You know what's a pretty cool platform to play fantasy football on? Sleeper. From their seemingly limitless customized scoring settings to the emoji-fueled trash-talk ability, I'm a big fan of Sleeper fantasy contests and accordingly have a lineup of leagues over there ahead of 2025.

And hey, how's this for an idea for you and me: Let's go win this shit!

Presenting: My Sleeper fantasy football app strategy guide for 2025 drafts. In this article, we'll break down:

• The BADFISH system
• The biggest ESPN values relative to Fantasy Life rankings
• Position-specific strategy and targets
• Example starts using Fantasy Life's ADP tool depending on draft position
   

As always: It's a great day to be great.

How To Use The BADFISH System In Sleeper Fantasy Football Drafts

Shoutout Sublime: This fantasy philosophy and provocative acronym was originally invented by Benjamin Franklin me last Tuesday night, but features strategy advice I've regularly followed over the years:

Be like water: Zero-RB is cool. So is late-round QB. Hell, fantasy football is supposed to be fun, and it's 2025 after all: Robust-RB is cool too! However, entering any fantasy draft with a predetermined strategy won't help you capitalize on value as it presents itself. Do you really want to keep riding with zero-RB if your drunken leaguemates inexplicably gift you Bijan Robinson at 1.06? Preparation is great, just make sure to take a page out of Bruce Lee's book and be like water: Adapt on the fly in the way you best see fit based on the new information presented to you during the course of any given draft.

ADP is your friend: But it can HEAVILY vary by site. Luckily for you, Fantasy Life has a handy dandy ADP tool that shows every player's different price points from all the main sites. This can also be especially useful for checking out what players are being targeted earlier in bigger-money formats compared to home leagues (example: 49ers WRs).

Don't be a hero early: Fantasy ADP is similar to mock draft accuracy: It gets harder and harder to predict and figure things out accurately the further you go. Baller WRs, workhorse RBs, dual-threat alien QBs, and high-volume beast TEs are obvious targets in the early parts of drafts for clear and obvious reasons—you should take them!—I'd generally suggest waiting until about Round 9 or 10 before deviating more than 12-plus picks from ADP. This should allow you to have your cake and eat it too, by hopefully allowing you to get your preferred targets as late as possible.

F*ck kickers: I despise them. Larry David explains why they're useless in real-life football in this glorious rant. And yet, many insist on including these half-breeds in their fantasy league. Whatever. It's a free country (but please at least cut out the 50-plus-yard field goal bonus. It's outdated and ridiculous). STILL: There's no reason to reach on kickers (or DST) and take them before the final round or two of your draft. Kickers from mid-tier scoring offenses are actually better targets than those from super high-end units (the more you know!). Ideally, you don't even have to draft a kicker (or DST) and can instead invest in RB handcuffs who can be cut before Week 1 … unless you happen to be the lucky beneficiary of a sudden diamond in the rough that otherwise would have been still sitting on the waiver wire.

Injury-prone and already injured are two different things: We tend to think of injury-prone players in a binary "they either are or aren't" sort of fashion. It certainly makes sense that older players who have already suffered plenty of wear and tear are more "injury prone" than young 22-year-old rookies, but it's not exactly a 10/10 vs. 0/10 sort of thing, you know? For this reason, I tend to dismiss the notion that "he'll just get hurt," BUT do pay close attention to existing injuries. As my friend Scott Pianowski once said: “Injuries will find your fantasy team during the season, you don’t have to go looking for them in the draft.”

Stick to upside: The idea of forgoing perceived boom-or-bust options for safer, consistent players sounds nice in theory, but the research pretty strongly indicates that there isn't a meaningful difference in production between previously-consistent and previously-inconsistent players. Shoot for the moon, baby.

Handcuffs are encouraged: Especially in the later rounds of fantasy football drafts. These are the sort of players who are one injury away from being on the cover of every waiver wire magazine out there. Sure, a wild Puka Nacua or Jauan Jennings appears from time to time, but no position produces more sporadic fantasy stars out of nowhere than RB. Prioritize RBs one injury away from entering the position's top-20 conversation over WR5+ types and/or backup QBs/TEs who you'll never feel good about starting anyway. 

Best Values By Round On The Sleeper Fantasy Football App

I looked at the Fantasy Life rankings (code "Ian" for 20% off any Tier 1 or 2 subscription!) to determine the biggest round-by-round ADP discrepancies. Now, it's obviously not a given that your specific draft and leaguemates will live and die by previous ADP, but you know what the only thing cooler than getting YOUR guy is? Getting them just a little bit later and strengthening that roster even more.

