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 players below. And you can check out which experts are higher or lower than our expert consensus rankings using our Fantasy Football Rankings Comparison Tools.
Fantasy Football Draft Advice
Let’s dive into players Pat Fitzmaurice likes more or less than the expert consensus rankings.
Players to Target
Wide Receivers to Draft at ADP
| Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank | Player | ECR | Diff. |
| 21 | Tetairoa McMillan CAR – WR | 26 | 5 |
| 26 | Calvin Ridley TEN – WR | 31 | 5 |
| 29 | Chris Olave NO – WR | 33 | 4 |
| 37 | Ricky Pearsall SF – WR | 41 | 4 |
| 47 | Keon Coleman BUF – WR | 51 | 4 |
Tetairoa McMillan topped 1,300 receiving yards in each of his last two college seasons at the University of Arizona and is now poised to immediately become the Panthers’ No. 1 receiver after Carolina took him with the eighth overall pick in the draft. The 6-foot-5 McMillan is a classic X receiver — although he can also be a matchup nightmare as a big slot receiver. He has a planetary catch radius and good, strong hands. He also has advanced route-running chops, a good feel for attacking zone coverage, and he’s no shrinking violet when asked to go over the middle.
Since missing the 2022 season due to a gambling suspension, Calvin Ridley has produced two straight 1,000-yard seasons and hasn’t missed a game over that span. He endured gruesome quarterbacking in Tennessee last year, and now Ridley gets to play with top overall draft pick Cam Ward, an aggressive downfield thrower. Ridley is the Titans’ undisputed No. 1 receiver, and I think he’s likely to see more than the 120 targets he had last season. There’s a good chance Ridley will provide WR2 numbers at a low-end WR3 price.
I think there’s a chance we could get a Year 2 breakout from rookie Keon Coleman after an uneven rookie season in which he produced 29-556-4 in 13 games. Although he didn’t have a lot of catches, Coleman demonstrated his freaky ball skills and averaged a whopping 19.2 yards per catch and 9.8 yards per target. The Bills have sort of an ensemble cast at wide receiver, so there’s an opportunity for Coleman to step up and seize a bigger role. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a guy who gets 130 or 140 targets a year, but Coleman is a guy who could potentially do a lot of damage on 100 or 110 targets.
Running Backs to Draft at ADP
| Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank | Player | ECR | Diff. |
| 20 | Tony Pollard TEN – RB | 25 | 5 |
| 38 | Jerome Ford CLE – RB | 46 | 8 |
| 40 | Austin Ekeler WAS – RB | 45 | 5 |
| 42 | Bhayshul Tuten JAC – RB | 56 | 14 |
| 47 | Braelon Allen NYJ – RB | 51 | 4 |
Austin Ekeler is being left for dead in early 2025 drafts, with an ADP in the low-end RB4/high-end RB5 range. But Ekeler was productive when healthy last year and is playing in an exciting, up-and-coming offense in Washington. 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. I’m not expecting a return to the high-end RB1 days for the 30-year-old Ekeler, but I think he’s a value in the later rounds.
The Jaguars selected Bhayshul Tuten with one of the first picks of Day 3 of the NFL Draft. Jacksonville is likely to have a messy RB committee this year with Travis Etienne, Tank Bigsby and Tuten, but Tuten could get an extended audition this year if the Jaguars decide they’re going to let Etienne walk after his contract expires at the end of the season. Tuten has game-breaking, sub-4.4. speed. If he gets to the edge, look out. But Tuten is also an effective inside runner who bursts through holes and doesn’t go down easily.
