How to Draft From Picks 9-12 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 late 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 AND 2 STRATEGY

While you miss out on one of the true elites with a pick at the end of Round 1, you do get the benefit of double-tapping two players in the top ~15, and you have some interesting freedom on how you want to structure your team. Given how mid-round WRs often fall in home leagues, we like nabbing at least one running back at the 1-2 turn. Saquon Barkley and Bijan Robinson will be gone, and Jahmyr Gibbs is gone before the ninth pick the overwhelming majority of the time. If one of those three is somehow available, it’s an easy decision.

Otherwise, you’re looking at Christian McCaffrey, Ashton Jeanty, or Derrick Henry at RB (or possibly De’Von Achane in Round 2). We know what McCaffrey can do; he’s legitimately one of the best fantasy football assets ever when he’s fully healthy. Coming off an injury-plagued 2024 season at 29 years old, it’s understandable why he’s falling into the back half of the first round, but all offseason reports indicate that McCaffrey is healthy, and the upside is undeniable. Particularly given the state of the 49ers’ WR corps — Deebo Samuel is gone and Brandon Aiyuk won’t be healthy early in the year after last season’s ACL injury — McCaffrey could post a dominant target share to go along with a massive rushing workload. CMC could make or break your season depending on health, but the juice is worth the squeeze at picks 9-12.