2025 Fantasy Football Best Ball Strategy: Mid-Round Values

Besides the obvious top picks in any fantasy football draft, finding the contributors in the middle rounds who end up producing close to or above some of the top-round players is paramount to fantasy success. Being able to sort out any of these players before games have been played is, of course, very subjective.

Now that we’re amid free agency across the NFL, the winds of change are swirling around fantasy players who have been mainstays of the fantasy landscape. New teams, new locales, new surrounding talent; there are a lot of factors that make some of these mid-round players stand out more than others.

Here are several players in early best ball drafts who are mid-round values and why you should be selecting them in your drafts.

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• Wide receiver fantasy football rankings
• Tight end fantasy football rankings

Christian Kirk, WR, Houston Texans

Underdog Fantasy ADP: 116.6 | WR57

The 2025 Houston Texans wide receiver room aside from Nico Collins is going to look much different than even just last season. With Stefon Diggs still available in free agency on the mend from a torn ACL and Tank Dell's 2025 in question because of his late-season knee injury, the Texans needed big-time help at the position. Enter Christian Kirk.

Kirk should be able to fill right in as the primary slot receiver in 11 personnel for the Texans, who badly needed a secondary receiver after Collins. The 2024 grouping of Robert Woods, Xavier Hutchinson, John Metchie III, and the late-season rental of Diontae Johnson did not work out very well as the Texans were scrambling for options.

Dalton Schultz at tight end signals trouble as a second target for a Texans team that was looking to take a big leap following the transcendent rookie season of C.J. Stroud but ended up being very run-heavy with Joe Mixon. That led to the firing of once-ballyhooed offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.

Spending three seasons in Jacksonville, Kirk was an underappreciated and efficient asset for the Jaguars. His first season was by far his best season as a pro with his first 1,000-yard season, his most targets, and the first of three straight 21 percent or better TPRR seasons. The main issue was health; Kirk played just 20 of 34 games and had a core muscle injury end his 2023 in Week 13 and then a season-ending broken collarbone suffered in Week 8 against the Green Bay Packers.

With the Texans, Diggs played more in the slot than he ever has since 2016 with a 52.8 percent slot snap rate. Because of that, his aDOT of 8.3 yards was the lowest of his career.

As the new Texans slot receiver and likely more issues on the offensive line thanks to a recent trade of Laremy Tunsil to the Washington Commanders and the trade of guard Kenyon Green to the Eagles, Kirk could be utilized much closer to the line of scrimmage than he has in his career. That should boost some of the target and reception numbers as the clear second target for Houston.

We don't see many intradivision trades, but this is a good landing spot for Christian Kirk given that Stefon Diggs (FA) & Tank Dell (knee injury) may not be around in 2025.

He averaged 65+ yards in both 2022 & 2023 before Brian Thomas drank his milkshake last season. Still just 28YO.

Fantasy WR4?

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— John Paulsen (@4for4-john.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 9:43 AM

Kirk is coming off draft boards at the end of the ninth round as the WR57 -- coincidentally right before Diggs -- and is a clear value that will rise steadily through the spring and summer.

There are many wide receivers around him with questions about how they will earn targets, or IF they will earn targets. Kirk is being drafted around players like Marvin Mims Jr., Keon Coleman, Travis Hunter, Keenan Allen, and Hollywood Brown. I'll take the still-efficient Kirk as a WR3 ahead of all of these players in what should be a much-improved Texans passing game.

Najee Harris, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

ADP: 91.0 | RB29

I feel like I've written thesis papers on the OTHER back in Pittsburgh, Jaylen Warren, over the last several years while slandering Najee Harris at every turn. It's probably time to write a little puff piece here for Harris. Honestly, he has some very important things going for him into his fifth season as a pro and first in a Los Angeles Chargers uniform.

Let's start with the good: consistency. Harris has played every available game as a professional and earned at least 255 carries in each season since being drafted in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not just that, but Harris has put up four 1,000-yard seasons in his first four years in the NFL.

That consistency will help a Chargers team that had nothing close to that last season with J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. There's a reason both are off the team and a big reason why Harris was plucked from free agency by Jim Harbaugh and company.

