Neither NFL fans nor fantasy football ejoyers care much about Day Three NFL Draft picks … until they do.
Most of the players taken on Saturday afternoon won’t be relevant for real or fantasy purposes. Many of them won’t crack the 53-player roster come September. But a handful could become key pieces for their NFL teams and household names for the fantasy nerds out there who know more about peripheral players than most general managers.
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Here’s a rundown of Day Three picks and how they might fit in their new offenses.
Chargers WR Brenan Thompson (Pick 105)
Thompson looks for all the world like a Mike McDaniel Special. The new Bolts offensive coordinator likes fast guys who make the spreadsheets hum, and that’s what he’s getting in Thompson, who had 1,054 receiving yards and six touchdowns in his final season at Mississippi State.
Thompson has blazing fast straight-line speed, which, unfortunately, doesn’t matter at all for wideout prospects. His speed score at the Combine was middling (54th percentile) and his college target share (23 percent) was in the 66th percentile. He was targeted on a halfway decent 23 percent of his pass routes in 2025. It’s not a hateful profile, but not an impressive one either. That’s what you usually get with a fourth rounder.
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If McDaniel is intent on getting creative with Thompson and the rookie can push his way into something beyond a rotational role in the LA offense, he could be interesting in PPR formats. Here’s to hoping the 165-pound Thompson puts on a few pounds in the coming months.
Broncos RB Jonah Coleman (Pick 108)
Sean Payton has seen enough: RJ Harvey is going to be involved in the Denver offense this season, but not nearly as much as his backers may have wanted. That much was certain when the Broncos brought back plodding veteran JK Dobbins.
Now they have Coleman, a fourth round addition that could make the Denver backfield utterly useless for fantasy nerds. No amount of coping will change this. The dream of a workhorse Harvey is dead. It never really lived, I suppose.
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Coleman, a favorite of NBC Sports college football analyst Eric Froton, has a largely overlooked profile. He comes into the league having posted a 75th percent dominator rating (percentage of total team yards and touchdowns) along with 55 receptions over his final two seasons.
Coleman did that thing where a running back is productive and no one really cares. He logged 25 rushing touchdowns over his final two seasons at Washington. Before his underwhelming 2025 season — during which he struggled with injury — Coleman was top-five in the nation in yards after contact per rush in 2024. That season he forced a missed tackle on 34 percent of his rushing attempts, one of the highest rates in the country.
He was, in a word, good. If Coleman can get back to his 2024 form in Denver he should have a real chance of being a major problem for Harvey and the oft-injured Dobbins. Coleman could be the apple of the Zero RB zealot’s eye come August.
Jets QB Cade Klubnik (Pick 110)
The first rule of naming your 35-year-old quarterback the Week 1 starter in April is drafting a rookie quarterback who stinks. For Aaron Glenn, this is mission accomplished.
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Klubnik will pose no threat to Geno Smith, who Glenn believes will deliver Gang Green to the promised land, or a 7-10 record after winning four of their final five games. I could spend six hours posting horrifying Klubnik stats but I’ll just go with this one: He was outside the top-100 QBs in EPA per drop back last season, behind quarterbacks who were not drafted. He’s not bad. He’s terrible. Maybe one of Woody Johnson’s children thought Klubnik was “based” or something.
Ravens WR Elijah Sarratt (Pick 115)
A Curt Cignetti merchant who lucked into 15 touchdowns on 65 catches last year at Indiana, a career season, the 23-year-old Sarratt will probably be a rotational boundary receiver in the run-heavy Baltmore offense, if he even dresses on game days.
There are not enough targets or air yards in this offense for any receiver to matter outside Zay Flowers. Sarratt has next-to-no chance of being relevant for real or fantasy football.
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Bills WR Skyler Bell (Pick 125)
Now we’re talking. Bell was a spreadsheet marvel at UConn. I know he’s old for a rookie (23) but every rookie is ancient now. It’s just the way it is. His efficiency metrics should have put Bell in the first-round conversation, in one blogger’s humble, metrics-poisoned opinion.
Bell had a 92nd percentile college dominator rating. He had a 99th percentile college target share. Bell in 2025 was second in receiving yards, seventh in yards per route run, and top-20 in yards after the catch per reception. No one seemed to care, except for the Bills, who may have wanted a slot guy who can do something more than catch bubble screens.
Bell is a target commanding, missed tackle forcing, highly efficient pass catcher. I think he has a real chance of catching the attention of new Bills head coach Joe Brady and Josh Allen, who’s in desperate need of a wideout who can get open and do something with the dang ball. Bell is going to catch steam in August. Best ball bros should look powerfully into drafting him before then.
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Ravens TE Matthew Hibner (Pick 133)
The loss of Isaiah Likely in free agency opens up some tight end snaps and maybe even some routes if the new-look Baltimore offense continues using multiple tight ends at a high rate.
