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John fantasy football sleepers and values in 2025 dynasty rookie drafts. His top draft targets and undervalued players after the 2025 NFL Draft. Read the expert rookie draft analysis.
The dust is settling from the 2025 NFL Draft, and for dynasty fantasy football managers, the picture is a lot clearer than it was before on which players will have opportunities to shine in their new offenses. While not every player landed exactly where we wanted them to go, there were plenty of talented players who got solid landing spots.
The team a player is on doesn't dictate all of their production, but good offensive environments are often crucial, especially for rookies, in determining the upside a player has. Take Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving, for instance. Last season, the offense he was in was an ideal place for him to put up huge numbers.
Change is the only thing that is constant in the NFL, but we already know a lot going into the season, and we can leverage what we know to get draft values and make sure we pick up sleepers in rookie drafts. I'll try to help you do that today, so let's dive in.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:- 2025 fantasy football rankings
- Running back (RB) fantasy football rankings
- Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
- Tight end (TE) fantasy football rankings
- Quarterback (QB) fantasy football rankings
- FLEX fantasy football rankings
- Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
- Kicker (K) fantasy football rankings
- Dynasty fantasy football rankings
Bhayshul Tuten, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Let's break down the scenario here. By the way, I made a Reddit comment that contains a lot of my ideas about Tuten here, so they are my original ideas. Liam Coen, who coached the Bucs last year on offense, gave a ton of volume to a Day 3 rookie over the fantasy RB4 from 2022. Bucky Irving went on to have a massive season.
The Bucs were one of the best rushing teams in the league that didn't have a hypermobile quarterback. Coen got hired by the Jaguars, who have Travis Etienne Jr., a back who was terrible last season after averaging under 4.0 yards per carry in 2023. So, he was super inefficient.
Sure, Tank Bigsby has had some solid games, but he has a fumbling issue and isn't a great pass-catcher. So, Coen immediately drafts Bhayshul Tuten from a stacked RB class early in the fourth round. Last season, he'd have easily been a Day 2 pick.
Why is Bhayshul Tuten my RB1? In addition to being an elite athlete, he does some things that I really like running backs to do:
-Breaks tackles
-Eludes tackles
-Carries tacklers with him
-Slips tackles
-Powers through tackles pic.twitter.com/Tj9BjW6GHN— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 28, 2025
Coen was not involved in selecting Etienne and Bigsby, but was likely heavily involved in picking Tuten. He ran an elite offense last season. He got his guy. Additionally, elite athletes in proven great offensive systems are usually fantasy dynamite. Example: Isaac Guerendo.
Tuten fits the bill for a big breakout. Etienne and Bigsby fit the bill for RBs to get phased out of the game as much as possible because they both have serious issues (Etienne being bad, Bigsby fumbling). Tuten is a far superior athlete to both, especially to Bigsby, and is faster than Jahmyr Gibbs, one of the most explosive RBs in the league.
Nothing to see here, just Bhayshul Tuten and Jahmyr Gibbs having the vision and explosiveness to return kickoffs 98-99 yards for touchdowns in college. The list of running backs who are 200+ pounds and can do this is very small pic.twitter.com/75huBVrG6T
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 28, 2025
So, we're getting an elite athlete who will immediately be the fastest accelerator of all RBs in the league with genuine track star top speed and who was athletic enough to return kickoffs for 98-yard touchdowns in college. He's going to a Liam Coen offense that produced a league-winning Day 3 pick at RB last year.
This won't be some messy backfield with Etienne and Bigsby dominating the touches while the legitimate threat to score on every run just takes a few touches here and there. Not really how this works. This is the perfect blueprint for a massive breakout.
There are knocks on Tuten's game, sure. But Coen's run-blocking schemes were elite last season, and often both Rachaad White and Irving had huge lanes to run through. Go look at Irving's highlight reel if you don't believe it. Coen is bringing that run scheme to a team that now has a running back who ran 4.32 in the 40-yard dash.
One thing I really like to do is pause Bhayshul Tuten plays when they're over and the defense has no chance of catching him. Here it happens when he's 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Lmao pic.twitter.com/JywAULuwIB
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 28, 2025
The moment he gets a nicely blocked run and takes a TD to the house, literally everything goes out the window about these stupid debates. I imagine Coen already knows he wants to give Tuten plenty of opportunities. Etienne and Bigsby aren't winning you any leagues, and they aren't good enough to stop Tuten from getting plenty of opportunities.
Speaking of opinion, I'm 99 percent sure Tuten will be a league winner in 2025 and will be drafting him in 100 percent of leagues. I don't care about the round, wherever I think I need to do it.
