Fantasy football drafts are littered with dilemmas throughout. Those dilemmas become even more anxiety-inducing when on the clock, making it a good idea to get an idea of player values ahead of time.
Currently going around the same area in drafts this year are new Dallas Cowboys playmaker George Pickens and Miami Dolphins speedster Jaylen Waddle. Both players can put up huge numbers in fantasy, but who is the better pick in 2025?
George Pickens Brings Explosive Potential to Dallas
There are pros and cons to Pickens’ fantasy outlook following his trade to Dallas. The former Pittsburgh Steelers star is now a clear WR2 behind CeeDee Lamb in Dallas, but finds himself on a much more offensive team with more opportunities to go around.
Pickens missed three games through injury in 2024 and finished as the WR42 overall in PPR. Even before last season, though, he topped out as the WR30 in PPR in 2023, as his fantasy output has failed to mirror his obvious talent. The Steelers have always been a run-first team, though, in addition to their defensive focus.
The Cowboys are wired very differently, having attempted the third-most passes in the NFL last season (637), trailing only the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, respectively. For context, the Steelers attempted the fourth-fewest passes with 499 attempts, 138 fewer than Dallas.
Pickens’ average depth of target was 13.3 yards in 2024; the closest Cowboys receiver to that was Brandin Cooks (11.7), who is now on the New Orleans Saints. Cooks averaged 5.4 targets per game for Dallas last season, which would have resulted in 76 targets for Pickens over the 14 games at that average.
George Pickens has arguably the best HANDS in the #NFL
Pickens is in for a HUGE season pic.twitter.com/nVTId2OKFV
— Playoff NFL (@_PlayoffNFL) June 16, 2025
Those 76 targets would have been just 27 fewer than what he received in Pittsburgh as the team’s clear WR1. If Pickens could also steal a few targets from the likes of Jake Ferguson, Jalen Tolbert, and KaVontae Turpin, he could see similar usage to that which he enjoyed on the Steelers.
Jaylen Waddle Seeks Bounce-Back Season in Miami
Few players have fallen from grace in fantasy football quite as dramatically as Waddle, who was being drafted as the WR11 overall in 2023 drafts. This year, after two disappointing seasons, he’s being drafted around the WR31 mark.
The repeated concussions suffered by Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa have exposed Mike McDaniel’s offense and obliterated the fantasy value of both Waddle and Tyreek Hill. That being said, the fact that Waddle was out-targeted by tight end Jonnu Smith in 2024 suggests that the QB situation isn’t solely to blame.
The fact that the offense moved away from Waddle is more concerning than a simple drop in form would have been. He posted the second-highest catch percentage of his four-year career in 2024, but saw far fewer targets and less valuable ones than in previous years.
Waddle finished with 744 yards and two touchdowns on 54 receptions, his lowest yardage total since his rookie season.
6️⃣ days until the 2025 NFL Draft!
With the 6th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins selected WR Jaylen Waddle out of Alabama. #GoFins pic.twitter.com/P0jOsE3OC5
— FinsXtra (@FinsXtra) April 18, 2025
The Dolphins feel like a team in dire need of a rebuild, but the offense has shown, in the past, what it’s capable of. Miami had the most feared offense in the NFL in 2023, finishing the year with the most yards and the second-most points.
The year before, Waddle was electric, tallying a league-high 18.1 yards per reception and finishing as the WR8 overall in PPR.
The Verdict: Pickens Offers Better Value in 2025
There’s no easy answer to this one, but Pickens is likely the best bet of these two players in 2025. The floor is higher with Pickens, who should be able to improve upon what Cooks did in a similar role last year, even with backup quarterbacks after Dak Prescott’s injury.
Cooks performed significantly better in the same role in 2023. In a year in which both Prescott and Tagovailoa were fully healthy, Waddle finished a mere four spots ahead of Cooks in wide receiver PPR rankings.
Waddle has seen his fantasy output drop significantly in two consecutive seasons since then, though, and his quarterback is potentially one sack away from retiring. The health concerns around Tagovailoa make his receivers an incredibly risky bet in fantasy.
That being said, Waddle is the only one of these two receivers to finish in the top 29 at the position in PPR, let alone the top eight.
If you’re in a position to shoot for the moon in Round 5, Waddle’s ceiling is incredibly tempting, with plenty of time left in the draft to add safer floor plays. Round 5, though, is too early for most fantasy managers to be taking such a massive gamble on a potential landmine.
You should already have at least one or two receivers by this point in the draft, and Pickens is a solid WR3 with significant weekly upside.
