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When should you draft Jordan Addison, Rashee Rice, and Quinshon Judkins for fantasy football? RotoBaller's expert fantasy football draft advice for Addison, Rice, and Judkins for 2025.
It can be tough to decide when to draft players who are dealing with possible suspensions or other disciplinary action in the NFL based on their past actions. Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice, and Cleveland Browns running back Quinshon Judkins are three such players.
We now know the outcome of Addison's legal troubles. For his DUI arrest in July of 2024, Addison will face a three-game suspension to start the 2025 season. Rice and Judkins' situations are murkier as each could be facing suspensions of an undetermined length.
That makes it more challenging to know when to draft them, and increases the risk that you could draft them too early in fantasy drafts without knowing how much time they'll miss. So let's break down when you should draft Addison, Rice, and Judkins! For this piece, we will focus on 12-team full PPR redraft leagues with standardized settings.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:- 2025 fantasy football rankings
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When Should You Draft Jordan Addison In Fantasy Football?
Since we know Addison won't play for the first three games, we should bump him down draft boards just a bit. His Average Draft Position (ADP) currently sits at 88, or WR40, in FantasyPros overall PPR ADP rankings, in the range of WRs Ricky Pearsall, Cooper Kupp, Jakobi Meyers, and Chris Godwin.
Addison is a frustrating player to have on your roster. While he has the potential to put up big numbers, he's also liable to have absolute stinkers. In Best Ball formats, this isn't much of an issue, but agonizing over which games to start him in redraft can be tough.
Jordan Addison (MIN) averaged a touchdown every 7.0 receptions (63 Rec/9 TDs) last season, T-7th-best Receptions Per TD rate of 69 qualified NFL WRs; League Avg: 12.1.#Skol pic.twitter.com/spmgfCb7Gi
— Inside Edge NFL (@IE_NFL) August 25, 2025
A significant factor contributing to his inconsistency is his high touchdown rate per reception. For two seasons in a row, he's averaged exactly seven receptions per touchdown, which ranked top-10 in the NFL each year. It helps to be in one of the league's best offenses, but it's not great that he's the WR2, and that's not about to change.
The Vikings WR1 is obviously Justin Jefferson (hamstring), who happens to be one of the best wideouts ever to play the game. In addition, tight end T.J. Hockenson is one of the NFL's current best TEs, so Addison has plenty of competition to fight against for his looks in the passing game.
Kevin O'Connell talked about Jordan Addison's suspension.
O'Connell noted that he fully expects T.J. Hockenson and Justin Jefferson to be available week 1, something that wasn't the case last season when Hockenson and Addison missed time early in 2024. pic.twitter.com/obxHcT3Yw8
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) August 6, 2025
Notably, Addison will be missing some chemistry-building with the team's new quarterback. I'm a huge fan of J.J. McCarthy, but he'll be starting his first season in the NFL, and he has an uphill battle to become a highly productive passer in the league, since he didn't attempt many passes in college.
Still, it's hard not to trust Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell to make it work. I personally won't be drafting much of Addison, and prefer to take dart throws on players that can earn more consistent roles in their offense, but in the seventh or eighth rounds, Addison isn't a bad pick to make.
Especially in deeper leagues, he should earn a spot starting as a flex player, and in case of an injury to Jefferson, immediately become a must-start based on potential volume alone.
When Should You Draft Rashee Rice For Fantasy Football?
Rice's situation is a bit more difficult to digest right now. There were initially reports that the NFL wanted to suspend him for double-digit games, but the NFLPA and Rice's agents were pushing back against something of that length, citing that there was no precedent for it.
The lead into the situation is perhaps the biggest part of it as he indicates that he thinks the NFL asked for 8 games, not 10+ as previously reported.
I don't remember where 10+ came from tbh, but I'm willing to bet Schefter isn't randomly throwing numbers around.
3/
— Drew Davenport (@DrewDavenportFF) August 20, 2025
Later reports suggested that this wasn't the case, and that the suspension would likely be of a shorter length. These reports came from NFL Insider Adam Schefter, who's one of the most dialed-in information seekers in all of professional sports, so it's hard not to imagine they carry weight.
The most crucial factor is the length of his potential suspension. If the eight-game length is what the NFL asked for, it's reasonable that the parties could settle for six. Eleven games of a WR that can put up elite WR1 production and potentially get you to the championship is an enticing temptation to seek.