RJ Harvey, RB, Denver Broncos
After an entire offseason of me arguing with other fantasy football managers online that Harvey was an elite running back prospect, despite the fact that he was 24 years old and was the subject of constant and blatant helmet scouting (where people judge a player not by their skill but by the school they went to), Harvey was selected in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos.
RJ Harvey was stamped by Sean Payton, James Gladstone (who drafted Puka Nacua), and Liam Coen (who developed Bucky Irving)
Count me all the way in on RJ Harvey pic.twitter.com/xlm9WktkFl
— Denver Broncos 365 (@DailyBroncos) April 29, 2025
I've been tooting Harvey's horn for months now. I was shocked that he was thought of so poorly by the vast majority of the draft community. His film and production were both elite. Now, of course, the community has done a complete 180, and Harvey is being drafted late in the first round and early in the second round of rookie fantasy drafts.
Gone are the days when you can get him in the fourth round and later rounds of rookie drafts. Harvey appeared in an article I wrote called "Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Running Back Draft Sleepers: Must-Target RBs in 2025" along with the aforementioned Tuten and Brashard Smith, who landed with the Kansas City Chiefs.
This year's draft class is a GOLDEN opportunity to get steals at RB. Dylan Sampson at RB8, RJ Harvey at RB9, Bhayshul Tuten at RB10 and Brashard Smith at RB16 are all highway robberies if you can swing them. None of them should be outside the top 7. pic.twitter.com/pcE12Ji8fC
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) April 14, 2025
The window for a lot of the above incredible values has closed. Sampson has likely fallen, but I believe he has a chance of taking over his backfield in Year 1.
Meanwhile, good luck getting Harvey and Tuten at those values. I'd argue Harvey is worth a top-6 pick in rookie drafts for teams that want to win now. Sure, he's 24 years old, but if you're selling out to get a championship, what better way than to get Sean Payton's hand-picked Joker?
Dylan Sampson, RB, Cleveland Browns
Sampson was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, which wasn't ideal. In addition, he landed on a team that chose former Ohio State RB Quinshon Judkins earlier in the draft.
With that in mind, most fantasy managers are convinced that Judkins will start as (probably true) and remain to be for the whole season (I imagine not true) the clear RB1 in this backfield, and will easily outproduce Sampson.
Quinshon Judkins has a rare ability to... really not make anyone miss in the open field with lateral moves once he's built up speed. Ohio State had a lot of big run plays when the run blocking was good. But Judkins is unbelievably stiff in the open field. pic.twitter.com/xeM7Y7C5rU
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) April 29, 2025
But some big problems with Judkins' game could lead to this backfield being a much more even split than those who draft Judkins early could want. And that would directly benefit Sampson. Judkins' biggest issues stem from his lack of agility in the open field. He's an excellent linear athlete, and has a nice speed and power combination, but taking on NFL tacklers head-on constantly isn't a great idea.
Going over Quinshon Judkins tape, I lost track of how many times I saw zero hip flexibility. Rarely tries to juke the defender even with clear space to get extra yards. Just tries to run guys over every time. Doesn't work that well in the NFL. Should be a problem. pic.twitter.com/VJmiH2GVIA
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 17, 2025
Sampson, meanwhile, dominated against SEC competition without the benefit of a committee backfield to keep his legs fresh and boost his efficiency, and still finished with a higher YPC average than Judkins. And Judkins' overall elusivity and advanced efficiency stats were just horrendous.
The problem with Quinshon Judkins isn't his poor missed tackles forced rate.
It's that he's average or (MUCH) worse in nearly every efficiency metric when compared to his projected draft capital.
Of 52 R1-R3 RBs since 2018:
25th in MTF%
47th in YCO/A
37th in Explosive%
24th in… pic.twitter.com/JCXX1AYvTZ— Dynasty Zoltan (@DynastyZoltanFF) April 12, 2025
Sampson didn't suffer from such issues, is a faster player overall, was more elusive in the open field, and proved he could handle as much work as the team gave him. His size is less than ideal, which is important. He also injured his hamstring late in the 2024 season, which probably precipitated his draft slide.
So you're telling me Cleveland drafted the SEC's offensive player of the year as a COMPLIMENTARY back?
Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson combined for 38 touchdowns last year.
To join forces as Browns!?
Get ready for the signature Stefanski offense.🍿 pic.twitter.com/KTzKBP59ah
— Nick Karns (@karnsies817) April 29, 2025
But after dozens of hours of film evaluation of both players throughout their careers, I concluded that Sampson is simply the better running back prospect and has a better chance of being the more productive scorer of the two.
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