RADIO
John's dynasty fantasy football rookie draft sleepers. His analysis for Brashard Smith, Jaxson Dart, and DJ Giddens in 2025 fantasy football rookie drafts.
With the 2025 NFL Draft well behind us, and most of the highest-sought-after rookies already well known and nested in their spots in fantasy football ADP rankings, many fantasy managers' attentions have shifted more towards sleepers at each position.
Finding real sleepers who break out at some point in their first two seasons, despite having been drafted lower in the real NFL Draft or being on teams where their role doesn't seem clear, is a tough job. It's never easy to sift through the mountain of information about each player to weed out red herrings and find the true gems.
Still, it's worth exploring as much as possible. Nailing your later-round picks in dynasty rookie drafts can help either bail you out of your earlier picks if they were poor or take your team to the next level if you nail your selections in multiple rounds. So let's break down three sleepers for 2025 dynasty fantasy football rookie drafts.
Editor's Note: The FFPC Playoff Challenge #2 is back with a massive $100,000 grand prize and $203,250 total prize pool, paying down to 100th place. Here's the deal: no salary cap, no draft, no pickups, no subs. Choose 8 players, and as NFL teams get knocked out so will your players, so choose your team wisely. The entries will sell out quickly, and registrations will close on Saturday January 17th at 4:30 pm ET . Don't wait - get your team now and end your fantasy football season with a shot at $100,000! Sign Up Now!
Brashard Smith, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
Smith is already the best pass-catching back on his team. He is also a highly explosive athlete -- he ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at the 2025 NFL Combine, and his tape shows many examples of great speed, acceleration, and burst.
Besides being drafted with very high draft capital (and thus not being a sleeper anymore), the best thing a player can do to put up big numbers and earn more playing time is to make big plays. It's likely that Smith will excel at that from early in his career.
Brashard Smith, please last to us. His homerun ability and receiving ability would be unreal out of the backfield.#ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/2QZ9pXc2XF
— Chief Concerns (@ConcernsChief) April 26, 2025
The reigning wisdom is that RB Isiah Pacheco is clearly the lead workhorse of this backfield. Then again, the speed with which huge roles for late-round running backs fade can be pretty startling. After Pacheco's leg injury last season, his return was pretty disappointing, and he never took over his previously huge role.
Additionally, he's not a good pass-catcher. Neither is Kareem Hunt, and neither is Elijah Mitchell, the other two RBs in the backfield. Smith is easily at least the second-most talented back on the Chiefs roster right now, and it's possible he could be the clear RB1B by the middle of the year.
How explosive Brashard Smith is off balance with his first-step plant foot in a non-ideal position is huge here. It allows him to quickly change his angle of attack. Freezes the DB at the top left. Smith has enough juice to take this outside for a big gain. pic.twitter.com/KREQO8BHr2
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 22, 2025
Smith is remarkably nimble in the open field. I imagine Kansas City head coach Andy Reid is already drawing up plays for him. The Chiefs have lacked a true open-field threat for a few seasons now. Pacheco is a plodder with impressive speed, but isn't particularly elusive, and his method for gaining extra yards is to bash his head into defenders.
Smith is a weapon with the ball in his hands and is the best receiving back in this year's loaded 2025 NFL Draft class. He thus has very intriguing upside in PPR leagues. He got an incredible landing spot in a backfield full of questions for a player drafted so late.
Working on a film review of #Chiefs rookie RB Brashard Smith for @KCChiefsOnSI.
This could be a fun change-of-pace runner with excellent agility and creativity, plus the burst and explosive capacity to generate big plays on the ground. pic.twitter.com/b4KvFJQWkX
— Jared Feinberg (@JRodNFLDraft) May 8, 2025
Leaning into backfields with lots of uncertainty on offenses that are proven to be good is always a good idea. You should do so with Smith, who's been written off by most of the fantasy community for his lack of size and his low draft capital. This is despite the fact that he's a great back who can pass-protect well.
Jaxson Dart, QB, New York Giants
Dart has been my QB1 in this class for quite some time. He's not like the other two quarterbacks that were hyped the most in the pre-draft process, Tennessee Titans QB Cam Ward and Cleveland Browns signal-caller Shedeur Sanders. His play doesn't completely collapse under pressure, which is obviously a great thing.