In the real-life NFL, dependability can be used to our advantage in this silly little game we call fantasy football. We know what Justin Herbert can do with the football and he has some nice weapons to throw the ball to. Herbert can't do it all alone and having a backfield hammer like Harris will only help the offense keep things honest for opposing defenses.

And he gets to run behind one of the strongest offensive lines in football with Rashawn Slater, Joe Alt, and Zion Johnson -- all Chargers first-round picks.

Chargers' investments in their O-line 👀

LT - Rashawn Slater, 13th overall pick
LG - Zion Johnson, 17th overall pick
C - Bradley Bozeman, 2yrs $6.5M
RG - Mekhi Becton, 2yr FA deal
RT - Joe Alt, 5th overall pick

Invest in the trenches, people!!!

— SOBO (@brentsobleski.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:10 AM

While the Chargers and Herbert threw passes to the running back position at the second-lowest rate (12 percent) last season, that number could come up because Dobbins and Edwards have never profiled as pass-catching backs, and Kimani Vidal was rarely used in that capacity when he could get on the field. Harris has been solid in that aspect with 57 targets per season since entering the league.

There are some drawbacks, however. Harris has never been a bastion of efficiency running the ball, with a career-low 34.2 percent success rate in 2024. Success rate, thanks to NFL Next Gen Stats, is how often a ball-carrier ran for more yards than expected (RYOE). This, unfortunately, is a bad version of consistency, as Harris has been consistently inconsistent with his per-rush and season-long efficiency. That said, there are some outs where Harris can thrive in 2025.

The offensive environment from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles is worlds better as the Chargers should be scoring a lot more than the Steelers will this season. The Chargers' depth chart with Dobbins and Edwards gone is a barren wasteland with Harris at the top and not much below him.

That could also lead to a problem as well: competition. Los Angeles could use some decent draft capital and bring in a running back to work alongside Harris. If the Chargers continue their trajectory to being one of the AFC's top teams, Harris should have a ton of touchdown equity.

As the current RB29 next to names like Isiah Pacheco, Rhamondre Stevenson, Travis Etienne Jr., and Zach Charbonnet, Harris has plenty of outs to getting 200+ touches and 10+ touchdowns this season on an ascending Chargers team. There is a pretty good chance that he could be the top back all season depending on if the Chargers draft a running back with any sort of meaningful draft capital. At the beginning of the eighth round in early best ball drafts, you can't go wrong drafting Harris right now.

Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

ADP: 107.4 | TE9

More and more people are saying that Travis Kelce is starting to look his age, which will be 36 once the 2025 season enters the month of October. Despite being closer to getting senior discounts at restaurants than most of the NFL, Kelce is still chugging along at a solid volume-earning pace and is ready to go for at least one more season as the starting Kansas City Chiefs tight end.

Recently, Kelce made his decision to come back for another season, saying, "I still feel like I can play at a high level." He notched his seventh consecutive season with at least 90 receptions and his ninth straight season with at least 100 targets, displaying his durability in his late 20s and well into his 30s. Perhaps Kelce is slowing down, though? At times, he truly did look more like a podcaster than a future Hall of Famer.

Kelce's YAC total hit a sharp decline as well as his RACR metric, which is his conversion of air yards to receiving yards. It shouldn't also be a shock that Kelce's YPRR took a tumble down to 1.43 after an entire career at or hovering around the 2.00 YPRR mark.

Some of the metrics that display after-the-catch efficiency have slid back from prime Kelce numbers, the target-earning ability, and the fact that he's catching passes from Patrick Mahomes should keep him solidly afloat for 2025.

We now have questions related to the Week 1 availability of not just Rashee Rice, but also Xavier Worthy thanks to an arrest recently. While the assault charge has been dismissed, that does not absolve Worthy from punishment via the NFL's personal conduct policy. While Kelce will be a major factor in this Chiefs passing game in 2025, he may need to be relied on even further if one or both of Rice and Worthy aren't available at the start of the season.

The tight-end landscape has been very top-heavy in recent seasons and that's still the case with players like Brock Bowers and Trey McBride firmly at the top of 2025 tight-end rankings.

Kelce is currently sitting as the TE9 behind rookie Tyler Warren and ahead of veteran David Njoku. There's no reason why Kelce can't earn enough volume and maintain enough touchdown equity to be a top-6 tight end this season as long as he stays healthy.

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