As the pre-training camp lull in news takes full effect, now is a good time to take an appraisal of the best ball landscape and decide which players we feel good about and which players we don’t. Looking at the current average draft position (ADP) on Underdog, these are the best values in each of the first 15 rounds.
Fantasy Football Draft Values in Each Round for Best-Ball
Round 1
The first round is littered with good options this year, and there aren’t many wrong options, but Malik Nabers provides one of the more interesting values. As a rookie, Nabers led the league with a massive 162 targets, breaking Puka Nacua‘s rookie wide receiver record set in 2023 of 105 catches.
The massive caveat to the situation is that Nabers has had poor quarterback play. While it is no slam dunk for 2025, the Giants believed in Jaxson Dart enough for him to be a first-round player on their board. If he’s even slightly better than last year’s dross at the position, it could be a big second year for Nabers.
Round 2
We mentioned one record breaker already, so let’s move on to another. Brock Bowers’ 112 receptions were the most by any rookie ever, not just at the tight end position. There remains an air of skepticism about Bowers with his ADP firmly in the second round, but with such high volume paired with a quarterback upgrade in Geno Smith, Bowers could be even better this time around.
Round 3
People seem to be very divided on Chase Brown, and it’s not an uncommon thing when a running back comes out of nowhere to be highly relevant. Just look at Kyren Williams for another example. The fact remains, though, that from Week 9 onwards, Brown averaged 20.6 PPR points per game with 23.6 touches per game.
Perhaps Zack Moss, Khalil Herbert or sixth-round rookie Tahj Brooks eat into that volume slightly, but Brown has shown he’s an explosive player and has the trust of the team. In best ball, we want players who can score highly and keep the pace up.
Round 4
It seems strange that a quarterback coming off a QB1 season, where he performed to a level rarely seen by any other quarterback, is the QB2. But that’s the case for Lamar Jackson, as he sits one spot behind Josh Allen.
Perhaps Jackson does see some level of regression after last year’s incredible numbers, but this is a quarterback who has rushed for 130+ attempts in all but one season of his career and led the league with 8.8 yards per attempt (YPA) last year, scoring three more fantasy points per game than Allen. There aren’t many true difference-makers in this league, but Jackson is one of them.
Round 5
While Jalen Hurts isn’t quite as strong of a bet or as good of a passer of the ball as Lamar Jackson is, his ADP puts him at QB4, which seems like a potential bargain.
Hurts’ biggest advantage is his goal-line role, which has seen him score 42 touchdowns in his last 62 regular-season games. With the tush push still a legal play, and nobody having figured out how to defend it just yet, Hurts should be firmly in your mind when you reach the fifth round.
Round 6
Last year, Jauan Jennings was one of the best value picks in fantasy football, reeling in three weekly finishes with over 25 PPR points, including a massive 46.5 points in Week 3. With Deebo Samuel now in Washington and Brandon Aiyuk‘s recovery from a multi-knee-ligament injury looking protracted, at best, Jennings has a chance to establish himself as the No. 1 WR in what typically is one of the more fruitful offenses in the league.
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Round 7
Many people felt burned by last year’s TE1 failing to live up to expectations, but touchdown regression was always coming for Sam LaPorta after he scored nine touchdowns in his rookie year.
LaPorta averaged just 7.1 PPR points through the first seven weeks last season, but he was reportedly playing through injuries. From Week 8 onwards, though, he had a massive bounce-back, scoring 13.2 points per game. You can get him in round seven, five rounds after the most costly tight ends.
Round 8
Last season, Kyler Murray had seven games with 45+ rushing yards, which is a level of floor not many quarterbacks hit in this league. Murray averaged the sixth-most rushing yards among the position (34.4) on the 12th-most amount of rushing attempts.
Should the Cardinals elect to use Murray more in this area, he could be incredibly valuable for fantasy football. Not to mention what if elite prospect Marvin Harrison Jr. shows some of what we believed he could be or Trey McBride scores touchdowns? If either of those things occurs, don’t expect to get Murray this late in drafts in 2026.
Round 9
I don’t like it either, but we have to consider the fact that everything the Jaguars coaching staff has said so far this offseason has been positive for Travis Etienne, while Bhayshul Tuten is still pulled up on the not-so-minor issue of fumbling the ball. One key factor that remains bullish for Etienne is his relationship with Trevor Lawrence, with the two players having been together since their time at Clemson.
If Lawrence feels most comfortable with Etienne out there, then the former first-round talent might have an opportunity to emerge as a league-winner from an area of ADP where James Conner, Leonard Fournette and Raheem Mostert all emerged from.
Round 10
This offseason hasn’t worked out the way Luther Burden might have hoped, falling out of the first round to pick 39 overall and then spending much of the next couple of months dealing with a soft tissue injury that kept him out of training practices. Reports suggest Burden will be ready to go for training camp. If that happens, expect a sharp rise in his ADP.
Round 11
Speaking of which, Colston Loveland was recovering from shoulder surgery at the time of the draft, and the Bears knew this when they drafted him as the first tight end off the board at pick 10. They felt confident in him and chose him over Tyler Warren. Loveland’s recovery time was always set to exclude him from activities until camp. If he takes the field and impresses, we can expect a rise in ADP.
Round 12
When on the field last year, Dallas Goedert ranked as the fantasy TE9 in half-PPR points per game. Unfortunately, he only played nine games, and his total ranking was TE28. Goedert should remain of interest, though, as he’s part of one of the most concentrated offenses in the league.
When A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Goedert are healthy, they’re the only considerations in the passing game. When one of them is injured, the others tend to see significant bumps in their fantasy output. Let’s keep it simple and draft good players on good offenses.
Round 13
Tyler Allgeier deserves to be drafted higher. The gap between Allgeier and Bijan Robinson is the eighth-biggest gap between a No. 1 RB and a No. 2 RB in the league. Fifteen No. 2 RBs are drafted before Allgeier, who finished 10th in explosive run rate in 2024 and seventh in juke rate.
Yes, Robinson is a spectacular player and could very well end up as the RB1 overall this year, but that only furthers Allgeier’s case as one of the most valuable handcuffs in fantasy football.
Round 14
There’s not much chance Pat Bryant is a hot topic for redraft leagues this Summer, but in best ball, in the 14th round, we can afford to take a shot at a receiver who was drafted early in the third round. Sean Payton has talked all offseason about adding more weapons and talked about how Bryant reminds him of Michael Thomas in some ways, which seems like a positive trait to have some exposure to.
Round 15
How many locked-in No. 2 WRs are available this late into the draft? Michael Wilson had six double-digit PPR performances last year, which isn’t to be sniffed at for a receiver available this late.
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