The 2025 Best Ball landscape on Underdog Fantasy and DraftKings features compelling value picks, headlined by Anthony Richardson, whose per-start upside rivals top-tier QBs at a fraction of the cost. Trevor Lawrence offers rebound potential under Liam Coen’s QB-friendly scheme, mirroring Baker Mayfield’s 2024 resurgence. Rookie Bhaysul Tuten combines 4.3 speed and a wide-open backfield, while Matthew Golden brings deep-threat prowess to a Packers WR corps lacking an alpha. Jalen Milroe looms as a high-upside stash behind Sam Darnold.
Rankings and ADPs will fluctuate after this article is posted. Be sure to check out our Best Ball rankings from Sean Koerner, Chris Raybon, and Chris Gimino for up-to-the-minute ranks.
QB Anthony Richardson, Colts
ADP QB27 UD, QB28 DK
Over the past two seasons, 33 QBs have started more games than Richardson (15), yet only nine QBs have more top-four weekly finishes than Richardson (4) over that span.
On a per-start basis, only six passers over the past two seasons have finished in the top four at a higher clip than Richardson (26.7%).
QB4 upside. QB28 price. Simple as that. But I’ll continue to make the case for Richardson, because his QB28 ADP obviously has a tinge of resentfulness from drafters who got burned by his QB6 ADP a season ago.
Let’s compare his prospects heading into last season to that of this season:
Heading into 2024, Richardson…
- Was coming off a season in which he started just four games and averaged just a 65% snap rate across those starts while logging a full 100% complement of offensive snaps just once.
- Was coming off 13 full missed games due to injury.
- Was competing for reps with Joe Flacco, a former Super Bowl champion who was fresh off a season for which he won NFL Comeback Player of the Year after guiding the Browns to the playoffs with a 4-1 record while passing for over 320 yards per game.
- Had the four-headed Granson-Alie-Cox-Ogletree-Mallory monstrosity splitting reps at tight end, a position group Richardson would end up completing a dismal 18-of-44 (40.9%) passes for a scoreless 227 yards (5.2 YPA) when targeting.
- ADP: QB6.
Heading into 2025, Richardson…
- Is coming off a season in which he started 11 games and took 100% of the snaps in 9 of 11 and 100% of non-tored snaps in a 10th.
- Is coming off only four full missed games due to injury.
- Is coming off two missed games due to being benched but is competing for reps with Daniel Jones, who in his past 16 starts has one fewer win (3) and three fewer passing TDs (10) than Joe Flacco had in his five-game Browns stint in 2023.
- Has a new TE1 in No. 14 overall pick Tyler Warren, a potentially generational pass-catching prospect who caught 104 passes for 1,233 yards and 8 TDs at Penn State last season en route to garnering the most Heisman votes for a tight end in five decades.
- ADP: QB28 ???
For context, Justin Fields goes off the board as the QB11/12. But it’s Richardson who was benched for two games last season, while Fields was benched for 11. And despite all the Daniel Jones fear, it’s Fields who has the better backup (Tyrod Taylor). And with all due respect to Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, Richardson still has a better, more well-rounded supporting cast of pass-catchers.
QB Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars
ADP QB19 UD, QB20 DK
I think Liam Coen can do it again. Last season, Coen leveled up a Buccaneers offense in a major way, from 20.5 points per game the season prior to 29.5 last season.
Here’s how Baker Mayfield’s 2024 numbers with Coen stack up versus his prior-season and prior career marks:
- Passing yards per game: 265 vs. 238 (+37), 228 (+47)
- Passing TDs per game: 2.41 vs. 1.65 (+0.76), 1.46 (+0.95)
- Rushing yards per game: 22.2 vs. 9.6 (+12.6), 9.2 (+13.0)
- Rushing TDs per game: 0.18 vs. 0.06 (+0.12), 0.03 (+0.15)
- Completion percentage: 71.4% vs. 64.3% (+7.1%), 61.9% (+9.5%)
- Yards per attempt: 7.9 vs. 7.1 (+0.8), 7.2 (+0.7)
- Pass TD rate: 7.2% vs. 4.9% (+2.3%), 4.6% (+2.6%)
Like Mayfield, Lawrence is a former No. 1 overall pick. I’m not too keen on relying on draft pedigree once a player has an established NFL track record, but the key here is that being picked No. 1 overall has historically been a strong indicator of a QB1 ceiling, regardless of median outcome (unless your name is Jamarcus Russell). Think Jared Goff under Ben Johnson, Jameis Winston under Bruce Arians, Matthew Stafford under Sean McVay, etc. Lawrence had to endure a rookie year of Urban Meyer, followed by three years of the increasingly stale Doug Pederson-Press Taylor scheme, so there’s major room for growth.
