Fantasy Football Sleepers 2025: 12 Underrated Wide Receivers to Draft

This is a continuation of RotoWire's summer series on fantasy football sleepers and busts, now doing a position-by-position analysis of NFL fantasy sleepers for 2025. We covered quarterbacks a couple weeks ago, and then running backs last week, so now it's time to move on to wide receivers (TEs coming soon).

For wide receivers, more so than other positions, it's often the case that our so-called sleepers have high-stakes or best-ball ADPs much earlier than their ESPN/Yahoo/Sleeper ADPs or default ranks. The ADP numbers you see below (after each player's name) are from high-stakes and best-ball leagues (12 teams only), not the traditional redraft leagues on ESPN, Sleeper and Yahoo. If you have the latter in mind, you may be able to get away with drafting some of these players a few rounds after the ADP that's shown below. 

We'll look at a fairly wide range of players in terms of value and breakout probability, starting in the middle rounds before working back to players that will be available on waivers in a lot of leagues. Some of the players are guys that I wrote about in previous breakout-themed articles, like this one on second-year pros, or this one for third-year pros, or this one for players with new teams/coaches. 

WR Sleepers (Listed by ADP)

• WR Ricky Pearsall (Round 6)

Pearsall goes as early as the fifth round in some high-stakes and best-ball drafts these days, with his ADP at 60.9 (the 5/6 turn) on Underdog. He often goes much later on the most popular redraft platforms, however, available somewhere between Rounds 7 and 11 on Yahoo, ESPN and Sleeper. Pearsall may even continue rising, as Jauan Jennings (calf) and Brandon Aiyuk (knee) remained absent from practice deep into August, while Demarcus Robinson received a three-game suspension to start the season.

There's been some skepticism toward Pearsall because he was widely viewed as a Day 2 prospect and ended up sneaking into the first round last spring, but this may soon prove to be a case where the so-called reach was justified. He had 247 receiving yards and two TDs over the final three weeks of last season, and he's now the only sure-thing Week 1 starter at wide receiver in an offense that typically sends a huge share of its targets to three or four players (with minimal contributions from the No. 2 TE, No. 4 WR and FB Kyle Juszczyk). Heck, we just saw Jennings, hardly an elite player, average 65 yards and 7.5 targets per game last year. Pearsall could now see similar volume and do more with it.

• WR Jerry Jeudy (Round 6)

A lot can go wrong when drafting a good-but-not-great player who is clearly positioned for big-time volume. That's my concern with Bengals RB Chase Brown, who often goes mid-second-round nowadays, although there's no questioning the upside after he averaged 20.9 PPR points over an eight-game stretch last year. At Jeudy's price, even the newly inflated one, I'm more willing to risk it, typically drafting him as a WR3 or FLEX starter. Those are positions that I can usually cover from my bench (and maybe the occasional waiver hit) if a starter doesn't pan out, whereas busting on a highly drafted RB1 is often a season-killer.

Jeudy, like Brown, had a stretch of huge production last year, averaging 19.5 PPR points in eight appearances after a Week 10 bye. The first five games of that stretch were Jameis Winston's final five starts, in which Jeudy averaged 23.7 PPR points and 126.8 yards. Despite a poor first half of the season, Jeudy ended up 257 yards clear of his previous career high for receiving yards (972 in 2022). That was partially a product of being the only show in town for an offense with massive passing volume, but Jeudy also held up to it well, posting his fourth straight season with a catch rate above 62 percent and at least 8.3 yards per target.

He's long been efficient, even with mediocre or subpar quarterbacks, and he'll now start 2025 with minimal competition for the attention Joe Flacco, whose past few seasons have been similar to Winston stylistically — high aDOT, with plenty of yards and TDs for his pass catchers, but also a lot of interceptions (and probably losses). There's risk Jeudy will start fast before eventually being dragged down by an overwhelmed QB, but that's tolerable for a sixth-round pick if the early production is strong enough and we know of the risk ahead of time. Teams that draft Jeudy can then target bench WRs who project for more back-weighted production, like Jordan Addison, guys returning from major injuries (Brandon Aiyuk, Chris Godwin) and rookies with uncertain Week 1 roles. Which bring us to...

