The 2025 NFL regular season remains less than two weeks away. With meaningful football on the horizon and fantasy drafts now ramping up, there’s plenty of research to do on the values who could make a difference in your leagues. Thankfully, DraftKings Network has you covered here with the top rookies for fantasy football in 2025 at each position.
Whether you’re looking for an immediate contributor with a flashy name or a late-round pick to stash for later in the year, there are options who could emerge as real threats in your starting lineup throughout the season. Here are the top rookies for fantasy football in the upcoming campaign.
Top rookies for fantasy football
Quarterbacks
Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans
“With the No. 1 overall pick, the Tennessee Titans select… Cam Ward, quarterback, Miami.” One of college football’s most prolific signal-callers last season, Ward stole the show and earned his place as the 2025 NFL Draft’s top talent. While he began his journey to the pros at the FCS level with Incarnate Word, Ward’s impressive play led his team to back-to-back playoff appearances before he made the move to the FBS level. He played two seasons at Washington State before spending last year with the Miami Hurricanes, putting forth his most impressive campaign against top competition yet.
Ward completed 67.2% of his passes for 4,313 yards, an FBS-best 39 touchdowns and tossed just seven interceptions in 13 games while earning an All-American nod. Now on the Titans alongside Calvin Ridley as his top target, Ward can bring his awesome arm talent to Tennessee and provide high-upside gunslinging. While his team likely won’t win many games, Ward loves to push the ball downfield and the pairing with Ridley feels like an ideal fit based on his route tree. While he probably won’t emerge as a starter in 1QB leagues from the jump, the rookie quarterback should find his way onto rosters as a stash in later rounds and obviously carries much more value for players in 2QB formats.
Jaxson Dart, New York Giants
It’s become tough to trust the New York Giants to produce many fantasy-relevant players, with Saquon Barkley and Malik Nabers the notable exceptions. Well, the franchise may have a future starter on its hands in Jaxson Dart, a young quarterback who profiles more as a developmental project but showed out in the NFL Preseason and could become a player to stash in fantasy. Ignore the noise you heard about him in college — Dart looks good.
The No. 25 pick in April’s draft, the rookie showed out with an SEC-best 69.3% completion percentage and 4,279 yards at Ole Miss last season. He threw 29 touchdowns to just six picks, and Dart’s 10.8 yards per attempt and 180.7 passer rating both led the nation. He also showed upside with his legs, running for 1,541 yards and 14 scores over his 45 career games at the NCAA level. If you squinted, you could see the vision, but then Dart stole the show during the Giants’ preseason slate. He completed 32-of-47 passes for 372 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, also contributing 52 rushing yards and a score on six carries. New York went 3-0 and Dart earned headlines, so he’s an intriguing add for later in the season if he takes over the starting job.
Running backs
Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders
The term “generational” probably gets thrown around a little too loosely in the sports world as it relates to prospects. However, Ashton Jeanty earned every ounce of that label in college and then some. The guy didn’t look like he was even playing the same sport as his opponents at Boise State during his Heisman Finalist campaign last year, and now brings that ability to bounce off tackles and hit the jets to the NFL.
As a sophomore in 2023, Jeanty rushed for 1,347 yards and 14 scores with over 1,900 total yards from scrimmage. Last season, he took things up several notches with a nation-leading 374 carries for 2,601 yards, also totaling a conference-best 29 rushing touchdowns with one more via the air. He obviously earned an All-American selection for that, as well as finishing second in Heisman Trophy voting. Jeanty now heads to the Las Vegas Raiders under head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, both of whom love the ground game and are undoubtedly excited to unlock the No. 6 pick’s talents. Don’t worry about his preseason numbers — the rookie will put up fantasy points from the get-go and brings an elite floor with production likely around the top-12 backs.
Omarion Hampton, Los Angeles Chargers
Multiple halfbacks went in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, a relative rarity thanks to a perceived decline in positional value. Analytics be damned, the Los Angeles Chargers got themselves one heck of a football player in Omarion Hampton. Sure, they signed Najee Harris this offseason, but the rookie should see the ball plenty and brings elite upside.
Hampton spent three seasons with North Carolina and worked as the starter in the latter two of those years. Over that span, he rushed for 3,164 yards and 30 touchdowns in 25 games, averaging 5.9 yards per attempt and over 126 yards per contest. He also hauled in 67 passes for 595 yards and three scores, and he should have a greater opportunity to put his pass-catching talent on display with the Chargers. While L.A.’s run game didn’t rank particularly high in efficiency metrics last season, Hampton’s a clear talent upgrade and will get many opportunities in a Jim Harbaugh offense that loves to pound the rock. He may not deliver on ADP through the early weeks if Harris (eye) ends up playing, but Hampton can take over this backfield as soon as midseason and become a workhorse in a great offense.
TreVeyon Henderson, New England Patriots
If Jaxson Dart was the prince of the NFL Preseason, TreVeyon Henderson rules over him as the king. No players earned more hype or headlines than the New England Patriots’ halfback who fantasy pundits herald as the chosen one without even taking a regular-season snap. His ADP has soared in recent days, but will Henderson live up to the hype?
Early indications show that he can deliver on expectations, even if Rhamondre Stevenson continues to operate as the early-down and goal-line back. Henderson began the preseason with an electric kickoff return for a touchdown which put his explosiveness on display for the whole league. He rushed for 38 yards and a score on just five attempts, showing the efficiency that allowed him to pace the Big Ten with 7.1 yards per carry in 2024. During that season, Henderson rushed for 1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns while catching 27 balls for 284 yards and one more touchdown. He worked in a complimentary role alongside Quinshon Judkins, so we know that the rookie can succeed even in a timeshare. In an ascending Patriots offense, he remains a smash fantasy pick.
RJ Harvey, Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos emerged from some mediocre seasons last year and fought their way to an NFL Playoffs appearance with head coach Sean Payton and rookie quarterback Bo Nix. In 2025, they may look even better with an improved defense and in infusion of talent at a couple of the skill positions. One such add is RJ Harvey, a second-round pick out of UCF.
A converted quarterback, Harvey stands just 5-foot-8 and 205 pounds but showcased plenty of ability with the Golden Knights. He racked up 1,654 scrimmage yards and 17 total scores in 2023 before a monster 2024 campaign in which he rushed for 1,577 yards with a Big-12 best 6.8 yards per carry and 22 touchdowns. He also caught 20 passes for 267 yards and three more trips to the end zone, bringing his grand totals to 1,844 scrimmage yards and 25 touchdowns. While he’ll work behind J.K. Dobbins for the moment in Denver, Harvey flashes top-end speed with a 4.4 40-yard dash and can step into an early role as the receiving and third-down back with room to grow. He’s a potential league-winner down the stretch of the fantasy football playoffs.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Washington Commanders
There are numerous other rookie halfbacks who could produce in fantasy football this season such as RJ Harvey, Kaleb Johnson, Jaydon Blue and Cam Skattebo. However, those guys either operate in projected timeshares or in somewhat unexciting offensive situations. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, meanwhile, brings sky-high upside to the table with the Washington Commanders.
Sure, the seventh-rounder doesn’t boast the same draft capital that Jeanty or Hampton do, but who cares? The Commanders traded incumbent starter Brian Robinson Jr. away and clearly feel comfortable with Croskey-Merritt alongside Austin Ekeler and Chris Rodriguez. The case for Bill, as he’s affectionately known, feels a little similar to Henderson’s in that the volume isn’t locked-in yet. However, Croskey-Merritt produced 1,190 yards and 17 touchdowns while averaging 6.3 yards per attempt in 2023 with the Arizona Wildcats before eligibility issues limited him to only one game last season. The explosiveness and vision are evident on the tape and there’s much to like in the rookie’s profile. The hype train is plenty fun and there’s a few seats left — come join the club while you can.
Wide receivers
Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There’s much to like in Emeka Egbuka’s profile. To be totally fair, there were plenty of positives even before he joined a high-octane Tampa Bay Buccaneers attack in the first round of the draft. However, the situation at Raymond James Stadium actually makes Egbuka even more of an intriguing target for fantasy drafts than he was prior to when his name reverberated from the stage back in April.
Ohio State produced a litany of talented wide receivers in recent years — think Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Terry McLaurin, just to name a few. Egbuka can become next in that line of succession after tallying 81 catches for 1011 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, as well as a 74-1,151-10 receiving line back in 2022. This rookie carries himself like a pro and already looks like one on the field with developed route-running and soft hands. He’s also a plus athlete and will catch passes from Baker Mayfield, who looked like a top-10 quarterback for large periods across the last two years. With Chris Godwin still recovering from a surgery and Jalen McMillan now expected to miss roughly half of the upcoming campaign, Egbuka slots in quite nicely across from Mike Evans in a high-powered offense.
Travis Hunter, Jacksonville Jaguars
Possibly the most unique player to come out of the NFL Draft in decades, Travis Hunter brings a two-way skill set that nobody else in the league can hold a candle to. As a fantastic receiver and lockdown cornerback, the Colorado product expects to play both ways at the professional level. That brings its fair share of risk, but will drafting him in fantasy football pay off?
Well, it’s tough to predict the answer to that question. On one hand, Hunter was a multi-time All-American and won last year’s Heisman Trophy with 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns, plus four interceptions and 11 passes defensed on the other end of the ball. He brings standout athleticism, soft hands and an otherworldly catch radius to the equation, but cracking the code to two-way play could take some time. Hunter should see snaps on both sides of the field and will fill the WR2 role alongside Brian Thomas Jr… while catching passes from Trevor Lawrence… in an offense called by new head coach Liam Coen. The motion and screen pass concepts the latter likes to emphasize should provide avenues for Hunter to pop in fantasy football, but all it takes is one or two cornerback injuries for him to see far more time on defense than offense. IDP leagues are one thing, but Hunter does carry higher risk — and reward — than most of his peers.
Tetairoa McMillan, Carolina Panthers
Laugh all you want at the Carolina Panthers’ offense now, because this unit should show signs of improvement in 2025. Quarterback Bryce Young played some excellent ball down the stretch last season, and with a new top target in Tetairoa McMillan, the former No. 1 pick finds himself positioned to pick up where he left off.
McMillan, a first-round pick out of Arizona, stands 6-foot-4 and towers over most defensive backs. He put that mismatch threat to good use in college with 84 or more catches and 1,319 or more yards in each of the last two seasons, pacing the conference as an All-American in 2024. The wideout can win at the catch point and uses his size to his advantage, almost in a Drake London-esque fashion to make up for a lack of true game-breaking athleticism. After scoring 26 touchdowns in three years of NCAA ball, McMillan also provides a big-bodied threat in the red zone and should be the top target in this Panthers offense from day one. If you want target volume and high upside in your wide receiver picks, McMillan’s a fantastic rookie option in the middle rounds of fantasy football drafts.
Tight ends
Tyler Warren, Indianapolis Colts
Rookie tight ends often take a year or two to adjust to the NFL level. That’s just the nature of a position which requires a player to learn nuances of blocking schemes along with an entire route tree while developing chemistry with their quarterbacks. However, Tyler Warren doesn’t seem to need such an adjustment period.
The Penn State product didn’t play a huge role through the first four years of his collegiate career but truly exploded as a senior. He paced the Big Ten with 104 receptions, taking those looks for 1,233 yards and eight touchdowns. Not only did Warren produce at an absurd level for his position through the air, but he also carried the ball 26 times for 218 yards and four additional scores. That kind of positional versatility creates some very fun possibilities with NFL coaches and he clearly profiles as one of the top options in the Colts’ receiving game regardless. While Warren may not be the team’s entire offense as he was during his final college season, he can come close and should be on fantasy football radars as a must-draft rookie.
Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears
What’s not to love about a tight end who won a national championship as one of his college team’s top options and earned premium draft capital from a pro franchise now helmed by an offensive guru? The Chicago Bears seem poised to take the next step in 2025, as does their No. 10 selection Colston Loveland.
The Michigan Wolverines threw the ball very little during Loveland’s collegiate career, but that didn’t stop him from hauling in 101 catches for 1,231 yards and nine touchdowns over his two seasons as a starter. The raw stats look nice enough but could have been even better with competent quarterback play in 2024 and an extra couple of games had he not been sidelined briefly due to an injury. Still, Loveland showed high upside as a receiving threat and now enters a group of offensive weapons who will be deployed at the hands of one of the NFL’s brightest offensive minds in head coach Ben Johnson. While the numerous mouths to fees (and incumbent starting tight end Cole Kmet) do mean Loveland’s target volume may not pop off the screen, but he could see high-value looks as a red-zone threat and can take over as the starter sooner rather than later.
