Your last round pick is sacred. It’s special. Why is it different from other picks? Because average draft position (ADP) goes out the window. You get ONE last player. It can be ANYONE you want. The fantasy football world is your oyster. And that can completely change the trajectory of your team. Ask folks who took guys like Bucky Irving or Puka Nacua in recent years or Odell Beckham, Alvin Kamara, Darren Waller, or Lamar Jackson in years past. They are out there.

And our goal is to find them. Today, we will look at our favorite players to take with the last pick. We’ll look at a typical 12-team league with 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, a flex, and 5-6 bench spots, putting these sleeper guys in the round 13 and beyond range. That’s where the money is made. 

Yes, I know Brandon Aubrey was a great pick last year, but considering K and DST are often last-round picks anyway and aren’t necessarily included in every league these days, we are going to exclude them from this discussion. If you want those rankings, they are available in the 2025 Fantasy Alarm NFL Draft Guide. In fact, all of our rankings for every position and format are included in the draft guide, so you might as well just get access to that now! Promo code COOP25 gets you 25% off any product, whether it’s the Draft Guide or our full membership that comes with our DFS content, all our tools, access to our premium content, and everything we drop all season!

Anyway, here are my favorite players I like taking in the last round of drafts based on Fantasy Alarm’s Composite ADP tool!

 

 


 

Quarterback

JJ McCarthy, QB, Minnesota Vikings, ADP 149

Our favorite discount QB is Drake Maye, as I wrote about in full here. And you may be able to get him in the last round of drafts - at QB16, he might go undrafted in some. But his ADP is up to pick 120, so he doesn’t quite fit the bill for this write-up. First-time QB JJ McCarthy at QB19 does go late enough that he’s going undrafted in many single QB leagues. And he could provide big value in that range.

Let me paint a picture. A team selects a QB at 10 overall in the NFL Draft. He doesn’t play his rookie year - a veteran QB starts instead. The team then goes to the playoffs that year. They have a great offensive coach. They have a bunch of Pro Bowl weapons. The veteran quarterback also makes the Pro Bowl. In a rare move, the team then moves on from the Pro Bowl QB, and the guy they selected at 10 overall gets to start.

This is the story of Patrick Mahomes back in 2018. And we all know what happened there. But it’s also the exact conditions we are seeing right now with JJ McCarthy, down to the 10th overall draft selection. I’m obviously not saying that JJ McCarthy is guaranteed to come out and throw 50 TD passes and win MVP this year like Mahomes did. But most first-time QBs inherit terrible teams that came in last place - that’s how you get a top young QB prospect. This is a rare occasion for upside for McCarthy and, if you believe in the ADPs for Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, and Jordan Addison, McCarthy might be a big value at ADP.

Daniel Jones, QB, Indianapolis Colts, ADP 252

Have you ever heard of the Middle Ground Fallacy? If not, you should check out our Common Fantasy Football Fallacies article with some logical mistakes to avoid (that article is free). The basic idea of the middle ground fallacy is that two sides are on polarizing ends of a debate. Our natural conclusion might be that the truth lies somewhere in the middle ground. But the reality is that one side could be exactly right - or the truth could lie outside of the spectrum completely.

The middle ground fallacy in fantasy often affects ADP. The example given in the article discusses a QB battle for a starting job where half the drafters think one guy will win and half the drafters think the other will win. That lowers the ADP for both QBs as one group selects their guy, the other selects theirs, and both might still be a little nervous. As the ADPs reflect, the true value for the QBs must be somewhere in the middle ground between where the two groups are drafting them.

The reality is that’s not typically the case at the QB position. Only one guy gets the starting job. One group is right and one is wrong. And Daniel Jones has already won the job. He gets to play with Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman Jr, Josh Downs, Alec Pierce, Adonai Mitchell, and Tyler Warren. He still has a decent amount of mobile upside to go with that. And the announcement came so late that his ADP is unlikely to recover fully on many platforms, even if we move him up in our rankings. Despite the announcement coming over a week ago, his current ADP is a slam dunk as your QB3 in superflex or best ball, but he could legit crack lineups in single QBs leagues if he’s simply willing to run ~5 times a game or so.  

 

 


 

Running Back

Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals, ADP 148

Earlier this summer, we were smashing Tank Bigsby of the Jacksonville Jaguars as a late pick. But the cat is out of the bag there, and he’s up to a round 10-11 ADP. Still a good pick, but he no longer fits the “last round pick” narrative outside of shallow leagues. Our other guy here is cutting it close lately, but he is certainly available later with his RB48 ADP. And that’s Trey Benson. 

The rookie season did not go well with Benson. He’s talked about how he got too excited when he was in there and did not let plays develop. Also, James Conner not only had one of his best seasons, but he had one of his healthiest ever. Yes, he did get hurt, but it wasn’t until Week 17 when Benson was already out as well. That’s an interesting note on Benson’s appeal, as Conner has missed at least one game with injury every single year of his eight-year career. At 30 years old, that’s certainly on the table once again.

On top of that, everyone around the organization has been hinting at a bigger role for Benson. He has said it himself. James Conner has said it. The coaches have alluded to it. Even Kyler Murray has said, “I think this will be a big breakout year for Trey [Benson]”. There is a reason Benson was the second RB drafted off the board in the 2024 NFL Draft. At this stage, I think Benson could come out and give you what someone like Zach Charbonnet offers as a “handcuff plus”. And Charbonnet goes multiple rounds earlier. 

Woody Marks, RB, Houston Texans, ADP 193

We absolutely need to mention the name Jacory Croskey-Merritt in this article (he might be listed as that on the platform you draft on or by his preferred name, Bill, so double-check that). ADP might still have him going late on some platforms, but he often goes in rounds 8-9 now. That’s a name you need to know for sure. Another name you need to know is that of Houston Texans’ rookie RB Woody Marks.