• WR Jayden Higgins (Rounds 8-10)

Higgins seemingly got most of his work on the second-string offense during training camp and the preseason, mixing in with the starters at times but not necessarily challenging Christian Kirk for No. 2 status at wide receiver. That could happen soon enough, with Higgins coming in as the 34th overall pick after averaging 83.3 receiving yards per game in two seasons (26 games) at Iowa State. Kirk is a good player, but he'll turn 29 in November after 14 games over the past two seasons. Nico Collins missed seven games the past two years, so it's not too hard to imagine how Higgins could almost default into being the No. 2 target at some point.

He might also be good enough to simply overtake a healthy Kirk as the season progresses, becoming second only to Collins in a passing game with sneaky potential to pile up 600-plus attempts. The Texans hired offensive coordinator Nick Caley — formerly the Rams' passing-game coordinator — and revamped their receiving corps this offseason, but the backfield and offensive line still look shaky. C.J. Stroud may have to air it out often, and while it's not yet clear if he's a superstar or just a quality starter, he's definitely good enough to support fantasy production.

• WR DeMario Douglas (Round 13)

Douglas, a personal favorite of mine, admittedly doesn't have the same ceiling as many of the players listed above. He does, however, have more of a ceiling than most people think, with potential for triple-digit targets and WR3 stats in PPR (at a WR6 price) now that Josh McDaniels is New England's playcaller and Drake Maye isn't a rookie. The Patriots haven't shown any hint of using Douglas in two-wide formations, but he'll still have a route share somewhere around 70-85 percent if he's getting all the snaps in 11 personnel. 

And while his height (5-foot-8) may be limiting in terms of perimeter snaps, Douglas isn't one of those slot receivers that's athletically challenged. He ran a 4.44 40 at the 2023 Combine, with a 39.5-inch vertical and 134-inch broad jump, albeit at 179 pounds (FWIW, he's currently listed at 192, which is heavier than some RBs his height). Douglas will continue to make his living primarily on short catches and YAC, only now with better efficiency in an improved offense, and while also adding an occasional explosive element (five career catches 20-plus yards downfield) that many other slot specialists are missing.

• Elic Ayomanor (Rounds 16-17)

Ayomanor was the 19th wide receiver drafted this spring, going No. 136 overall at the end of the fourth round, 33 picks after his new team had drafted fellow wideout Chimire Dike. On paper, it was one of the best steals in the 2025 NFL Draft, with Ayomanor grading out highly in terms of both production and raw athleticism. 

He had 1,844 receiving yards in two seasons at Stanford, accounting for 36.2 percent of his team's passing yardage both years, before running a 4.44 40 at the 2025 Combine at 6-2, 206. With no reports of off-field issues and no concern about his age — he's an early declare who turned 22 this June — it's hard to see why Ayomanor wasn't drafted Day 2 (nor especially early on Day 3).

He may be an NFL starter soon, all the same, getting a mix of first- and second-team work throughout the preseason. The Titans have Calvin Ridley at wide receiver, and then not much else, with Tyler Lockett likely playing the slot and Ayomanor potentially offering a big body on the outside for No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. If Ward turns out to be any good, we'll see a couple of ADP-crushing seasons in Tennessee, from some combination of Ayomanor, Ridley, RB Tony Pollard and TE Chig Okonkwo.

Other WR Sleepers / Breakout Candidates

WR Emeka Egbuka (Rounds 5-6)

WR Matthew Golden (Rounds 6-7)

WR Keon Coleman (Rounds 8-9)

WR Luther Burden (Rounds 10-11)

WR Marvin Mims (Rounds 10-11)

WR Joshua Palmer (Rounds 12-13)

WR Jack Bech (Rounds 18-19)

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