The NFL draft begins Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET and runs through Saturday as teams select young athletes from around the country who have been working tirelessly to fulfill their dream of playing professional football. This year’s event is being held in Green Bay. The first 32 picks are on Thursday, followed by 70 on Friday and the final 155 on Saturday. Teams have 10 minutes to make their selections in the first round, five minutes for regular or compensatory picks in rounds 2-4 and just four minutes for picks in the final two rounds.
The 2025 NFL draft features a small but elite group of prospects at quarterback and tight end, as well as a smattering of known commodities with question marks in between. As a result, the best strategy for fantasy managers is to target players with league-winning upside at these onesie positions. That could mean drafting players like Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter early in the draft, for example.
It also means targeting rookie running backs in the double-digit rounds, as depth charts can shift quickly and unexpected sleepers like Rico Dowdle or Bucky Irving can defy expectations. As a bonus, some of these players will be able to help their fantasy owners in the second half of the season by filling a void created by an injury or another roster-shuffling event.