That Mark Andrews and Durham Smythe will start the season well ahead of Hibner on the depth chart doesn’t mean the rookie can’t eventually carve out some sort of role. After spending time at Michigan, Hibner transferred to SMU prior to the 2024 season and became a starter, tallying 55 receptions for 804 yards and eight touchdowns across two seasons with the Mustangs.
Hibner was targeted on a mere 13.5 percent of his routes in 2025. That’s not very good at all.
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Broncos TE Justin Joly (Pick 152)
Joly, out of NC State, is probably better than Kenyon Sadiq, though Sadiq cuts a more imposing figure in a tight-fitting shirt. So it goes.
At 1.8 yards per route run, Joly ranked 18th out of 45 qualifying FBS tight ends in 2025 while earning Pro Football Focus’ sixth-highest tight end receiving grade. Joly, who had the seventh most targets among college tight ends in 2025, was just a smidge behind Sadiq in YRR while besting him in targets per route (because everyone did, because Sadiq has never been good).
Joly ran 63 percent of his routes from the slot — compared to 47 percent in 2025 — and had an average depth of target of 10.1, far higher than his final season aDOT (7.6). Joly in short was far more effective from the slot than he was from an in-line position. His YAC numbers bear that out.
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In 2025 Joly saw a target on 25.2 percent of his pass routes, one of the highest rates in this awful draft class. While he has a long way to go before he usurps Evan Engram for the starting gig, Joly is an interesting prospect who might be more interested than Engram in playing and producing for Denver.
Chiefs RB Emmett Johnson (Pick 161)
Johnson is destined to become the latest Andy Reid running back that fantasy folks furiously chase in July and August. It makes some sense in this case: Johnson in 2025 was the nation’s third leading rusher, logging the fourth most rushes of at least ten yards, and forcing more missed tackles than all but four running backs.
Johnson’s yards after contact numbers were outrageously good throughout his college career at Nebraska. He’s the first good running back in the KC backfield for quite some time … besides free agency splash signing Ken Walker. I don’t care that Johnson didn’t impress at the Combine. I very much do care that Johnson had a 100th percentile college dominator rating.
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Johnson is certainly someone to monitor even if he doesn’t get the pass-catching work out of the Chiefs backfield. If (when?) Walker gets dinged up, it’s Johnson who could have dibs on early down work and even goal line carries.
Jaguars TE Tanner Koziol (Pick 164)
Koziol is another tight end prospect who’s likely better than Kenyon Sadiq. Yet he was drafted on Day Three. Curious!
All Koziol did in his final season at Houston was lead college football in tight end receptions, rank third in tight end receiving yards, and ninth in yards per route run. Koziol had a 99th percentile dominator rating and a 94th percentile breakout age. He had 168 catches over his final two collegiate seasons. Ho hum.
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I don’t think Koziol can leapfrog Brenton Strange right away for TE1 duties in the Jacksonville offense. Tight end is a famously tough position for rookies, as you surely know. Koziol could, however, be interesting if Strange misses any time in 2025 and the rookie slots in as the Jaguars’ primary pass-catching tight end.
Titans RB Nick Singleton (Pick 165)
Singleton might have been the most interesting Day Three pick. He enters a Titans backfield with Tony Pollard and Tajae Spears, neither of whom strikes me as unscalable roadblocks for the rookie out of Penn State.
Working as the No. 2 back at Penn State in 2024, Singleton went for nearly 1,500 total yards, proving efficient as a rusher and a pass catcher. It’s through the air where Singleton shined bigly at Pen State, posting an 88th percentile running back target share. I could see him easily moving ahead of Spears as the Titans’ primary pass-catching back this season. Singleton will be a popular final round stash for the Zero RB nerds in your life.
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Browns QB Taylen Green (Pick 182)
There’s every reason to believe Green can be a legit starter but the guy led college football last season in EPA on scrambles and was second in explosive rush rate among QBs. Todd Monken could use this guy in some way that benefits an increasingly interesting Cleveland offense.
Green in college was an extraordinarily bad passer. His passing EPA was just inside the top-100 quarterbacks in the nation last season, well below the aforementioned Cade Klubnik, who stinks.
It’s hard to ignore Green’s athleticism though. He had a 100th percentile 40 time and speed score. He could be the fastest quarterback in NFL history. For some reason I think it could be fun if Monken figures out a way to get the ball into Green’s hands a few times a game. Think of Green as a supercharged Taysom Hill. Hopefully Green embraces the role, as Anthony Richardson should have.
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Commander RB Kaytron Allen (Pick 187)
Unless James Franklin is going to coach the Commanders in 2026, I’m not all that interested in Allen. The guy who had 52 catches over his final three seasons at Penn State checks every box to be the dreaded TRAP back, seeing almost all of his work between the 20s, where it doesn’t matter at all.
Rachaad White will catch passes out of the Washington backfield and Jacory Croskey-Merritt was actually quite good and efficient last season after being tabbed as the next Marcus Allen during training camp. Allen might be part of the Washington backfield rotation. That’s fine. He won’t matter much for fantasy unless White and JCM miss time.
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