It's almost that time, fellow degenerates.
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In less than 10 days, the Philadelphia Eagles will host the Dallas Cowboys in the 2025 regular-season opener (because there aren't nearly enough NFC East games in primetime). When that Brotherly Love Beatdown begins, so will another season of fantasy football. After a summer of draft prep and selecting rosters, the focus will change to setting lineups and winning a weekly showdown with an opponent.
However, while many fantasy managers have already assembled their teams for the campaign to come, more than a few folks prefer to wait until the last minute to draft their squads. It prevents training camp or preseason injuries from blowing a hole in rosters. Enables them to stay up-to-date on the latest developments regarding potential holdouts, whether it's Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin getting a bag or Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Jakobi Meyers requesting a trade because he didn't.
Of course, exercising this restraint requires a live draft. And over the next week-plus, there will be approximately eleventeen jillion of them. Fantasy drafters will gather at watering holes and sports caves. In driveways and online. There will be smack talk. Lots and lots of beverages. And the occasional gaffe that will live in that league's lore forever.
He is never living this down
— Sheffield Shuffler (@SheffieldShuff) August 18, 2025
Took Brian Robinson Jr instead of Bijan Robinson 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/bOSrD3GWmv
I could watch that on a loop for two weeks, and it would never get old.
There's another advantage to waiting to draft--an entire summer of ADP data that can be used to help identify potential values. Yes, it means that you won't be able to get Washington running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt at the end of the draft. (At this point, good luck getting him in Round 10.) But the roadmap for assembling a roster consisting of players who will outperform their asking price is as complete as it's going to get at this point.
Some of the players listed here have already been mentioned by this writer this summer--more than once. But all have one thing in common--the potential to be the sort of value pick that wins fantasy leagues.
League-Winning Quarterback Values
Dak Prescott, Dallas (ADP: QB11, 99th Overall)
Generally speaking, this analyst isn't the sort who drafts an elite quarterback. It's no knock on the likes of Baltimore's Lamar Jackson or Buffalo's Josh Allen as players. The value just isn't there--they have to smash to justify their lofty price tag. No, the smarter play is to target a signal-caller in the QB6-QB12 range who has the potential to crack the top-five.
And in 2025, no quarterback fits that bill better than Prescott.
Do your best to cast aside the memories of last year's injury-shortened mess of a season. Instead, focus on Prescott's 4,516 passing yards (third in the NFL), 36 touchdown passes (tops in the league), and QB3 fantasy finish in 2023. Prescott has the passing-game weapons to put up similar numbers in 2025--especially when you consider the sorry state of the Dallas ground game.
Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville (ADP: QB20, 143rd Overall)
This is one I have come around on more and more as the summer has progressed. Like Prescott, Lawrence's 2024 season is best forgotten--the first overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft missed seven games, posted career-worsts in touchdown passes (11) and passing yards per game (204.5), finished 28th in fantasy points per game among quarterbacks and gave the Jags serious pause about the five-year, $275 million contract they gave him last offseason.
But again, forget the past--and focus on the present.
Yes, Jacksonville's offensive line isn't great. But with Travis Hunter joining second-year standout Brian Thomas Jr. at wide receiver, Lawrence has a potentially elite pair of wideouts. The team doesn't have a star in the backfield, but there's depth at the position. And we just saw new Jaguars head coach Liam Coen coax a top-five fantasy season from Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay in 2024.
Is Mayfield that much better a player than Lawrence?
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