A draft day steal is very much in the eye of the beholder, though there are objective ways to measure a player’s potential based on their college production, particularly their efficiency numbers.
That’s what I’ve done here, highlighting five players who I believe went later than they should have gone in the 2025 NFL Draft. All of these players will have a path to fantasy relevance, sometimes in normal-size leagues, sometimes in deeper formats.
I don’t mean to suggest any of these guys are slam dunks to fantasy purposes. Otherwise, as you probably know, they would have gone in the first couple rounds.
Jalen Royals (WR, Chiefs)
Selection: 133rd overall
A hero to every spreadsheet warrior with a pulse, Royals ends up in Patrick Mahomes’ offense after being taken as the 133rd player off the board in the 2025 draft.
I don’t want to fool anyone into thinking Royals will step right into a fantasy-relevant role in the Kansas City offense. At full strength, this Chiefs pass-catching group isn’t half bad, with Rashee Rice dominating the intermediate areas, Travis Kelce shuffling around the short areas, and Xavier Worthy being used as both a gadget guy near the line of scrimmage and as a downfield threat. Then there’s Hollywood Brown, who was weirdly one of the most prominent target commanders of 2024 (in a tiny sample size).
Royals was an analytics hero at Utah State. In 2024, he ranked 16th among all college wideouts in yards per route run and saw a hefty target per route run of 29 percent. Royals, who missed time last year with a foot injury, averaged 6.4 receptions and 95.4 receiving yards per game at Utah State over his final two collegiate campaigns. Royals, quite amazingly, accounted for almost 40 percent of the team’s receiving yardage in his seven 2024 appearances.
He’s fast too, a trait the Chiefs seem to value. Royals’ 40 time (4.42) was in the 89th percentile and his speed score was 87th percentile at the NFL Combine. Royals is far more likely to return kicks for the Chiefs in 2025 than he is to line up in three-receiver sets alongside Rice and Worthy. He’ll be a name to monitor closely, especially in deeper fantasy formats, and especially if Worthy’s off-the-field legal issues linger or worsen as we enter the summer.
Cam Skattebo (RB, Giants)
Selection: 105th overall
Skattebo was a superb addition to the down-bad Giants offense based on vibes alone.
The rotund pinball of a running back was an analytics dream in his final season at Arizona State, averaging nearly four yards after contact per rushing attempt — gaining 970 yards after contact — forcing the fourth most tackles, and logging 39 rushes of more than ten yards, the tenth most in college football. Skattebo was quietly excellent as a pass catcher out of the Arizona State backfield: In 2024, he ranked seventh among all college backs in yards per route run and fourth in yards after the catch per reception. His receiving profile was far superior to that of TreyVeon Henderson, who was widely lauded as an elite pass-catching running back coming into the draft.
Skattebo is an easy player for whom to root. He happened to land on a team whose fans are thirsty to root for anyone who proves halfway competent.
Skattebo, who posted a 90th percentile burst score at the NFL Combine, will have every opportunity to position himself as New York’s No. 1 back going into the season. Tyrone Tracy Jr. in 2024 was among the most confoundingly inefficient backs in the NFL; that included as a pass catcher, an area in which Tracey — a former wideout — was projected to succeed. Devin Singletary remains a Brian Daboll favorite, but even that status couldn’t protect the veteran from being phased out of the Giants offense in the second half of last season.
Skattebo the Vibes King of New York could do a lot to make Giants fans stop thinking about Saquon Barkley every hour of every day.
Harold Fannin Jr. (TE, Browns)
Selection: 67th overall
The Browns, with their tight end-friendly offense, might have secured the 2025 draft’s best tight end long after the first two tight ends — Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren — came off the board.
Fannin was the stuff of spreadsheet legends in his final season at Bowling Green. He led the nation’s tight ends in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and yards per route run. He did that weird thing where a pass catcher sees massive target volume and is still somehow efficient. It’s a rarity, and makes Fannin intriguing in a Kevin Stefanski offense that uses tight ends quite a bit.
The Browns in 2024 targeted the tight end position on 27 percent of their pass attempts, a top-8 rate in the NFL. They were also top-10 in two tight end set usage. That could mean Fannin — stuck behind David Njoku for now — sees more playing time than fantasy managers might think. He’ll be a name to monitor in deeper formats, or if Njoku misses time in 2025.
Riley Leonard (QB, Colts)
Selection: 189th overall
Perhaps the most efficient quarterback rusher of the modern college football era, Riley enters one of the only NFL quarterback rooms that might offer a path to playing time for the 22-year-old.
The Colts’ coaching staff — to put it kindly — has soured on the prospect of Anthony Richardson as the team’s long-term starter. Richardson is set to square off with fading veteran journeyman Daniel Jones for the Colts’ Week 1 starting gig after working with biometrics coaches on his footwork and arm angles and everything else that was so terribly wrong in his first two injury-plagued NFL seasons.
Enter Leonard, who in 2024 led all college quarterbacks in rushing EPA, scoring 17 times on the ground for the Fighting Irish. Leonard was tough to take down, averaging 3.5 yards after contact per designed rush and logging 23 rushes of more than ten yards in 2024. He wasn’t bad as a passer either. Last season only seven QBs in the nation had a higher adjusted completion rate than Leonard, who was sacked on a (very) low 12 percent of his pressures.
This is EPA on designed rushes + scrambles & EPA lost on sacks. The goal is really to be above the line, which is QBs who ended up with positive EPA when you add these together. Riley Leonard! pic.twitter.com/p8whwG2YyR
— CFBNumbers (@CFBNumbers) February 17, 2025
Indianapolis coaches, including head coach Shane Steichen, were reportedly smitten with Leonard in the pre-draft evaluation process. NFL insider Jordan Schultz said Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard “have been huge fans of Leonard for quite some time. This was the QB they were targeting in the draft — elite athlete, tremendous leader, high-level processor.”
Unless Richardson emerges from his offseason remake an entirely different passer, and unless Jones rediscovers his efficient play of three seasons ago, Leonard should have a shot to start for the Colts in 2025. His rushing ability could make him not just a usable fantasy option, but an elite one.
Shedeur Sanders (QB, Browns)
Selection: 144th overall
I say this as someone who has said on record as saying Sanders likely isn’t an NFL-caliber starter: Getting the guy in the fifth round who was third among all college quarterbacks in passing yards and second in completions last season is a halfway decent value.
I’m not going to pretend to know whether Sanders, surrounded by his social media team and throngs of national reporters, will beat out Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco and Dillon Gabriel and whoever else the Browns bring in this summer. But if he does, and if he can function as a reliable game manager in a (very) quarterback-friendly Kevin Stefanski offense, fifth-round value is going to look pretty dang good come the fall, even if Sanders’ pressure-to-sack ratio remains stubbornly high.
Cam Ward might be right: Sanders is nothing more than a check-down merchant. Well, that can work for the fantasy purposes of those catching passes from the rookie.