The 2025 rookie RB class is one of the deepest that we have seen in a long time. And that might have pushed some backs down the board in the NFL Draft, as teams felt they could wait and still get a decent guy. That led to a flurry of six backs coming off the board in the fourth round to start Day Three, which included multiple teams trading up - including the Texans for Woody Marks.

What has really made Marks an intriguing pick is the recent backfield developments in Houston. Rumors started swirling that the Joe Mixon injury was more serious than we first thought. And those rumors have been confirmed as the Texans will leave Mixon on the PUP/NFI list, requiring him to miss a minimum of four games. That, combined with reports that Nick Chubb may have lost a step as a 29-year-old coming off multiple serious injuries, makes Marks an intriguing dart throw late. 

And one last important point on Woody Marks than be applied to a lot of players is this - we will get our answer right away. Most people are going to drop their last round pick when the first waivers run anyway. With this situation, Marks needs to carve out SOME kind of role before Joe Mixon gets back. If he's not involved early on then it's an easy drop, no big deal. If he comes out firing in the first game or two, maybe we have ourselves a dude. 

 

 


 

Wide Receiver

Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers, ADP 153

My favorite later WR has been Michael Pittman, who was going outside the top 50 WRs early on. He's started to creep up a bit now that he's healthy and folks realize that Daniel Jones might be the best QB he's had in awhile. So we'll look elsewhere.

It’s crucial to understand your format completely when deciding how to build your roster. For instance, some leagues have IR spots, which can change how we view someone like Brandon Aiyuk. Also, there is a BIG difference between a 10-team standard league with 2 WR spots and 1 flex and a 12-team full PPR league with 3 WR spots and 2 flexes. In shallow leagues, upside is all that matters. In the deeper league, you are going to need bodies.

Keenan Allen is one of the few guys going outside the first 12 rounds or so that you can potentially start right away in a deeper PPR league. The Bears went in a different direction, going younger, but that doesn’t change the fact that this guy has AVERAGED ~9 targets per game over the last two years. When healthy, he’s involved.

After Ladd McConkey, the Chargers aren’t exactly loaded with weapons. And a lot of those weapons, like Tre Harris, Tyler Conklin, and Omarion Hampton, have very limited experience playing with Justin Herbert. Keenan Allen could return to the Chargers and be a safety blanket for Justin Herbert right away. And that could bail you out from time to time in these deeper leagues. 

Tory Horton, WR, Seattle Seahawks, ADP 266

If a guy like Keenan Allen is the “safe but boring” last pick, someone like Tory Horton is the high-risk, high-upside play. Rookies like Mathew Golden, Tre Harris, and Kyle Williams could carve out a starting role, but those guys aren’t going nearly as late as Horton. If your league is sharp, he might be on folk’s radars, but in most cases, you can sneak him on the bench with a last-round pick.

Tory Horton has quietly been competing with Marques Valdes-Scantling for a role. Well, MVS was actually released yesteday. That gives Horton a leg up for that WR3 chair in Seattle. Now, as we wrote in our recent article on Day 3 and UDFA wide receivers, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be fantasy relevant right away in this scheme. But it has him knocking on the door.

The quick take on that is that Horton should play in three WR sets, but they might not run a lot of them in Klint Kubiak’s scheme because of the fullback and tight end usage. But that also highly consolidates the targets among the top two WRs. One injury to either Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Cooper Kupp could push Horton into a highly productive role for fantasy football. And the Rams moved on from Cooper Kupp specifically because he could not stay healthy. So this is a name to watch. 

 

 


 

Tight End

Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots, ADP 159

Dalton Kincaid is probably my favorite “TE2” pick in fantasy. But, in most leagues, he goes with a meaningful pick. We are looking for guys you can take with your last one. 

The tight end position is one of the best ways to create leverage in fantasy football. You can start your draft with 10 straight rounds of running backs and wide receivers while grabbing a quarterback along the way, and THEN put things together with a solid TE position. As we mentioned in our annual Yin & Yang Tight End article, a tight end has come from TE18 in ADP or later to finish top five in 13 straight years. They are out there.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but the TE18 this year is one of our favorites. There is a full write-up on him in that Yin & Yang article, but the short and sweet is that this guy offers a solid target floor each week with touchdown upside because of his ability vs. man-to-man. That’s why he was top five last year in both red zone targets and targets inside the 10-yard line for TEs despite limited red zone trips. 

What makes Henry such a good Yin tight end as part of a Yin and Yang strategy is his schedule. He has a super soft early schedule and doesn’t have a bye until Week 14, so you can start him early on while pairing him with a risky breakout pick like a rookie TE. Heck, he might just end up holding down that TE spot for you all year!

Chig Okonkwo, TE, ADP 180 

You could also wait til the very end on tight end and just double-tap the position. If you take someone “safe” like Hunter Henry, you could then use a bench spot for the highest risk, highest reward option. And Chig Okonkwo may have some risk associated with him, but he checks a ton of the boxes we look for in breakout tight ends.

First off, this guy is athletic. Per Player Profiler, his 4.52 speed is the same as George Kittle’s - 97th percentile. Kittle, Kyle Pitts, and Chig Okonkwo are the only three tight ends over the last five years to have three or more 40-plus-yard plays in the same season. Last year, Okonkwo played around 60% of the snaps, but this preseason, he was playing 85% with the starters. It’s wide open for targets after Calvin Ridley and rookie QB Cam Ward loved his tight end, Elijah Arroyo, in college. He might be a little risky to start in Week One, but that’s why we use the Yin & Yang tight end strategy!