2025 Fantasy Football Busts

Anyone drafting Cooper Kupp in this range did not watch him last year. I wouldn’t even draft him in the 10th round. Kupp was so incredibly decrepit to close out the 2024 season that he barely played during the team’s victory over the Vikings in the playoffs, even before the game turned into a blowout. For the first time in Kupp’s career, he won’t be playing in a Sean McVay offense, and he won’t be catching passes throughout a full season from either Matthew Stafford or Jared Goff. His situation is a colossal downgrade, and he’s not even good anymore, so what in the world is he doing in the seventh round?

I have a rule about avoiding running backs and wide receivers coming off torn ACLs. There’s always a small chance they succeed, but more often than not, they either struggle when they return, or they re-injure themselves. Brandon Aiyuk probably won’t even play until the second half of the season, so he’s someone to completely avoid in the eighth round.

Tyreek Hill is not the same electric player he once was. He has lost a step, but there are other factors as to why he’s so high on this busts list. Miami’s offensive line is in shambles, so Hill won’t get as many opportunities downfield as he did prior to 2024. Tua Tagovailoa’s health is also a potential problem. And then there’s the fact that Hill could easily be in jail sometime soon. There’s no reason to draft him in the third round.

Denver’s running game was a mess last year, so one would think that R.J. Harvey will just step in and take control of the situation. That could happen, but what’s more likely is that the old-school Sean Payton will have some reservations about giving a rookie a full workload – a rookie who happens to have issues in pass protection. It’s insane to me that people are willing to spend a fifth-round pick, believing that Harvey is going to establish himself as the starter so quickly. I see yet another crowded backfield in Denver, at least in the first half of the season.

Given how disappointing Marvin Harrison Jr. was last year, I thought we would get some decent value with him in the fifth or perhaps the sixth round. That was wrong, with Harrison going toward the end of the third frame. This is not enough of a discount. Harrison showed an alarming inability to separate last year. There’s a chance that was the result of him not being fully healthy, but I’m not willing to take a chance on him in the third round to find out.

I loved Chris Godwin last year. He was playing the Cooper Kupp role in Liam Coen’s offense, and he was highly productive because of that until he suffered a season-ending injury in garbage time of a Monday night game. There’s no guarantee Godwin is 100 percent, and even if he is, he’ll likely be in a diminished role of a new system. The Buccaneers also drafted Emeka Egbuka in the first round, perhaps indicating that they don’t trust Godwin’s health. Given how crowded Tampa Bay’s receiving corps is, the only Buccaneer wideout I would trust is Mike Evans.

Omarion Hampton is a very talented player who should be chosen in the fourth round based solely on his skill set. The problem is that Hampton may not play very much this year. He’s squarely behind Najee Harris on the depth chart. Harris isn’t great, but he’s been a steady presence in the NFL. He has rushed for at least 1,000 yards every season, and he has never missed a game, so it’s unlikely that Hampton will pass Harris due to performance or injury. Jim Harbaugh is very old school, so he’ll aim to pound the ball with his veteran back as he eases his flashy rookie into the pros at a glacial pace.

Breece Hall was being chosen as a top-three-overall player last year, so you’d think that he would look like an amazing value to begin the fourth round. The problem was that Hall looked like a shell of his former self in 2024, as the game-breaking ability we saw from him in the past was nowhere to be seen. While Hall could recover, a big factor in his overall decline this year will be Justin Fields. Mobile quarterbacks tend to run rather than dump the ball to running backs amid pressure, which is very impactful for Hall because he does most of his damage as a receiver out of the backfield.

I love Trey McBride’s talent, but his ADP is insane. Late second round for a tight end who didn’t score a touchdown until late December last year? Really!? McBride had a fourth-round ADP last year, so why did he move up two whole rounds when he couldn’t score? It doesn’t seem like the Cardinals utilize him properly, so why would anyone draft him so early, especially with there being so many values at the position?

I don’t hate De’Von Achane in the second round, but there are better options. Achane is an electric player with very high upside. However, there’s a very low floor with him. Miami’s offensive line is in shambles and may once again struggle to run block in front of Achane. Also, Achane is a brittle player who has a high chance of missing action due to injury, so he’s a big gamble in the middle of the second frame.