide Receivers

Our WR sleepers are based on a poll of experts who selected their favorite WRs with high upside. Each WR had a consensus draft rank below #55. as of early July.

Rank	Wide Receivers	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	Tre’ Harris	LAC	12	11	56	54
2	Jayden Higgins	HOU	6	9	58	53
3	Marvin Mims Jr.	DEN	12	5	60	56
4	Cedric Tillman	CLE	9	5	59	67
5	Kyle Williams	NE	14	6	63	61

Marvin Mims Jr. (DEN)

Over the Broncos’ last five regular-season games of 2024, Marvin Mims had 23 catches for 341 yards and five touchdowns. He was WR17 in PPR fantasy points per game (17.5) over that stretch, even though Mims played fewer than half of Denver’s offensive snaps in all of those games. Mims is still only 23 years old. It’s possible Sean Payton sees Mims as merely a punt returner and gadget guy. But it’s also possible that the flash we saw at the end of last season was the start of big things for an electric playmaker. Mims is a worthwhile dart throw in the later stages of your draft.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Fantasy Football Sleepers: Quarterbacks

Our QB sleepers are based on a poll of experts who selected their favorite QBs with high upside. Each QB had a consensus draft rank below #15. as of early July.

Rank	Quarterbacks	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	Dak Prescott	DAL	10	8	11	13
2	Drake Maye	NE	14	8	16	18
3	J.J. McCarthy	MIN	6	6	20	19
4	Bryce Young	CAR	14	3	24	27
5	Michael Penix Jr.	ATL	5	3	23	23

Drake Maye (NE)

Drake Maye might not have moved the needle for fantasy in his rookie season, but his performance over 12 starts was impressive considering how terrible his supporting cast was. From Week 6 of last season, when Maye made his first start, through Week 17, Maye averaged a respectable 16.8 fantasy points per game. The third overall pick in last year’s NFL Draft, Maye has immense potential as a passer, but it’s his rushing that should make him attractive to fantasy games. Maye had 421 rushing yards last season, and there’s potential for much more. As a sophomore at the University of North Carolina, Maye had 698 rushing yards in 14 games. Bear in mind that college quarterbacks’ sack yardage counts against their rushing yardage, and Maye lost about 200 yards from his rushing total that year. Maye should have it a little easier in the passing game this year, with New England beefing up its offensive line in the offseason and adding WRs Stefon Diggs and Kyle Williams. It’s possible we get a Drake Maye breakout in 2025.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Fantasy Football Sleepers: Tight Ends

Our TE sleepers are based on a poll of experts who selected their favorite TEs with high upside. Each TE had a consensus draft rank below #15. as of early July.

Rank	Tight Ends	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	Tyler Warren	IND	11	9	11	12
2	Kyle Pitts Sr.	ATL	5	5	16	17
3	Brenton Strange	JAC	8	5	21	23
4	Hunter Henry	NE	14	4	17	18
5	Pat Freiermuth	PIT	5	2	22	24

Hunter Henry (NE)

Hunter Henry is a wonderful late-round tight-end target this season if you’re looking to punt the position in 2025. Last year, in Drake Maye’s full starts, he had a 19.2% target share, averaged 49.9 receiving yards per game, had 1.70 yards per route run, a 22.7% first-read share, and 0.098 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). I’ll also add on top that he averaged 11.3 PPR points per game in that sample. Last year, among all tight ends with 25 targets, those marks would have ranked seventh, sixth, 14th, fifth, eighth, and the points per game production would have made him the TE8 in fantasy. Yes, since that time, New England added Stefon Diggs and Kyle Williams to the passing equation, but that doesn’t mean that Henry still can’t emerge in 2025 as Maye’s number two option in the passing offense and flirt with TE1 output.
– Derek Brown