Updated August 28, 2025

My mantra in fantasy football, for nearly three decades, has been: Fantasy football is always all about value. My goal is to draft players that I think are very likely to outperform their draft position. These are my value targets!

 

Sleepers vs. Value Targets

In my mind, “sleepers” are players that we select later in the draft that probably won’t pan out, however they have extremely high upside if things go right, so we take our shots with them.

On the other hand, “value targets” are players that are going to cost us more because they have a much higher floor while still possessing some decent upside. Value targets are players that I think are very likely to over perform their average draft position (ADP). Sleepers are great. But value targets throughout your draft is where you’ll really make your money.

 

Playing the “Value” Game

I talked about this in my 2025 Perfect Draft Plan article a few days ago. There’s a little bit of a game that needs to be played when we’re drafting. There’s always moments in the draft where it makes sense to actually draft a lower ranked player because you think the higher ranked player will still be available later in the draft. This is an art, not an exact science.

Here’s an example I shared in that Perfect Draft Plan article. I was recently in a draft where I had the 6th pick. My 6th and 7th best players are Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor, respectively.

I think Jacobs and Taylor are both worthy 1st round picks. However, Jacobs’ ADP is early to mid second round and Taylor’s ADP has been mid-to-late second round. I don’t need to draft them in the 1st.

On the other hand, Justin Jefferson is my 8th best player and his ADP is early to mid first round. I think Jacobs and Taylor could make it back to in me in round two, but there was no chance Jefferson was going to make it back to me in the second round (19th pick overall). So I rolled the dice and took Jefferson, hoping Jacobs or Taylor would make it back to me.

Jacobs went 18th overall in that draft, just one pick before I selected. But Taylor was still in the board, so I drafted him. This is the value game. Play the game, but don’t be too crazy. If you roll the dice without good reason, you could miss out on the player you really wanted.

 

Best 2025 Value Targets

Herein I’ll highlight my favorite value targets as we head into the 2025 draft season.

NOTE: “Grade” is the round that I think the player should be drafted in based on a 12-team league with typical standard scoring.