Players to Avoid
Wide Receivers to Avoid at ADP
| Expert Consensus’s Rank | Player | Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank | Diff. |
| 11 | Ladd McConkey LAC – WR | 15 | 4 |
| 22 | Courtland Sutton DEN – WR | 27 | 5 |
| 24 | Jameson Williams DET – WR | 30 | 6 |
| 25 | Zay Flowers BAL – WR | 31 | 6 |
| 36 | Jakobi Meyers LV – WR | 40 | 4 |
Ladd McConkey was wildly efficient as a rookie, averaging 2.59 yards per route run and 10.3 yards per target en route to an 82-catch, 1,149-yard season. McConkey only had 112 targets in 16 games, and there might not be much room for target growth in Greg Roman’s slow-paced, run-heavy offense — and the Chargers’ early-August signing of Keenan Allen won’t help in that regard. McConkey offers a sturdy floor, but his ceiling may not be as high as some people imagine.
Jameson Williams had a nice little third-year breakout for the Lions in 2024, finishing with 58-1,001-7 in 15 games. The former first-round draft pick oozes big-play potential, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride, because Jamo isn’t a high-volume guy. He averaged 6.1 targets per game last year. The departure of the Lions 2024 offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, could lead to an overall offensive downturn in Detroit, and it’s unlikely that Jared Goff’s career-high 6.9% TD rate from last year will stick. Williams is certainly worth your attention, but don’t overpay.
Zay Flowers is very talented and worth the first-round pick the Ravens spent on him in 2023, but the nature of the Ravens’ offense works makes Flowers an inconsistent fantasy performer. There were eight games last season in which Flowers had six or fewer targets. There were also eight games in which Flowers finished with fewer than 40 receiving yards. The problem is that the Ravens ran the ball on 52.5% of their offensive snaps this year. Only the Eagles were run-heavier. That probably won’t change much this year with Lamar Jackson at quarterback and Derrick Henry at running back for Baltimore, so we should probably expect more inconsistency from Flowers in his third NFL season.
Running Backs to Avoid at ADP
| Expert Consensus’s Rank | Player | Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank | Diff. |
| 21 | David Montgomery DET – RB | 26 | 5 |
| 36 | Rhamondre Stevenson NE – RB | 41 | 5 |
| 37 | Tyjae Spears TEN – RB | 43 | 6 |
| 43 | Quinshon Judkins CLE – RB | 52 | 9 |
| 44 | Ray Davis BUF – RB | 50 | 6 |
David Montgomery could be hard-pressed to turn a profit on his low-end RB2 ADP. He shares work with Jahmyr Gibbs, one of the most talented RBs in the league. Montgomery has averaged 16.8 and 15.8 touches a game in Gibbs’ first two seasons. I’ll bet the under on 15.8 touches a game for Montgomery in 2025, as I expect an uptick in Gibbs’ usage. We could also see a dip in Montgomery’s TD total. He’s scored 13 and 12 touchdowns the last two years, as the Lions ranked first and fifth in scoring those two seasons. If the Lions scale back Montgomery’s usage to give Gibbs more snaps, or if the Detroit offense has hiccups after losing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Bears, Monty’s TD total could slip. He’s a quality running back, but I see Montgomery as more of an RB3 than an RB2.
Rhamondre Stevenson may have peaked with his 1,040-yard rushing season in 2022. He missed five games in 2023, and his 2024 season was a disappointment. Stevenson averaged a career-low 3.9 yards per carry last season, and his seven fumbles cost him some playing time. Now, the Patriots have added playmaking RB TreVeyon Henderson, a second-round draft pick. A 50/50 workload split might be the best Stevenson investors could hope for in 2025.
The Cleveland Browns took Quinshon Judkins early in the second round of this year’s draft and will probably use him as their lead back, though he’ll have to fend off competition from veteran Jerome Ford and fellow rookie Dylan Sampson. A powerful, decisive runner with good contact balance and nifty feet, Quinshon Judkins had 1,567 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns as a true freshman at Ole Miss. His last two college seasons were good but not quite as awe-inspiring. The limitation of the Cleveland offense could keep Judkins’ fantasy value in check this year, but he has a chance to provide RB3 or flex value, if not more. But a domestic violence arrest in July could complicate Judkins’ rookie-year outlook.
