RADIO
Fantasy Football Rankings
Preparing for Fantasy Drafts
To begin your fantasy football preparation, start by researching the top players for developments, role changes, and other factors that can influence their updated season projections.
It's never a better idea to review last season's performance along with offseason news to identify potential early-round targets that will serve as the anchors of your fantasy team.
However, it should be known that you cannot win your fantasy league in the early rounds, and the picks you make later in drafts will determine your fate each year.
Pre-draft prep will help you build a well-rounded team with a mix of experienced veterans and rookies to dominate your league. Use RotoBaller's Mock Draft Assistant to help prepare with as many mocks as you want.
If you are risk-adverse, drafting at a time closer to the season is the best process, as you'll have the most updated information and won't be at the mercy of a late-season offseason injury, like Joe Burrow has experienced in his career.
Top Players for the Football Season
While you can only land a handful of clearly elite fantasy options at the top of the rankings in your draft, having can't-miss studs like Saquon Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown is a start in chasing a championship.
The early rounds are not the time for making risky fantasy picks. Creating a list of high-floor, high-ceiling picks is crucial, no matter what site you are drafting on. While there have been exceptions, chasing rookies at the top of the draft is usually not the winning strategy.
Understanding Fantasy Football
Before taking on a draft, ensure you learn the basics of your league's settings, scoring systems, roster requirements, and more. Using RotoBaller Team Sync, including our Live Draft Assistant, provides live draft recommendations personalized for your league.
League settings can vary widely by platform, so play close attention to the list of league rules and settings before you set a cheat sheet.
Popular fantasy football platforms that have varying default settings include: ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, Fleaflicker, Sleeper, NFL Fantasy, and more.
Popular fantasy football scoring settings and formats include: PPR, Half-PPR, standard, Superflex, 2QB, and TE-Premium
Player Evaluation and Tiering
Even the most casual fantasy football gamers know what a set of fantasy football rankings is, but understanding how they are determined, and the tiers that go with them, is key to getting ahead of the competition.
Fantasy football players at the same position can be ranked in a similar range, but if there is a tier break, that can indicate that the players are actually far away in projected output than it seems. Always check for a player's tier next to their positional ranking. You can also use RotoBaller's Who to Draft tool to compare up to four players.
If your league mates start drafting quarterbacks back-to-back-to-back, that is a clear sign that a tier of QBs is set to come off the board, but it doesn't mean you have to follow suit and pick a signal-caller in a lower tier.
For instance, Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray are both viewed as top 10 fantasy quarterbacks in 2025, but Burrow is a tier ahead and should be picked much earlier.
Tiers can also help you draft without specifically chasing a certain position. Tier and overall quality of a player should be more heavily weighted than a "team need", especially in the early rounds.
This strategy and concept apply to QB, RB, WR, TE, D/ST, and Kicker. Rookies are often undervalued by casual fantasy gamers, so be sure to look out for them in the rankings.
How to Use Fantasy Football Rankings to Find Sleepers/Busts
Using fantasy football rankings to find sleepers and busts is essential. Remember, fantasy football drafts are now just about landing and targeting specific players. Their ranking and price in drafts matter most.
A sleeper is a player who is ranked lower than their potential future performance and output, while a bust can be explained as a highly-ranked player who has red flags and the potential to disappoint.
To best utilize rankings to effectively find sleepers and busts, you must understand the structure of the rankings. Ei: tiered rankings, overall rankings, positional rankings, etc
To uncover value picks and draft targets, identify players who place higher in RotoBaller's rankings compared to ADP (average draft position) and consensus rankings.
On the flip side, players ranked higher in consensus rankings or have higher ADPs than these rankings signal a potential fantasy football bust and an overvalued draft pick
A player who is in an offense that is projected to be high scoring could be ranked outside the top 32 running backs due to perceived competition and inexperience (especially for rookies). However, this could be a priority player to target and stash for potential later-season upside.
Some big-name quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends could be ranked too highly based on previous output and name-brand, even if they are at risk of regression due to age, quarterback play, offensive line quality, coaching change, and more. That said, fantasy gamers should analyze rankings for more than they are: an ordered list of players.
Finding a blend of early-season production and later-season upside is important, especially when considering the championship weeks. Everyone wants to start the season hot, but if your team is loaded with veterans at risk of being overtaken by rookies later in the year, your team could start to struggle in the later weeks of the year.
Utilize projections and advanced stats to understand where the rankings are coming from. Having all the available information and context with the rankings at your disposal can take your draft preparation to the next level.
Winning in 2025 Fantasy Football
The draft is most gamers' favorite part of playing fantasy football. Watching your original draft picks score fantasy points in bunches is rewarding, but inevitably, injuries and role changes will happen, making the waiver wire as important as crushing your drafts.
Knowing how to decipher which performances were outliers or could continue is key for making your waiver claims or FAAB bids. This is where expert analysis, waiver-wire rankings, and updated rest-of-season rankings come in.
Even if you do all the research possible and spend a lot of time preparing for your drafts, you'll still need to be ready to adjust on the fly. From Week 1 to the end of the year, veterans and rookies will rise or fall in the rankings. It's important to stay active and make moves, or you will be left having to chase fantasy points at the end of the season.
RotoBaller Fantasy Football Rankings Sets
- Navigate the widget above to select which set of rankings you are looking for.
- PPR Rankings: for leagues that award one point per reception
- Half-PPR Rankings: for leagues that reward 0.5 points per reception
- Standard (Non-PPR Rankings): for leagues that do not reward points for receptions
- Weekly Rankings: weekly lineup rankings
- Rookie Rankings: for first-year players and dynasty leagues
- Waiver Wire Rankings: for the ordered list of priority free agents
- Best Ball Rankings: for best ball leagues (no in-season management)
- Mariano's Premium Rankings: Nick's expert rankings
- Superflex Rankings: for leagues that allow you to start two quarterbacks
- TE Premium Rankings: for leagues that award scoring bonuses to tight ends
- IDP Rankings: for leagues that utilize individual defensive players.
- Dynasty Rankings: for year-round and full-career rankings and values