Coen can help Lawrence in a number of areas.
- Quick-passing game: One of the clearest tells that the Pederson-Taylor scheme wasn’t doing Lawrence any favors is that good things were not happening when Lawrence got the ball out on time. Lawrence’s 5.1 YPA on throws in under 2.5 seconds ranked 40th of 44 qualified QBs. Meanwhile, Mayfield averaged 6.8 YPA (10th) while ranking No. 2 in yardage (2,053) and No. 1 in TDs (26) on such throws.
- Route combinations/scheming receivers option in space: Lawrence averaged 4.8 yards after catch per completion last season, 30th among qualified QBs, and only 80% as much as Mayfield, who averaged 6.0 YAC in Year 1 under Coen after 5.3 (13th) the year prior. Lawrence could be in line for a similar increase after Coen and GM James Gladstone added speed at WR (Travis Hunter, Dyami Brown) and RB (Bhaysul Tuten).
- Red zone play design: Mayfield went from converting 23.3% of red-zone pass attempts into TDs in 2023 to a monstrous 37.1% in 2024. Lawrence was right around league average in a small sample last season (9-of-36, 25.0%), but has struggled in this area when looking at his total career numbers (47-of-230, 20.4%). One of the main reasons Lawrence has underwhelmed as a passer is lack of TDs. He’s posted above-average YPA marks in back-to-back seasons, but his TD rates clocked in 5% below league average each year.
- Improved running game: Coen took a Bucs offensive line that ranked 31st in YBCo/Att in 2023 (2.1) to sixth in 2024 (2.8) – with the same tackles and guard and a rookie center, no less. Lawrence has never had the benefit of a running game. Their average rushing DVOA rank since he was drafted is 22.
RB Bhaysul Tuten, Jaguars
ADP RB37 UD, RB41 DK
Speed? Check.
Wide-open backfield with no clear RB1? Check.
Head coach who has already established a willingness to feature a rookie Day 3 pick at RB1 over holdovers from a prior regime? Check.
Bucky Irving’s 2024 campaign was an outlier and is not a realistic projection for Tuten or any other Day 3 pick – Irving doesn’t become a 20-touch-per-game workhorse down the stretch if he’s not Bucky Irving. The comparison is valid, more so due to Coen from an initial opportunity standpoint, because last season showed us he wastes no time with rookie skill players. Irving handled 11 touches right off the bat in Week 1 and 10.0 per game over the first three weeks of the season. Rookie third-round wide receiver Jalen McMillan played 82% of the snaps in Week 1 and 80% over the first three weeks under Coen’s watch. Coen even found a way to give undrafted rookie WR Kameron Johnson an unexpected 11-snap role in Week 1 and 36 snaps by the end of September.
WR Matthew Golden, Packers
ADP WR43 UD, WR45 DK
Over the past five seasons, rookie WRs drafted in Round 1 have posted a top-12 finish 20% of the time and a median finish of WR33.
Tet McMillan and Travis Hunter both go in the top 25, while Golden is WR45 (and Emeka Egbuka is WR55). I can’t justify that large of a discount based on overall draft slot and perceived role uncertainty.
The supposed WR1, Jayden Reed, averaged 4.4 targets per game. The WR1 in terms of routes run last season was Romeo Doubs, a fourth-round pick in 2022 who has never posted a 100-yard receiving game in 43 career appearances and has never caught a 40-yard pass on 235 career targets. The other top-four guy is Dontayvion Wicks, a fifth-round pick in 2023 who regressed to 24.6 yards per game last season. Christian Watson is going to miss most of the season recovering from a torn ACL. Savion Williams is a RB-WR hybrid. There’s no alpha in Green Bay, and Golden is the only one of the aforementioned receivers who was drafted in the first round. With all due respect to Reed’s agent, all signs point to Golden as to who franchise decision-makers view as WR1 endgame.
QB Jalen Milroe, Seahawks
ADP QB34 UD, QB35 DK
Milroe is a dual-threat QB of the Anthony Richardson ilk who threw for 2,844 yards and 16 TDs and rushed for 726 yards and 30 TDs last season with Alabama. After drafting Milroe, the Seahawks downgraded their other backup QB from Sam Howell to Drew Lock, paving the way for Milroe to back up Sam Darnold immediately. Given Darnold has only one year of guaranteed money, no Kevin O’Connell, and the tendency to melt down, Milroe is a good bet to make starts.
New offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak comes over from New Orleans, where he coached Taysom Hill in a hybrid QB/TE role. Listed at 201 pounds, Milroe may not have the size to go full Taysom Hilroe, but he has the kind of athleticism that could earn him touches as more than just a traditional QB.
Pictured: Trevor Lawrence
Photo credit: Getty Images