First: You're going to notice more WRs than RBs below, which makes sense considering the home league stereotype/tendency to load up on the latter position early. Don't confuse this with a round-by-round recommendation guide—we're merely looking at Sleeper-specific prices independent of full positional need to get an idea of the biggest potential bargains out there.

• Round 1: Giants WR Malik Nabers (FL Rank: 7, ADP: 11.8), 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (FL Rank: 8, ADP: 12.9)
• Round 2: Texans WR Nico Collins (FL Rank: 10, ADP: 13.1), Jaguars WR Brian Thomas (FL Rank: 12, ADP: 15)
• Round 3: Commanders QB Jayden Daniels (FL Rank: 28, ADP: 33.4)
• Round 4: Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (FL Rank: 32, ADP: 39.3), Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker (FL Rank: 33, ADP: 44)
• Round 5: Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy (FL Rank: 42, ADP: 55.5), Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan (FL Rank: 47, ADP: 61.8)
• Round 6: Cowboys WR George Pickens (FL Rank: 53, ADP: 64.6), Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle (FL Rank: 55, ADP: 67.7), Bears RB D'Andre Swift (FL Rank: 59, ADP: 68)
• Round 7: Titans WR Calvin Ridley (FL Rank: 54, ADP: 74.9), Steelers RB Kaleb Johnson (FL Rank: 67, ADP: 76.4), Bears WR Rome Odunze (FL Rank: 69, ADP: 79.1), Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers (FL Rank: 71, ADP: 83.5)
• Round 8: Steelers RB Jaylen Warren (FL Rank: 80, ADP: 87.6), Cardinals QB Kyler Murray (FL Rank: 70, ADP: 92.2), 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall (FL Rank: 84, ADP: 94.9), Packers WR Jayden Reed (FL Rank: 85, ADP: 97.1)
• Round 9: 49ers WR Jauan Jennings (FL Rank: 75, ADP: 99.2), Vikings RB Jordan Mason (FL Rank: 82, ADP: 107.9)
• Round 10: 49ers QB Brock Purdy (FL Rank: 97, ADP: 111.6), Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka (FL Rank: 101, ADP: 106.7), Broncos RB J.K. Dobbins (FL Rank: 100, ADP: 114.4), Bears TE Colston Loveland (FL Rank: 108, ADP: 115.1)
• Round 11: Jets QB Justin Fields (FL Rank: 86, ADP: 125.1), Bears QB Caleb Williams (FL Rank: 87, ADP: 125), Eagles TE Dallas Goedert (FL Rank: 110, ADP: 130.1)
• Round 12: Patriots QB Drake Maye (FL Rank: 99, ADP: 131.6)
   

With this in mind …

Position-by-Position Strategy For Fantasy Football Drafts On Sleeper

Quarterback

I've actually drafted a fair amount of early-round QB this offseason, but don't plan on going out of my way to pay top-25 pick prices for the position's top-two consensus options with top-12 RBs and WRs still available. Hey, if Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson are available when the iffy WR2 tier comes around in the middle of Round 3 and you don't much care for the RBs, go for it; the key is not playing catch-up once the first few options go off the board.

Essentially, take a page out of Ricky Bobby's playbook and utilize a "First or last" approach at the position. Thinking of it like a barbell also works: If you're going to spend up on a QB, make it a dual-threat alien–mobile top-50 overall picks at the position have generally returned great value in recent years–otherwise, it's FINE, and even preferred, to wait until the double-digit rounds.

That said: On Sleeper specifically, both Jayden Daniels (QB3, 33.4) and Jalen Hurts (QB4, 39.3) are in play for me at the Round 3-4 turn. I do prefer Hurts in Round 4 here, mostly thanks to his unrivaled usage on the goal line. Fun fact: The Tush Push extraordinaire has scored 147.4 fantasy points on rush attempts inside the five-yard line over the last two seasons. Allen is in second place (93) … and no other QB has scored even 45 such fantasy points.

But while landing Hurts would be pretty cool, I'm content to really wait things out should he land on another squad. This is mostly thanks to the relatively flat tier between the low-end QB1s and mid-tier QB2s. I get why Baker Mayfield (QB7, 71.4), Bo Nix (QB8, 81.6), and Kyler Murray (QB9, 92.2) are top-10 options, but are they really worth taking ROUNDS ahead of guys like …

• Justin Fields (QB15, 125.1): High-volume rushers don't bust in fantasy. Fantasy Life Projections only have Jalen Hurts racking up more rush attempts this season.
• Drake Maye (QB17, 131.6): Your favorite fantasy analyst's favorite late-round QB can scoot (second most fantasy points per game from scrambles) and is in GREAT fantasy company based on his rookie-year per-game numbers.
• Jordan Love (QB18, 143.6): Finished as fantasy's QB5 all the way back in … 2023. An early-season knee and mid-season groin injury prevented us from seeing his usual mobile self.
   

