How to Draft From Picks 5-8 in 2025 Fantasy Football

Draft time is upon us. Your fantasy football draft strategy is obviously heavily dependent on what pick you have. In this article, we’ll dig into what we think is the optimal strategy if you have a middle pick in the first round. For the purpose of this article, we will be using FantasyPros half-PPR ADP, though we understand many home leagues will not play out like this, and we’ll try to talk through multiple ways your draft could play out.

ROUND 1 STRATEGY

Your Round 1 strategy is dependent on who’s available. If you pick in the middle of the first round, it’s likely that Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, and Ja’Marr Chase will be unavailable. If one of them is there, that should be your pick.

If not, you can’t go wrong with Justin Jefferson or CeeDee Lamb. Jefferson is the best receiver in football, averaging 96.5 yards per game for his career at a ridiculous 10.2 yards per attempt. He’ll have a new quarterback this year, 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, adding some uncertainty to his outlook, but Kevin O’Connell turned Sam Darnold into an MVP candidate and had Nick Mullens averaging nearly nine yards per attempt. It’s an ideal situation for an inexperienced QB, and Jefferson is so talented that he’s able to produce regardless of who’s under center. Lamb gets Dak Prescott back for the start of the 2025 season, and Dallas should be pass-heavy considering their RB rotation involves Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, and Jaydon Blue. New Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer got a bad rap for using run-heavy offenses in Seattle with Russell Wilson, but he’s on the record saying he wanted to “let Russ cook” but was overruled, and it seems like the new DAL regime wants to throw the ball. Both Jefferson and Lamb have already shown top-tier upside and are well worth a pick in the middle of Round 1, especially in PPR formats.