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5 Must-Have Players to Target in 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts

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5 Must-Have Players to Target in 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts

I've put a lot of content on FanDuel Research about season-long fantasy football, but it's time.

Having given you one wideout and one running back to target in every round, your draft is mostly done with those, but I've added hype trains I'm fading, under-the-radar values, and so much more.

It's Labor Day Weekend, and thousands of fantasy drafts will happen tonight, tomorrow, Monday, and every day leading up to Thursday's kickoff of the 2025 NFL season. So, with that, here's one last one. It's must-have players. I forced myself to get a share of them in one of my six leagues because they're the gold mine of floor, upside, value, and (lack of) popularity.

These are five players I absolutely made sure to have somewhere.

Note: A player's average draft position (ADP) data comes from FantasyPros' half-PPR data. The basis for rounds used in this piece is from 12-player leagues.

Must-Have Players for Fantasy Football in 2025

Ashton Jeanty, RB, Las Vegas Raiders

ADP: 9.7 (RB6)

I don't think fantasy managers understand how important floor is in the early phases of drafts. You are drafting someone you need to be top five at their position.

That's why I've kept pounding the table for Ashton Jeanty. He's going around the turn in most drafts but can slip into the second, and I've got zero problem taking him in the top five. The data says that's fine.

The last five running backs picked in the top-10 of the actual NFL Draft have returned a floor in half-PPR formats of RB11 overall in total points. Rookies selected with premium picks have a magical combination of role, lack of NFL attrition, and premium investment. All of those apply to Jeanty with the Raiders.

It's been over a month since I made the case for Jeanty as a first-round pick. He's still my RB1 overall. A clunky preseason with vanilla schemes doesn't scare me off a generational player -- especially when the Boise State Broncos look pretty sorry without him.

George Pickens, WR, Dallas Cowboys

ADP: 60.3 (WR25)

Fresh off the Micah Parsons deal, the Cowboys are drawing several apt comparisons to the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFC.

Without a great offensive line, running game, or defense, a lot is on Joe Burrow's shoulders. His WR2, Tee Higgins, is a third-round pick fresh off a season where Higgins was the WR4 in fantasy points per game (15.5 FPPG). Why is George Pickens going two or three rounds later?

It'll only help that Pickens should be an ideal fit with Dak Prescott's elite deep ball. Prescott has been 11th or better in every qualifying year since 2019 in completion rate 20-plus yards downfield.

Dallas' offense was also top 10 in pass rate over expectation (PROE) and overall pace before Dak's injury last year.

Pickens' early-career circumstances have been turbulent with questionable quarterback play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We've also never seen him with an elite wideout like CeeDee Lamb to give him one-on-one opportunities. If there's any reason to be optimistic in Dallas this year, it's the guy wearing #3.

Calvin Ridley, WR, Tennessee Titans

ADP: 67.7 (WR30)

It's rare to feel so good about a wideout going in this range of the draft, but Calvin Ridley's floor barring injury is absurd for someone nearly priced as a WR4.

We saw Terry McLaurin's leap with a new, efficient downfield thrower at quarterback last year, and Cameron Ward could provide a similar circumstance for Ridley. Ward's 88.7 QBR was second in the country in college last season, and his 9.6 average depth of target (aDOT) was 46th in FBS among those with 200-plus drop backs.

At worst, Ward is a massive upgrade over Mason Rudolph and Will Levis, who still guided Ridley to a WR27 finish in total points after another 1,000-yard season (1,017 receiving yards). He scored just four touchdowns as Tennessee was 27th in offensive touchdowns per game (1.9).

Ridley offers the luxury of loading up at running back (or selecting an elite tight end) early. You can get a pretty solid case for a WR2 at a much lower position than that.

Evan Engram, TE, Denver Broncos

ADP: 84.3 (TE8)

After an offseason where the Broncos took two skill players in the first two days of April's draft, the No. 2 target for Bo Nix is still totally ambiguous.

I think it's Evan Engram. Denver signed the tight end in March to a two-year deal after the Jacksonville Jaguars' new regime waved goodbye. The athletic specimen never quite lived up to his pre-draft hype but did produce a TE2 season (10.7 FPPG) back in 2023 on a gaudy 143 targets. His 2024 was ended prematurely by a shoulder issue.

Now healthy, he'll join a coach, Sean Payton, that made a similar tight end, Jimmy Graham, a fantasy superstar in the "joker" role. That's how Payton referred to Engram to the media, and we saw some "joker" sort of stuff in the preseason.

At tight end, I want an option with vertical athleticism that has a path to a top-two target share in his offense that exceeds 20.0%. It's pretty easy to project Engram for a Broncos squad that was surprisingly effective a year ago.

Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars

ADP: 157.7 (QB20)

I love waiting at quarterback this year because there is no must-have option. You have guys left on the wire in every one-quarterback league that could end up top-12 options at the position.

However, I just keep ending up with Trevor Lawrence at the end of my bench. Lawrence was the QB8 in 2022 before the Doug Pederson era ended in total disaster, but new playcaller Liam Coen is just one reason to believe in the former No. 1 overall pick this year.

They've also loaded up the cabinet with Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter as consecutive first-round picks at wideout. From a fantasy perspective, the Jags have one of the weakest, most unknown running back rooms in the NFL, and Jacksonville barely addressed -- outside of Hunter's cameos -- a secondary that was numberFire's 32nd-ranked schedule-adjusted pass defense a year ago.

In a weak division, Lawrence could be in plenty of shootouts with the man who just authored a QB3 season for Baker Mayfield (22.5 FPPG) at the controls. This could be the best campaign of the former Clemson Tigers star's career.


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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.

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