Rice is the clear alpha receiver for the Chiefs, and in his first three games in 2024, before his season-ending injury, he averaged a whopping 21.6 PPR fantasy points per game. His role was solidified as the funnel through which much of the passing game ran.
I was shocked to see Rashee Rice ranked top-five over the past two seasons
Even with screens removed... pic.twitter.com/I7USv7hURk
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) August 5, 2025
To make things better, Rice's efficiency metrics were elite. Notably, he was heavily utilized on screen passes and excels at running after the catch to pick up extra yardage. He was also hyper-efficient, even when screen passes were excluded from his yards per route run metrics.
Elite efficiency typically signifies that a player could handle more of a workload, even with diminishing efficiency returns, and still gain excellent yardage, maintain solid efficiency, and thus help his team even more. In short, high efficiency should lead to even more usage. At the very least, he absolutely deserves his role and rewards his team for targeting him heavily.
Rashee Rice in his career with 74% or more snap share (full PPR):
18.2, 24.1, 11.7, 17.7, 17.3, 18.5, 29.1
19.51 FPPG in that span. A lot of overreactions in drafts to the looming suspension.
Top 5 WR upside every week he plays 🔥 pic.twitter.com/QwyM6HoOoI
— A1FantasySports (@a1fantasy23) August 24, 2025
His production when he's on the field for most of the snaps is ridiculous. It could be a struggle for some fantasy teams to survive while he's suspended, but you have a legitimate shot of getting top-5 WR production for a fraction of the normal cost, which would be a first or second-round pick.
Rice's value has been on a roller coaster. The initial reports of a potential suspension for over half the season caused his value to plummet, but it has recovered since then. He currently sits at WR25, around spot 57 overall, which would be in the fifth round of drafts in 12-team leagues. That's absolutely worth it.
You may need to draft well, and could be stuck with taking one more receiver early on than you're accustomed to, but anything can happen in a fantasy football season. One of your starting WRs or your starting flex players could get injured, and then you'll be glad you took Rice when you did. I recommend taking him in the fifth round, but be aggressive if you need to.
When Should You Draft Quinshon Judkins In Fantasy Football?
Judkins is another question entirely. It's possible he doesn't even play in the first few weeks of the season. He was holding out for more guarantees in his rookie contract, as did many second-round picks from the 2025 NFL Draft, but it doesn't look like he'll get what he wanted due to an arrest in the offseason.
The charges against him have since been dropped, but he's missed training camp and the preseason, and has yet to sign with the team. For players in their first season in the NFL, it's more important than it will ever be subsequently to get in the crucial practice reps and start learning the offense before the season begins.
“There’s not much that I have an update on…we’ll take that day-by-day and manage the situation appropriately.”
-GM Andrew Berry on the Quinshon Judkins contract/legal situation in an in-game interview on Saturday.
Does Judkins play for the Browns this season? pic.twitter.com/hFqyuHohQ1
— SleeperBrowns (@SleeperBrowns) August 25, 2025
There's not much clarity about things right now, and there likely won't be until the NFL decides on whether they'll suspend him. For now, Judkins isn't really part of the team's offense at all. Instead, they're likely planning for the team's top running backs to be Dylan Sampson and Jerome Ford.
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
The lack of news, combined with my issues with him as a player overall, makes me not interested in drafting him in any leagues. Judkins compared extremely unfavorably to the other running backs in his class in forcing missed tackles, yards after contact, yards per carry, yards per route run, and many other advanced metrics.
Bhayshul Tuten is elusive all around but was notably productive up the middle at VT pic.twitter.com/Urax9F1lfV
— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) May 14, 2025
We're to the point now where it makes more sense to take a chance on taking Sampson in the late rounds of fantasy drafts. Ford never had a workhorse role, and there was little reason why the team would draft two running backs in the first four rounds of an NFL Draft if you believe in your current top RB.
Sampson had an impressive production profile in college, winning SEC Offensive Player of the Year awards in his final season. There's obviously upside there that you could tap into for a player who is actually practicing with the team and set to play in the season opener. So there's not much reason to draft Judkins at all outside of deeper leagues, or with your last pick if you really believe in him.
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