Carly Manger:

Other considerations – Saquon Barkley? Javonte Williams? De’Von Achane? Justin Jefferson?

Thoughts:

It has been a whirlwind 10 weeks to say the least. From major injuries to surprise performances (I am looking at you, Daniel Jones), we had no idea what the NFL had in store for us in 2025. Looking at the consensus ADP for the first round above, there are some things that we got right, but there was also plenty that we got wrong.

HIGHLIGHTS: Jonathan Taylor looks like a god, Christian McCaffrey has stayed healthy, and the Jaxon Smith-Njigba breakout is real.

Now, let’s get into the meat of it all. Ashton Jeanty cracking the first round during the preseason felt bold at the time, especially given what happened when everyone drafted a rookie in the first round in 2024 (*cough* *cough* Marvin Harrison). While Jeanty has shown flashes of explosiveness, the Raiders’ offense just isn’t good enough to justify him being drafted in the top-12.

Barkley falling out of the top-12 is not something I expected, but the Eagles’ offense has become extremely pass-heavy this season. With Lamar Jackson‘s injury, the Ravens’ offense has struggled, and that has impacted Derrick Henry. Both RBs are still top options, but knowing what we know now, I wouldn’t select them in the first round.

The last player I would like to discuss is James Cook. Everyone and their mother claimed that TD regression would come for him. James Cook heard that and laughed.

Lou Brunson:

Boy, there’s so much to unpack here, so I’m gonna do a few rapid-fire style.

For my top 5, there’s little to no separation. You prefer one over the others? Cool, I get it. I tend to value safety and stability in the first round, that’s why McCaffrey and JSN take the top spots over the others. But there’s no “wrong answer” there. Puka Nacua, please stay healthy, for the love of fantasy!

Continuing the safety/stability trend are De’Von Achane, Trey McBride, Justin Jefferson, and Josh Jacobs, all of whom do not have a single week scoring under 10 PPR points on the season. “You can’t win your league with the first round, but you can lose it,” is ringing loud in my ears with those choices. 

Our middle trio of James Cook, Bijan Robinson, and Amon-Ra St. Brown all offer higher upside than the other non-top-five, but they have some sub-10 point weeks sprinkled in, as well. If you look at the best rosters across fantasy leagues, you’re going to see all of these players strewn throughout them. Cook, in particular, has been a massive steal this year.

There are two players who aren’t on this list I want to talk about. The first is Mr. Brock Bowers. Yeah, you get a “Mr.” on your name after you drop a 40-point effort. With that said, six weeks of sub-par return on investment is simply too much for me to recommend Bowers as a “looking back 1st rounder.” By the time he comes back to start dropping 40-point weeks, your roster will be eliminated. Have fun in the Toilet Bowl, I guess? Next year, though, watch out!

The other is Malik Nabers. We lost Nabers for the season in Week 3, and ever since Jaxson Dart took over the reins at QB in Week 4, I’ve been dealing with phantom pains like someone who’s lost an arm. I can only imagine how much fun it would be to watch the two young guns ball out. Neither is perfect, but they sure would be fun together. And it’d be a lot more fun than watching Wan’Dale Robinson get 6+ targets/game. Sigh. Guess I’ll fire him up for 2026….

Nate Polvogt:

I’m going to start with the obvious here: we all whiffed on Jonathan Taylor this season. The current PPR RB2 was going in the late second round of fantasy drafts (RB9, 18th overall this past offseason, albeit behind guys like Saquon Barkley, Jahmyr Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey). But to be fair to all of us, no one could have foreseen the offensive boon QB Daniel Jones would bring to the Colts offense. 

Speaking of Barkley, I don’t think anyone expected a 2,000-yard season again, but NO ONE saw this massive downturn for the veteran RB. Barkley, who was being drafted as THE RB1 in fantasy drafts all offseason, is currently sitting as the overall PPR RB10. He’s averaging 64.9 rushing yards per game, down from 125.3 last season, and is averaging 4.09 yards per carry this season versus 5.81 in 2025. Is he still an RB1-tier player for the rest of the season? Yes. Was he worth a first-round pick? It appears he was not.