Dart was always more highly thought of than Sanders, apparently. It was interesting to insist that Dart was easily better than Sanders in the pre-draft process, though I can understand why the Titans picked Ward over him—they were desperate for a quarterback and didn't know how to draft quarterbacks, and Ward has a little more athleticism, barely.
Jaxson Dart When Blitzed:
➖12 TD’s
➖2 INT’s
➖66.2%Jaxson Dart Not Blitzed:
➖17 TD’s
➖4 INT’s
➖70.9%His Turnover Worthy Play Rate When Blitzed (1.1%) AND Not Blitzed (2.8%) were both BETTER than Cam Wards..
..and Jaxson Darts Average Depth of Target was HIGHER (11.9) pic.twitter.com/hqjlnjc79C
— Austin Abbott (@AustinAbbottFF) April 2, 2025
One of Dart's best qualities is that when defenses turn up the heat, he doesn't waver. He sticks with his game plan, doesn't lose his accuracy, doesn't panic, and delivers catchable balls all over the field. One of the biggest issues with talented quarterbacks not working out in the league is their inability to face the heat.
Dart is also accurate, an underrated athlete, has sufficient arm strength, and is very young right now. He'll have plenty of time to develop, as he just turned 22. There's much trepidation about his prospects of starting this season, but I have little doubt that it will happen within nine weeks of the start of play.
One nuance I’ve seen from Jaxson Dart on tape this yr (and here to Jack Bech) is recognition of defenders with their back turned to the ball (typically man cvg). He’s become extremely comfortable placing throws like this, putting his target in great shape to make play on ball. pic.twitter.com/8c2RpzejTI
— Todd McShay (@McShay13) February 1, 2025
The impressive intricacies of Dart's game are largely overlooked, which I don't think is fair to his skill. In dynasty superflex and 2QB leagues, he has absolutely massive value as a player who's going much later than he should and will probably start in 2025.
DJ Giddens, RB, Indianapolis Colts
It's worth noting immediately that he doesn't have a ton of value other than as a handcuff. It's likely that the Colts drafted him to have a better insurance policy for lead back Jonathan Taylor, who seems to constantly be injured. Indeed, he's missed 16 games over the past three seasons.
Studies show that watching DJ Giddens highlights daily significantly boosts your lifespan. Science doesn’t lie.
pic.twitter.com/jGkoNsAfC9— SleeperColts (@SleeperColts) May 4, 2025
Giddens is in a class of running backs that always seem to be playing on their tiptoes. He's very good at diagnosing lanes to cut through, very shifty with the ball in his hands, and adept at making defenders miss when he can set up his moves properly.
This makes it dangerous for defenses to give him much space. Indy has benefited from pretty solid run-blocking for much of its last few seasons. This has allowed Taylor to thrive, especially in 2021, when he put up a monster RB1 overall season.
I really like DJ Giddens as a pass-game complement for Jonathan Taylor on the Colts. He has real speed.
Full breakdown: https://t.co/XPfDhX3iuB pic.twitter.com/6bvqNTo07M
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) April 26, 2025
In addition, Taylor has never been a great pass-catcher. He rarely gets targeted, with the Colts instead opting to get the ball to their dedicated pass-catchers as much as possible. If Giddens takes over the RB1 role in case of a Taylor injury, he could have a bit of a nice production boost from check-downs and dump-off passes.
In 14 games, Taylor was targeted just 31 times in 2024. He'll likely handle much of the rushing workload, but it's possible Giddens could spell him and get a few catches per game, and have more value in extremely deep leagues than people think. It would make sense for the Colts to dial back Taylor's touches, too. He can't stay healthy.
Give elite burst and explosiveness to a 212 pound frame, and you get a damn missile.
DJ Giddens ranked second in the #NFLDraft2025 RB class in rushing success rate on short-yardage runs behind only Damien Martinez.
Arm tackles simply do not work. He's moving too damn fast. pic.twitter.com/RSZiNmUnWk
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) April 9, 2025
He's going lower in dynasty drafts than he should because—surprise!! -- People love to scout players. Kansas State is an unsexy school to go to, but Giddens in the later rounds of rookie drafts is a pretty sexy pick, and with good reason.
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy football app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, rankings, starts/sits & more. All free!