Hell, even guys like Thor Nystrom's hero J.J. McCarthy (QB19, 150.6) and Liam Coen's protege Trevor Lawrence (QB20, 169.3) are available LATE in drafts—I'd much rather have one or two bullets at these late round picks than spend top-100 draft capital on someone I'm not positive has *that* much more top-five upside.

Running Back

The seemingly endless aforementioned value at WR in the mid-to-late rounds makes me a Smashmouth believer in getting at least one, preferably two, RBs inside the first four rounds. You can peep two such examples that Fantasy Life Director of Analytics Dwain McFarland and I put together recently over at RT Sports:

• Example one: De'Von Achane in Round 1, Kenneth Walker in Round 4, before mostly hammering WRs until Round 11 (draft board, stream).
• Example two: Saquon Barkley in Round 1, TreVeyon Henderson in Round 3 (the man goes EARLY in the higher-stakes leagues). We managed to get an elite TE in there, but then attacked the mid-round WR tier (draft board).
   

Again, it depends on your draft slot and who is available, but I'd look long and hard at studs like Ashton Jeanty, De'Von Achane, and Derrick Henry in Round 2, while consensus top-10 Fantasy Life RBs Bucky Irving and Chase Brown are available in the early parts of Round 3. Here's to hoping that Achane's lower-body injury isn't overly serious; as of now, head coach Mike McDaniel said he's not concerned about his Week 1 availability.

So yeah: At least one stud RB inside the first four rounds, and then ideally you, a scholar, can land Mr. Ride or Die himself Omarion Hampton in Round 4. Yes, Najee Harris (eye) managed to return to practice. Also, yes, the first-round rookie is a special prospect who could flirt with 300-plus touches if his workload looks anything like 2024 J.K. Dobbins inside the NFL's reigning 11th-ranked scoring offense that seemingly has every intention of pounding the rock this season.

Or maybe Kenneth Walker is your cup of tea in Round 4. TreVeyon Henderson at the end of Round 4 or early Round 5 is also a strong choice; either way, securing two dope early-round RBs to build around will allow you to scoop up all sorts of WR value in the middle rounds before re-directing your attention to later-round handcuff backs. The position's aforementioned Round 9-12 values should be prioritized once the WR well begins to run dry, and that's before getting into late-round darts who are just one injury away from rocketing up the ranks like …

• Cowboys RB Jaydon Blue (RB44, 132.1)
• Commanders RB Austin Ekeler (RB45, 145.2)
• Cardinals RB Trey Benson (RB46, 146.7)
• Bills RB Ray Davis (RB47, 148.7)
• 49ers RB Isaac Guerendo (RB50, 153.5)
• Jaguars RB Bhayshul Tuten (RB51, 155.5)
• Jets RB Braelon Allen (RB53, 159.5)
• Falcons RB Tyler Allgeier (RB54, 160.7)
• Browns RB Dylan Sampson (RB55, 174.1)
• Dolphins RB Jaylen Wright (RB56, 176.6)
• Eagles RB Will Shipley (RB61, 209.5)
• Ravens RB Keaton Mitchell (RB71, 241.4)

Wide Receiver

Feel free to draft multiple baller top-12 options inside the first four rounds, but the aforementioned depth at the position has me willing to generally forgo a true zero-RB approach unless my draft is feeling particularly frisky.

Again: Rounds 5-8 feature a multitude of legit top-30 options with upside for much more at a very reasonable cost:

• Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy (FL Rank: 42, ADP: 55.5)
• Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan (FL Rank: 47, ADP: 61.8)
• Cowboys WR George Pickens (FL Rank: 53, ADP: 64.6)
• Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle (FL Rank: 55, ADP: 67.7)
• Titans WR Calvin Ridley (FL Rank: 54, ADP: 74.9)
• Bears WR Rome Odunze (FL Rank: 69, ADP: 79.1)
• Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers (FL Rank: 71, ADP: 83.5)
• 49ers WR Ricky Pearsall (FL Rank: 84, ADP: 94.9)
• Packers WR Jayden Reed (FL Rank: 85, ADP: 97.1)
• 49ers WR Jauan Jennings (FL Rank: 75, ADP: 99.2)
   

Additional later-round rookie options like Packers WR Matthew Golden and Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka particularly stand out at cost. Keon Coleman and Rashid Shaheed in that low-end WR5 range are just about the last guys I'm willing to rely much on early in 2025. Accordingly, I'd much prefer my six or seven WRs come sooner rather than later in drafts, considering the heightened potential for late-round RB darts to boom.