Now back to the happy, and my biggest surprise, Jaxson Smith-Njigba. Like most, I didn’t have high hopes for a Sam Darnold-led Seahawks offense. Sure, he was pretty good last season in Minnesota, but you had to wonder how much of that was Kevin O’Connell’s coaching and Justin Jefferson’s elite ability. 

Apparently, not as much as we thought.

Sam Darnold has been very good, and it’s elevated Smith-Njigba to elite WR territory. The second-year pass catcher, who was being drafted as the WR14 (33rd overall), is sitting as the PPR WR2. And this isn’t a flash in the pan. Smith-Njigba has nine or more catches and 100 or more yards in six of the team’s eight games this season. Barring injury, the second-year wideout could easily finish as the overall WR1 in 2025.   

Mike Vadala:

Setting the clocks all the way back to August, there’s one thing that this fantasy season tells me that I’ve learned time and time again: “ADP” or Average Draft Position is actually a pretty good predictor of real-life fantasy football outcomes. There were a handful of misses, but when you look through the leaders at each position, these players have landed pretty close to their expected outcomes. This is your reminder, next August, not to reach too far past ADP when selecting players, except for maybe one or two players on your roster. If you start paying attention to ADP in February/March, and follow it all the way up until your draft date, you’ll also know the direction that a player’s ADP is headed in, which will give you the information you need to either snipe him before any of your league mates or let them catch a falling knife.

Reflecting on the first round, I think James Cook has shown that he is going to be leaned on heavily and has the juice to produce like a true league-winning player. The Bills are content to get to the post season healthy, and not show too much of their passing offense until they get there. Teams won’t be able to key in on cook with the threat of Josh Allen both running or throwing. He isn’t a household RB1 name, but I think he’s making his case this year.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba also needs to be mentioned here. There was plenty of excitement about JSN, but nobody was predicting this type of explosion from him this year. Despite trailing Ja’Marr Chase ever so slightly, I would lean Smith-Njigba in a draft today, with Seattle’s stability being the edge. Chase runs the risk of being reserved at the end of this season if the Bengals can’t get into the playoff hunt. 

Outside of JSN and James Cook, I do not see any other major surprises in the top twelve this year. It comes back to my earlier point, that fantasy football drafters really do a good job of predicting real life outcomes. Again, a pat on the back for everyone for being mostly right about everything! We rock!

Bryan Rockwood:

Other players who could squeak in – Saquon Barkley, Drake London, Emeka Egbuka, Justin Jefferson, Kyren Williams, Brock Bowers (I really want to say Rashee Rice, but that suspension is too much for a first-rounder)

Thoughts: 

Jaxon Smith-Njigba jumps off the page at number 5, because, and you have to be really honest with yourself, who expected this type of production with Sam Darnold on a seemingly bad Seattle offense? JSN is proving to us why he was so highly touted coming out of OSU three years ago, and why so many of us fantasy folks were bummed he landed in a crowded wide receiver room in Seattle. I would be happy to take JSN as the first WR off of the board in a re-do draft if Puka was gone. 

Ja’marr Chase is a tough player to evaluate from a “draft re-do” perspective. It’s so clearly obvious he’s a wide receiver capable of breaking fantasy football any given week, and it made sense as to why he was the consensus 1.01 this preseason. Chase has re-emerged as the top WR in the fantasy game but his window of disappointing games with Jake Browning tanked his stock to the 10th pick. 

I’d be a fool not to give De’von Achane his flowers this season. For what he’s been able to do with this atrocious Miami team, he’s been a true blessing for the fantasy managers who scooped him up in the second round. He’s the east coast CMC, and should be seen as a first round pick heading into next year. 

Kevin Tompkins: