Who Should You Draft with the 10th Pick in 2025?
By the time the tenth pick rolls around, there is a better than even chance that the true studs of fantasy football will have gone off the board. Unless you play in one of those incredibly rare homer leagues where people are so wedded to taking their team's best player, regardless of position or value, you are not grabbing Ja'Marr Chase at the 1.10. But that does not mean that you can't get your draft off to a solid start, with a host of quality fantasy options sure to be available by the time your turn comes around.
According to our multi-site ADP tool, drafters playing on CBS, ESPN, and NFL.com platforms are landing Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers at the 1.10. This would be lovely, but across all of the sites, it seems that the second-year stud will already be off the board before this point. This leaves you, the drafter, with three standout options in my humble opinion.
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RB Ashton Jeanty, Raiders
Starting your draft with one of the best rookie running back prospects in recent seasons is not a terrible idea, and Ashton Jeanty would be a welcome first building block on any roster. In three seasons with Boise State, Jeanty rushed 752 times for a ludicrous 4,778 yards and 50 touchdowns, with 2,601 yards and 29 scores coming last season. He also added another 862 yards on 80 receptions with six touchdowns. The Raiders used the sixth overall pick to land Jeanty, and he finds himself on an offense that has lost a staggering 290 running back opportunities from a year ago, including 193 carries, the fourth-most in the league. Raiders new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has a long track record of making his running back the focal point of his offenses, and with very little real competition in the Raiders backfield, Jeanty projects as a workhorse from day one in the NFL.
RB Derrick Henry, Ravens
It has proven to be something of a foolish endeavour to write off Derrick Henry. The cliff has to come at some point, but Henry seems determined to stiff-arm the downside of his career with all the fury at his disposal. Since he assumed command of the Titans' backfield in 2018, Henry has led all running backs in the NFL in carries, yards, and touchdowns. As a result, he is also the RB1 in Standard, Half-PPR, and Full-PPR formats. Henry marked his first season with the Ravens in 2024 with a mere 1,921 rushing yards and a league-high 16 rushing scores, marking the seventh season in a row he has hit double-digit scores. Henry was an elite producer in all scoring formats, but especially in standard leagues, where his lack of true receiving upside doesn't count against him. Henry has fewer than 20 receptions in seven of his nine NFL seasons.
WR Puka Nacua, Rams
Puka Nacua has enjoyed one of the best two-season starts to a career for any wide receiver since 2010, in both the "real world" and in fantasy terms. Nacua has reeled in 184 receptions for 2,476 yards between 2023 and 2024, good for eighth and seventh among all wide receivers. He's the WR9 in Standard and Half-PPR scoring while falling all the way down to WR10 in Full-PPR. Only five wide receivers had more receptions and yards in their first two seasons than Nacua, but a whopping 64 scored more touchdowns. Nacua has only found the endzone nine times in his career so far. The Rams waved goodbye to Cooper Kupp this offseason, who took with him a bulk of the Rams' 215 vacated targets from a year ago. While Davante Adams is likely to command his share of the targets, Nacua should benefit from his existing chemistry with Stafford and remain extremely busy in 2025. Stafford's 8.88 adjusted yards per attempt when looking for Nacua marks his third most efficient linkup with any pass catcher in his career.
Who Should I Draft?
All three of these players should be available to you when your turn comes. But which one should you hitch your wagon to? There is no one-size-fits-all answer here, and the different scoring formats should make one player more appealing than the others. So with this in mind, here's how I would lean.
My pick at the 1.10 in each format:
- PPR: Puka Nacua
- Half-PPR: Ashton Jeanty
- Standard: Derrick Henry
The receiving upside, or lack thereof, influences my decision-making. When yards are all that matter, then King Henry is the player you need to take at this spot. But as receptions grow in importance, the other two players' cases become harder to ignore. But whatever league you play in, you'll be getting a potential gem to kick off your draft.
