Who Should You Draft with the 9th Pick in 2025?

Landing the ninth pick in your 2025 fantasy football draft can feel like you’re in no man’s land. You may be missing out on the top-tier running backs and elite wide receivers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come away with a foundational piece for your roster. At this spot, you’ll want to focus on players who combine high weekly ceilings with a proven track record of production, or rookies who have a realistic chance to join that tier by season’s end. Whether you’re in Standard, half-PPR, or full-PPR formats, the ninth pick offers an opportunity to grab a difference-maker who can anchor your lineup all year.

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RB Christian McCaffrey, 49ers

What’s there to be said about Christian McCaffrey that we don’t already know? The best dual-threat RB option of this generation, McCaffrey averaged 19.6 opportunities (attempts-plus-targets) in his three full games last season, accruing 281 total yards as the workhorse back we’ve grown to know and love. But three full games is not what we want to sign up for, particularly if we’re offering up a first-round pick to get it.

Yet through all red flags we had last preseason, it was hard to shake the fact that this is Christian damn McCaffrey in a Kyle Shanahan offense, so he was still commonly coming off draft boards as one of the first two selections. Missing the preseason led to being questionable for Week 1, which ultimately resulted in missing the entire first half of the regular season. Eventually, a PCL injury ended his season, leaving fantasy managers in disarray.

That brings us to 2025, where CMC is still very much in a Kyle Shanahan offense, this time without Deebo Samuel around to gobble up those short-area passes, and Brandon Aiyuk’s ACL injury keeps him out for at least the first month of the season. If McCaffrey is fully healthy —and this time there’s no reason to think otherwise— there’s no doubt that he will earn an outsized share of the targets, and could easily lead the position in receptions on a weekly basis. While the top quadrant of the draft is a little too risky to take the plunge, I’m more than happy to spend the No. 9 pick on the veteran with the “elite” tier of options off the board. He’s not always here in full-PPR leagues; he often falls into this range in Standard leagues, which makes him a great snag.

WR Malik Nabers, Giants

It was yet another forgettable year for a Giants team that has now finished 30th or below as a scoring offense in four of the last five years, but at the very least, it’s clear they got an absolute stud in Malik Nabers with their sixth-overall selection. The rookie led the league with a 32.2% target share, finishing the year second in targets (166) despite missing two games.

These were no “PPR scam” targets either; Nabers had a full route tree —ran from all over the field— and had glowing success rate numbers all across his Reception Perception profile. (https://receptionperception.com/malik-nabers-2024-player-profile/) Obviously, things would have been even better if he had any semblance of consistency from his quarterbacks. Still, he did the best with what he had, earning 0.30 EPA/target, a far cry from what Wan’Dale Robinson was able to do with his 141 (!!) targets (-0.12 EPA/target). It seems nearly impossible that Nabers could have a higher target share in Year 2 until you look at how much usage Robinson had, paired with the fact that the Giants’ biggest move in terms of skill position players was the addition of RB Cam Skattebo in the fourth round.

The new quarterback room of Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart, and Jameis Winston is unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of the rest of the NFC East, but it’s a marked improvement for a receiver who has already proved he will be a defensive menace for years to come. A monster ceiling feels out of the question, but Nabers is a high-floor option to start your WR room.

WR Puka Nacua, Rams

In the span of less than a week back in March, Puka Nacua saw the release of Cooper Kupp and the addition of Davante Adams to his wide receiver room. Nacua has undoubtedly been very productive despite target competition in the past, but should we assume that Adams is a 1v1 replacement for Kupp? Probably not.

Last year, Kupp was employed out of the slot on two-thirds of his routes and continued his slow decline through more lower-body injuries, logging a new career-low 4.0 yards after the catch. Adams, on the other hand, proved that he can still win with speed, and particularly did well on those in-breaking routes over the middle of the field that Matthew Stafford likes so much. Once the vet got up to speed in New York last season, he went on a nine-game streak with at least five receptions, racking up seven touchdowns and 770 yards, on 6.59 yards after the catch.

Adams has never had a majority-slot role during his long career, but that doesn’t mean the Rams won’t use him there a little more than, say, his two-plus years with the Raiders. He presents more of a threat to Nacua’s incredible target share than if the team retained Kupp, and it also could prevent an increase to the incumbent’s end zone targets, where Puka earned exactly half of the amount Demarcus Robinson (12-to-6) had last season.

Nacua still has top-5 WR upside, but he should probably be closer to the end of the round than the middle-round ADP he would have had sans-Adams.

RB Ashton Jeanty, Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders selected the most impactful rookie fantasy asset (sorry Cam Ward), and now Ashton Jeanty has snuck into consideration as a back-end pick in the first round. From a talent, prospect profile, and backfield competition aspect, it makes all the sense in the world. Jeanty accrued over 5,500 yards from scrimmage over his three seasons with Boise State, and though his passing-game usage seems like it took a dip during his senior year, that’s only because the team decided the easiest way to move the ball down the field was to simply hand the ball to him.

Jeanty had an outlandish 375 attempts in his final year at Boise State, forcing an equally outlandish 152 tackles while registering 5.25 yards after contact per attempt. Those numbers won’t be replicable at the next level —Derrick Henry led the league with 81 missed tackles, Bucky Irving 4.03 YCO/A— but he shouldn’t have much of an issue stringing together runs that make defenses look silly. He also won’t have much of an issue commanding a massive workload in a backfield that has Raheem Mostert, Zamir White, and Dylan Laube fighting to get on the field.

The real question mark here is how many goal-line opportunities he’ll get, even if the Raiders don’t seem to be —on paper— a much improved situation than their 2024 version. Geno Smith offers a more stable quarterback to move the ball with consistency, but the team is slated to score the sixth-lowest amount of points according to implied team totals, which means the team will need to far out-kick their betting lines to become a top-half of the league scoring offense.

Who Should You Draft?

Christian McCaffrey, Malik Nabers, Puka Nacua, and Ashton Jeanty all have strong cases to be selected at the 1.09. My choice would be Malik Nabers in PPR and half-PPR formats, while Christian McCaffrey gets the nod in Standard. Nabers has the skill set to continue his incredibly high-volume role with the Giants. McCaffrey’s consistent rushing volume and touchdown upside make him an easy grab where he’s falling in standard leagues, even if we don’t get quite the same boost with his receiving work.

Nacua remains a rock-solid option in any format, though the addition of Davante Adams may ding him a bit. Jeanty’s versatility and pass-catching chops give him RB1 potential if he can claim a workhorse role in Las Vegas (he will), making him an intriguing upside play for drafters who want to start RB-heavy.

My pick at the 1.09 in each format:

• PPR: Malik Nabers
• Half-PPR: Malik Nabers
• Standard: Christian McCaffrey

Nabers’ projected target share and explosive ability give him an immediate path to WR1 production in full- and half-PPR scoring, while McCaffrey’s elite rushing workload and scoring upside keep him the top choice in Standard formats.