2025 Fantasy Football Dynasty Rookie Draft WR Sleepers - Tre Harris, Tez Johnson, Jayden Higgins

There are sleepers every year, at every position, in every NFL Draft class because there's simply no way the NFL will ever identify every good player and exactly how good they are. Luckily for us, we can exploit biases in their scouting processes and draft capital's heavy influence on rankings and be the ones who don't sleep on great prospects.

In addition, consensus fantasy football rookie rankings usually get a lot of things wrong. We can find parallels on how those evaluation processes are flawed as well, mainly by looking at players who were heavily underrated in the past, finding out what made them be ranked too low, and looking at this year's prospects that might be similar.

Let's dive into three highly underrated wide receiver prospects -- conveniently, the only three who are hugely slept on. In case you're wondering, you should try to get as many shares of these guys as you can.

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Tez Johnson, WR, Oregon

Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell 2.0 is in this year's draft class. Johnson, like Tre Harris, is pretty much good at everything, except for his diminutive size limits. He probably won't be winning a ton of jump balls or contested catches, but very few receivers do that consistently anyway.

What Johnson excels at is getting wide open so he can catch the ball without trouble from the defender, having fantastic short-area quickness and change-of-direction ability and acceleration and burst in and out of his breaks and off the line. Sounds a lot like pre-injury Dell, who was a massive steal in fantasy football drafts in 2023, and could have been a league-winner were it not for his injury.

Been watching and hoping #nepats are high on Tez Johnson for ages. To hear him described as a combination of Ladd McConkey and Tank Dell? Be still my beating heart. pic.twitter.com/47avXt4acq

— FitzyGFY 🍺 (brew checkmark) (@FitzyGFY) January 29, 2025

At the Senior Bowl, Johnson wasn't particularly guardable. He dusted man coverage on multiple occasions with his slick route running and lightning-quick shiftiness.

Tez Johnson shows great stop/start ability, pace variation and understands how to attack leverage in his routes.

He is great after the catch and will be an exception to the size rules. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/MtID7XrIzc

— Ryder McConville (@RyderM25) February 24, 2025

He's pro-ready from Day 1 and has everything that you need out of a receiver to beat all different kinds of coverages. He has the acceleration and long speed to win deep, and he's great as a YAC threat, so he can create plenty of extra yardage post-reception.

The biggest criticism for him isn't his game or any of his skills but his size. He weighs just 155 pounds. That could be a problem injury-wise moving forward, though evidence suggests that WR injuries typically aren't related to size, but rather luck. In Dell's case, he had horrible luck, and his lack of mass wasn't the reason he got hurt.

Every year, I remind myself not to fall for receivers in Tez Johnson's mold, but I can't help it. I'm intrigued. Speed kills. pic.twitter.com/tUhHmy6uaF

— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) February 14, 2025

He does have some ability to fight off contact as well, though that's not his biggest plus. Still, players without downsides can't be sleepers. Johnson is wildly underrated right now as the WR13 in rookie draft rankings.

Tre Harris, WR, Ole Miss

I've planted my flag on Harris being my WR1 of this class, and that won't change. He's easily the best route runner in this year's draft. One elite draft strategy in all formats of fantasy football, but especially dynasty, is to look outside the top three receivers each year, find the best route runner, pick him up (usually in the second round or later, you should be able to get him), and profit.

Last season, that would have landed you Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey. He was viewed as a clear tier below Marvin Harrison Jr., Rome Odunze, and Malik Nabers, yet he finished as the overall WR13 despite missing one contest due to injury and put up double-digit PPR points in every game he played from Week 11 onward.

Tre Harris absolutely TORCHED Texas A&M in 2023:

• 11 catches
• 213 yards
• 1 TD
• 19.4 yards/catch

Round 1 grade for me at WR, full scouting report below 👇 pic.twitter.com/ewqhyqA8Io

— TJS Football (@TJS_football_) February 26, 2025

Interestingly, you can rave about his route running, yet while he's criticized for his lack of top speed, he has the skills to still win on deep routes consistently. And you can forget about guarding him in man coverage. He was the most efficient WR against man defense in college football history in 2024.

Injuries cut his season short. Had that not happened, he might be the consensus WR1, not just because he's viewed as injury-prone, but because he dominated every game he played in. No team, whether it matched up with him in zone or man coverage, had an answer for his elite skills.

WRs in college football against Man coverage this season (min. 50 targets).

Tre Harris...lol pic.twitter.com/ZIukHsSLVT

— Tyler Brooke (@TylerDBrooke) February 5, 2025

WRs who demolish man coverage in college typically succeed in the NFL. Part of the reason for this is that zone coverages are, at times, simply glorified man coverages. At some point, a defender will need to be close enough to a receiver to make a play on the ball once it's thrown or tackle him after he catches it.

Route Running:

Drastically improved in 2024, Tre Harris saw MASSIVE progress in his footwork specifically. Elite ball tracking and field awareness, I also found it very telling that his Missed Tackles Forced increased in EVERY season of his college career.

Red Zone Monster btw pic.twitter.com/fEgCTgszNl

— Austin Abbott (@AustinAbbottFF) February 7, 2025

Harris is fantastic after the catch, speaking of YAC. He's also big-bodied, standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 210 pounds. He's able to box out defenders, catch through contact, and simply jump over them if he needs to make acrobatic catches with defenders in his face. There's very little he can't do.

The WRs above him all have serious, glaring flaws. Harris does not, yet he's been consistently misevaluated. He's an elite prospect, the best wide receiver in the 2025 NFL Draft (Travis Hunter has a higher athletic ceiling, but he's raw and we don't know how much WR he'll play, so he's a wild card). You can get Harris in the second round in many dynasty fantasy football rookie drafts. That is robbery. 

Jayden Higgins, WR, Iowa State

There are a lot of similarities between Higgins and Harris, though Higgins is less developed as a route runner overall. Yet, Higgins moves better, is a better overall route runner, is more physical, and is better at hauling in contested catches than Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

Jayden Higgins might be the most slept on Wide Receiver in the 2025 Class

➖Size: 6’4, 215 lbs
➖Production: 1,185 Yards, 9 TD’s

Over the last 3 seasons, Higgins has JUST 4 Drops on 295 Targets..

➖5th MOST Targets (129)
➖6th MOST Receptions (87)

My Player Comp: Drake London pic.twitter.com/M1qy23h3hv

— Austin Abbott (@AustinAbbottFF) January 17, 2025

He moves surprisingly well. Despite his size, he's a very good separator, and were it not for very poor quarterback play, his stats would pop much more. He wasn't used heavily on screens and designed target "slam-dunk" plays, which can inflate a WR's statistics without providing them any challenges to overcome. This can muddy the evaluation process.

No better back shoulder WR in the 2025 NFL Draft class than Iowa State star Jayden Higgins (#9). Huge frame (6036v, 212v) with impressive body control, and very strong hands.

Higgins is also incredibly detailed as a route runner, and creates more separation than you’d think. pic.twitter.com/Db611DZDLL

— Ryan Roberts (@RiseNDraft) January 6, 2025

It's not his fault he didn't have good QB play to support him, but it's pulled down his stock in fantasy football anyway. Don't let it influence you.

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