The Offense Ready To Repeat In 2025
It’s been a busy few days down in Tampa. Let me catch you up to speed on a trio of developments that should be altering your draft plans …
WR Jalen McMillan suffered a severe neck strain earlier this week and isn’t expected back until after the Bucs bye (Week 9).
WR Chris Godwin will be activated off the PUP list and added to the 53-man roster, although he still isn’t expected to play until October.
Similar to Godwin, left tackle Tristan Wirfs will also avoid PUP and will open the season on the 53-man roster.
Obviously losing McMillan is a blow, but the Bucs are deep enough at WR to weather that storm—especially if Godwin is back sooner rather than later.
Here’s how I’m playing it …
McMillan is sadly undraftable at this point. If you want to add him as a flier, wait until Week 5 or 6.
Godwin becomes a really good pick in managed leagues. He goes after pick 100 in ESPN leagues and just a smidge earlier everywhere else. In Round 9, you can easily bide your time for a month until he returns to action, at which point you’ll have a Round 5 value at a 4-round discount.
There was a lot of panic about Baker Mayfield and Bucky Irving when the Wirfs injury initially took place, but there’s zero reason to be concerned now. Load up as if nothing ever happened.
Looking at our QB tiers, you can see that Mayfield is slotted in as the last signal caller in Tier 2. It’s always nice to scoop a guy before the tier ends …
Oh, and I assume it goes without saying, you should continue targeting Emeka Egbuka aggressively—especially if he dips at all on this Godwin return news.
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Is A Sophomore Spike On The Horizon For Caleb Williams?
Our crew of Fantasy Life rankers will be unveiling their positional sleepers for the 2025 fantasy football season throughout the next three days, with quarterbacks kicking us off today.
Dwain, Ian, Freedman, and Kendall put their minds together to highlight the quarterbacks going later than they should, who have all the ingredients needed to smash their ADPs, headlined by polarizing Year 2 QB—Dwain’s No. 1 sleeper, who was STOLEN right out of his hands by Ian Hartitz—Caleb Williams:
“Da Bears QB1 didn't exactly live up to "generational" expectations as a rookie, although that's not too uncommon. After all, just six rookie QBs have produced top-12 numbers in fantasy points per game over the last decade.
Good news: The flashes were still there, and positive rushing TD regression is expected. Williams also now finds himself inside of what sure looks like one of the league's most fantasy-friendly offensive environments:
Head coach Ben Johnson regularly presses the "easy buttons" (play-action and pre-snape motion) more than just about anyone.
The pass-catching crew is headlined by longtime stud WR DJ Moore, 2024 ninth-overall pick Rome Odunze, and 2025 10th-overall pick Colston Loveland, while guys like Luther Burden, Olamide Zaccheaus, Cole Kmet, and D'Andre Swift add some solid depth.
PFF's reigning 24th-ranked offensive line has moved all the way up to fourth in their 2025 preseason rankings. ETR's Brandon Thorn has Chicago ranked seventh.
Williams wasn't without fault as a rookie, but man, the organization has essentially done everything in its power to surround him with better resources ahead of year two. I prefer taking a barbell/first-or-last approach at the position this year—don't be afraid to click Williams in the double-digit rounds once the top-36 RBs, top-50 WRs, and top-10 TEs are already well off the board.”
There are three remaining QB sleeper targets for 2025 from our staff. Let’s dive in. ⤵️
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The Final Piece of The Rankings Puzzle
Everyone loves fantasy football rankings, but does everyone love defenses in fantasy football? The verdict is still out, but they’re a piece of the drafting puzzle many of us have no choice but to address.
Sure, these picks won’t come until the very end of your draft, outside of early reaches, and you could just cycle through defenses based on weekly matchups throughout the year. But again, we’re required to play a defense … in most cases.
So, to help guide you through the absolutely brutal, treacherous waters of prioritizing DSTs for 2025, Jonathan Fuller has put together the ultimate rankings and tiers guide for fantasy DSTs:
Tier 1: The Elite Defenses
Tier 2: Priority Streaming Options
Tier 3: Matchup-Based Streaming Options
Tier 4: Avoid If You Can
Dive into which defenses fall into each tier and when/how to approach them in drafts. ⤵️
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Around the Watercooler
The latest fantasy nuggets, silliness, and NFL gossip from our merry band of football nerds.
❤️ Matthew Berry’s last LOVE/HATE column is here. Bittersweet, indeed.
📺 The perfect WR draft strategy … including overpriced and underpriced players.
👀 ICYMI: There’s an opportunity available for the Broncos WRs now.
🥰 A true love story. The players Jake Trowbridge is obsessed with this season.
🥩 A Cleveland rookie QB beef?! Sanders weighs in.
😢 Another lost year for a Patriots WR. Tough start to his career.
🥊 Seahawks vs. Packers getting rowdy. Nice little donnybrook there.
🌬️ The RB trade winds are blowing. Buckle up.
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