Every year, the top of the draft has risers (not including rookies) who have elevated their standing relative to the prior year’s draft. These players demand some extra attention. They are unproven due to a small one-year sample size or circumstances that have changed positively for the player, creating expectations for better fantasy scoring results.In the former category, the players elevated due to performances that were better than expected in 2025, are George Pickens, Chris Olave, Zay Flowers and Tetairoa McMillan. In the latter category of elevated circumstances are Kenneth Walker, Breece Hall and DeVonta Smith.They’re all being selected in the top 36 on average in drafts since July 20 on NFFC, definitely a place where none of us want to bust, as the cost of misfiring is so great.In my evaluations below, I’ll provide this year’s ADP, last year’s ADP, positional ADP and my ranking. (You can also check out The Athletic’s Jake Ciely’s fantasy rankings.) While overall ADP is best for this exercise, positional ADP adjusts for whether you play in a format that is dominated more by running backs (smaller leagues with two WRs and a Flex) or larger ones (where an extra WR can be played). The latter format, Flex 10, places a bigger priority on having your league’s most explosive WR group.Let’s look at the players who performed better than expected in 2025 first; then we’ll look at those who are expected to be boosted by improved situations.Better than we thoughtGeorge Pickens