Different fantasy managers have different definitions of what constitutes a sleeper. For the purposes of this article, a sleeper will be defined as a player who is being drafted later than they should be.
Often, sleepers are younger players who are set to earn a higher volume of opportunities than they did the previous season. In other cases, they are veterans who have seen their Average Draft Position (ADP) sag to a point at which they can emerge as proven value picks with upside.
Either way, sleepers all have one thing in common: a path toward big-time production that could allow them to outproduce their ADP, much like Bucky Irving (drafted as RB54, finished as RB14) did during the 2024 NFL season.
Who are the best sleepers to trust in fantasy football for 2025? Below are five of the top skill position players to target this season.
Top 2025 fantasy football draft sleepers and value picks
Courtland Sutton, WR, Denver Broncos
ADP: 49.5
Position rank: WR22
Sutton is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, and there’s little reason to expect the 29-year-old to slow down as he enters his third season in Sean Payton’s offense.
In Sutton’s first two seasons under Payton’s tutelage, he has finished as fantasy football’s WR28 and WR10 respectively. That makes his status as WR22 entering the 2025 season seem reasonable, but it may be undervaluing his impact.,
The reason for this is simple. The Broncos utilized a run-heavy approach in 2023, when Sutton finished as the WR28. They averaged the fourth-fewest passing attempts per game (30.2) with Russell Wilson as their primary starter which capped Sutton’s upside. Despite this, he still posted a career-best 10 touchdowns and led the team in targets, which made him a quality fantasy asset.
A year later, Denver’s attempts per game ballooned to 32.9, good for the 14th-most in the league, and saw an uptick in production with rookie Bo Nix at the helm. As a result, Sutton posted a career-best 81 receptions while checking in with his second-best marks in receiving yards (1,081) and receiving touchdowns (8).
Those numbers seem replicable for Sutton. He has averaged between 13 and 13.4 yards per reception in four consecutive seasons and tied for ninth in the NFL last season with 21 red-zone targets. Add in that Nix should only get better with another season in Payton’s offense and Sutton looks like a player with strong potential as a top-15 fantasy wide out.
D’Andre Swift, RB, Chicago Bears
ADP: 60
Position rank: RB24
Swift didn’t perform as well as fantasy managers hoped he would in his first season with the Bears, but there’s reason to be optimistic about an improvement in 2025.
Chicago spent a lot of resources upgrading the offensive line during the offseason. Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson will combine to create an entirely new interior blocking unit, which will be a welcome change for Swift after he averaged just 2.0 yards before contact per carry during the 2024 season. That was tied for 27th among 44 qualified runners, and well below the league-average of 2.5.
The other major factor is Swift’s familiarity with Ben Johnson. The 26-year-old played in Johnson’s offense with the Detroit Lions in 2022 and averaged a career-high 5.5 yards per carry while seeing 70 catches across 14 games. Granted, Swift only handled 99 carries that season while playing second-fiddle to Jamaal Williams, but Johnson still leaned on him heavily in the passing game.
Johnson seems likely to do that again in 2025, and could lean on Swift more in the running game given that Roschon Johnson and Kyle Monangai represent his top competition for carries. That could allow Swift to improve upon his career-best 1,345 scrimmage yards from last season while a higher-scoring offense could give him more chances to generate touchdowns after he had just six total last season.
Ricky Pearsall, WR, San Francisco 49ers
ADP: 101
Position rank: WR46
Pearsall showed fantasy football managers his upside when he posted 14 catches, 210 yards and two touchdowns over the final two games of the 2024 NFL season. He could be in for a breakout campaign as a potential focal point of San Francisco’s offense.
The 49ers traded Deebo Samuel during the 2025 NFL offseason while top receiver Brandon Aiyuk is expected to miss time as he attempts to return from a midseason ACL tear. The duo combined for 128 of San Francisco’s 533 total targets (24%) last season despite playing in just 22 combined games.
Pearsall seems most likely to absorb those vacated targets, as Jauan Jennings is already coming off a career-high 113 targets and is nursing a calf injury while George Kittle’s 94 targets in 2024 were his most in a single season since 2019. That should make the 2024 first-round pick a solid mid-round value pick who could emerge as a WR2 if he performs as efficiently and consistently as he did to close his rookie season.
Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys
ADP: 107.5
Position rank: QB12
Prescott ranked just 22nd in fantasy points per game (FPPG) among quarterbacks last season, but it wasn’t for a lack of opportunity.
Prescott’s 35.8 passing attempts per game were fourth-most among NFL quarterbacks to make multiple starts in 2024. Only Joe Burrow (38.4), Patrick Mahomes (36.3) and Tua Tagovailoa (36.3) were ahead of him. They were also an increase from his mark of 34.7 attempts per game from the 2023 NFL season, which he finished as the No. 3-ranked fantasy football quarterback.
What changed for Prescott from 2023 to 2024? His biggest issue was his lack of touchdowns. He had just 12 total in eight starts before suffering a season-ending hamstring tear, good for an average of just 1.5 per game. He averaged 2.2 total touchdowns per game (38 overall) the previous season.
If Prescott can increase his touchdown output, he should retain the per-game passing volume needed to be a top 10 fantasy quarterback in 2025 – if not, better. Either way, he figures to be the focal point of a Dallas offense that added George Pickens to be its No. 2 receiver across from CeeDee Lamb and sports an uninspiring running back room highlighted by Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders and rookie Jaydon Blue.
Tank Bigsby, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
ADP: 122
Position rank: RB42
The pecking order in the Jaguars’ running back room isn’t yet clear, but Bigsby might have the best upside of the bunch.
Bigsby isn’t much of a pass catcher, logging just seven receptions last season, but he figures to be Jacksonville’s best between-the-tackles runner. The big-bodied bruiser averaged a respectable 4.6 yards per carry last season, but the underlying numbers are more encouraging than that, as Bigsby tied Derrick Henry for the league lead in yards after contact per rushing attempt last season with 2.8.
What kept Bigsby from producing at a higher clip? He ranked fourth-worst among qualified runners in average yards before contact per run at 1.8. That means if the Jaguars improve the blocking in front of Bigsby and keep him cleaner earlier in runs, he will have a chance to be both more efficient and productive in 2025.
New coach Liam Coen and general manager James Gladstone made it a priority to add talent to Jacksonville’s interior offensive line during the offseason. Those changes could allow Bigsby to become a 1,000-yard rusher if he beats Travis Etienne and Bhayshul Tuten for the RB1 role in Jacksonville’s offense. That gives Bigsby the ceiling of a low-end RB2, especially considering his likely role as the team’s goal-line back.
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