Tight End

Similar thoughts here as QB: If you want to spend up on Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, or George Kittle: I get it. They're the position's big-three options for a reason, and devoting early-round capital to them is fine if you simply aren't a fan of the available RBs and WRs.

That said: Realize that you only need one of these guys if you do wind up spending a top-four pick on them. Worry about the bye week later; you can worry about cutting a bench scrub then while continuing to play the handcuff RB lottery in the meantime.

But yeah: First-or-last, barbell approach for me. There are so many great WR values on the board inside the top-eight rounds that I prefer to throw one-to-two late-round darts on still exciting options. First-round rookies Tyler Warren (TE10, 96.2) and Colston Loveland (TE13, 115.1) stand out to me, as drafters can select safer—albeit still TE1 capable—veterans Dalton Kincaid (TE14, 118.8), Jake Ferguson (TE16, 143.8), and Eagles TE Dallas Goedert (FL Rank: 110, ADP: 130.1) when most of the top-tier RBs and WRs are gonzo.

Kicker

Again: F*ck kickers. Draft handcuff RBs if you can and deal with the position later. But if you insist, check out my colleague Matthew Freedman's admittedly awesome kicker preview. 

DST

Look, if you can land elite real-life defenses with comfortable enough opening schedules like the Broncos, Ravens, or Vikings in the last two rounds of your draft, go ahead, but like with kickers, please don't reach on the position when there are capable skill-position players still on the board.

This is largely because of two fun options that: 1.) Aren't expected to totally suck at playing defense, 2.) Possess borderline erotic opening schedules, 3.) Have a good chance of being available after a handful of options at the position are already off the board.

• Patriots (ADP: DST17): Have some blue-chippers on this side of the ball and start the year with the Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers, Panthers, Bills (ugh), Saints, Titans, Browns, and Falcons.
• Cardinals (ADP: DST28): Start the season with the Saints, Panthers, 49ers (ugh), Seahawks, Titans, and Colts. Not a great defense, but potential to be good based on the additions of some high-priced free agents and early-round draft picks.

Difference In Early-Round Strategy Depending On Draft Position In Sleeper Drafts

Alright, time to put our money where our mouth is. Just kidding. Plenty of time for that later. Let's just eyeball what some potential starts might look like using Fantasy Life's cool ADP tool! 12 teams, 1-QB, base half-PPR scoring. Cool? Cool.

First, we'll peep an early-draft position …

1.01/1.02 continues to be my preferred starting position thanks to the ability to get Ja'Marr Chase or your favorite RB in Round 1, followed by a consensus top-12 RB and/or WR at the 2-3 turn. And hey, if your league happens to soak up the exact RBs and WRs you feel good about before it gets back to you at the end of Round 2, that implies that the elite QBs and TEs will then be available for you. From there, we look at the various stud RB options available in Round 4-5 before moving on and attacking all the mid-round WR values we can handle.

Now for a middle-round draft start …

Getting any of your top-four RBs or top-three WRs in Round 1 is cool with me, and drafting from the middle shores up the likelihood of getting a still-awesome RB or WR in Round 2 as well. The "problems" start to arrive in Round 3, depending on who is available. I'd be thrilled to land either Chase Brown or Tee Higgins around pick 30, but I'd be ready to pivot to an elite QB if the option presents itself against this relatively flat WR2 tier. This could mean leaving the first four rounds with one WR, two RBs, and one elite onesie spot–but I'm still willing to go that route thanks to the plethora of rather awesome WR options that you can then sink your teeth into during Rounds 5-9.

And finally, a late-round start …

I'm not going to lie: As much as I do love the 1.01/1.02 starts, picking at the 1.11/1.12 turn has the potential to yield even better results if the board manages to break this way for you. Lining up Christian McCaffrey, Nico Collins, Omarion Hampton, Jalen Hurts, or George Kittle, TreVeyon Henderson, and Tetairoa McMillan in the first six rounds feels so absurd that I caution against expecting this reality to unfold for you, but hey, that start is certainly plenty possible considering current ADP. Even if things don't fall THAT beautifully for you, there are still plenty of great early-round RB options for you to get a nice base before snatching up some great WRs over the more middling RB/TE/QB options available in the middle rounds.

One final note: HAVE FUN! It is just fantasy football after all. Good luck!

Join Our Newsletter

Trusted by 400,000+ fantasy football players. Get access to Fantasy Life's free award winning newsletter and tools, all in one step.

Email Address

Subscribe

By registering or logging in, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.