Every year, the NFL Draft introduces fantasy football managers to a slew of new faces. They will inevitably contribute to the decline in production of some tried and true producers of our fantasy football teams. Sometimes it’s depressing. Other times, it’s a welcome change. Plenty of veterans will find their jobs in question. What were the fantasy implications of the 2025 NFL Draft? Here are some narratives that I think fantasy managers should look into as we gear up for our 2025 fantasy football drafts.
2025 NFL Draft Fantasy Implications
The Chicago Bears are gonna throw
We’ve known the Bears to historically be a ground-and-pound kind of football team. They have featured some of the greatest running backs in NFL history. And in their history, they have never featured a quarterback who threw for more than 4,000 yards.
We know Ben Johnson likes to run the football. Over his last three years as a play caller, he’s called 480 or more running plays. But, he also likes to throw the football, registering 588, 606, and 551 pass plays over the last three years.
The Bears didn’t re-sign Keenan Allen, leaving D.J. Moore and last year’s 1st round pick, Rome Odunze, atop the WR depth chart (and not much else). Cole Kmet leads the TE room after not re-signing Gerald Everett.
With their first two picks in the NFL Draft, the Bears selected TE Colston Loveland (Round 1) and WR Luther Burden III (Round 2). The Bears now have an even more talented group of pass catchers with which to work.
Last year, Ben Johnson ran the third-highest rate of 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE) in the NFL. That would lead us to believe that both Kmet and Loveland will be on the field together quite a bit. This also means only two WRs will be on the field with them. But when you dive a little deeper, Johnson’s Lions ran 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE) 54.2% of the time (24th in the league).
What the Bears’ top two draft picks signify is that Johnson has more chess pieces to move the football. No matter the formation, the Bears will deploy talented pass catchers and create mismatches. Identifying target shares will be fun, if not a giant headache, though they were well defined in his Lions offense. And with all the offensive line investments this offseason as well, the biggest takeaway as we head into the 2025 NFL season is simple–It’s Wheels. Fucking. Up for QB Caleb Williams. No reason he shouldn’t finish as a top 12 QB in fantasy football in 2025.
The Houston Texans are gonna throw a bunch too
Heading into 2024, the Texans swung a trade with the Bengals to acquire RB Joe Mixon. Bobby Slowik came from the Kyle Shanahan system that wants to control games with the run game and will use 2 WR sets to do it. The end result was QB CJ Stroud having a disappointing fantasy season and only throwing the ball 532 times (219.2 yards per game).
Fast forward to 2025. Slowik is gone, and replacing him is Sean McVay’s understudy, Nick Caley. Caley was the passing game coordinator and TEs coach for the Rams last year. The last McVay offensive assistant to get an OC job was Zac Robinson heading into the 2024 season, who landed with the Falcons.
Many teams use 11 personnel as their preferred formation to pass. Guess the teams that ran the most 11 personnel? The Rams and Falcons.
With the expected bump in 11 personnel, the Texans have added weapons to the WR room. First, they swung a trade for Jaguars WR Christian Kirk to help offset the loss of Stefon Diggs. Then, they spent not one, but TWO top-80 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft on WRs — former Iowa State teammates Jayden Higgins (Round 2) and Jaylin Noel (Round 3).
While the Falcons and Rams were tied for the 14th-most pass attempts in the league, they averaged 7.7 and 7.3 yards per reception. That ranked 8th and 14th in the league, respectively. Houston ranked 18th at 6.9.
Expect Houston to push the ball downfield more. Star WR Nico Collins has averaged 16.2 and 14.8 yards per reception the past two seasons. Christian Kirk averaged 13.5 yards per reception in his three seasons with Jacksonville. Jayden Higgins averaged 15.5 YPR in his last two seasons at Iowa State, while Jaylin Noel averaged 14.9 last season.
C.J. Stroud should have a solid bounce-back in 2025 with a focus on pushing the ball downfield, and will be a QB2 with QB1 upside if the big plays turn into touchdowns.
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Steelers got their RB; now about their QB…
Heading into the NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers were heavily linked to this year’s QB class. They have also been heavily linked to Aaron Rodgers, but no deal was in place prior to the start of the draft. Many expected them to take a QB because of the uncertainty. And while they did — Ohio State’s Will Howard — it wasn’t until the 6th round. So that means it’s Rodgers or bust as we head into summer.
But what the Steelers did do is draft a replacement for the recently departed Najee Harris. Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson was selected in the 3rd round. He is expected to pair with Jaylen Warren to lead the Steelers’ rushing attack for OC Arthur Smith.
In four of his last five years as a play caller, Smith has run the ball over 500 times. In five of the last six years, his RBs have handled 80% or more of the rushes. (The only exception was last year, when RBs handled 79.92% of attempts.)
Jaylen Warren has never topped 150 rush attempts in a season. And the RB3 in Smith’s offense has topped a 10% rush share just once. If there’s a rookie RB that has a clear path to 300 touches that isn’t Ashton Jeanty, it’s Kaleb Johnson.
He should be an easy target for a top-15 season at RB.
Dallas is going to Dallas
All spring, pundits have stressed the need for the Cowboys to add skill position players. They had the 6th-least productive rushing offense in the NFL. They didn’t re-sign last year’s leading rusher, Rico Dowdle, and instead added Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders on one-year deals in free agency.
Beyond star WR CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys ‘ next-best WR is fourth-year veteran Jalen Tolbert. His 610 yards were second on the team and a career high.
These unfortunate situations had many people linking them to 1st round talents like Tetairoa McMillan, Matthew Golden, and Omarion Hampton. Two of them were on the board when Dallas picked at 12, but they opted for Guard Tyler Booker. In fact, Dallas didn’t select a single WR in the 2025 draft. They did, however, draft an RB (two, in fact), but not until the 5th round when they selected Texas speedster Jaydon Blue.
While strengthening their offensive line needed to be a priority with the retirement of All-Pro Guard Zach Martin, Lamb and QB Dak Prescott need weapons to take the pressure off of them to carry the offense.
The Dallas running game is one I’m likely to avoid in 2025, but if CeeDee Lamb isn’t your overall WR1 heading into the season with the amount of targets he’s likely to see, you may need to double-check your process.
Cleveland is getting back to basics
From 2019 to 2022, head coach Kevin Stefanski never averaged more than 31 pass plays per game. In the last two years, the Browns threw the ball 36.71 and 38.88 times per game. The spike in pass attempts coincided with the new style of offense Stefanski was running to appease “star” QB Deshaun Watson, with whom the team traded three future 1st round picks to acquire, AND guaranteed $230 million.
When the shift in offense led to only 19 TD passes from Watson in 19 games played over three seasons, Stefanski pulled the plug. He fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after one season and promoted TE coach Tommy Rees to OC. This was done with the idea that Stefanski would go back to calling plays and get back to what he does best — run the damn ball.
The Browns spent two draft picks on running backs. They landed Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins in the 2nd round and Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson in the 4th round. They’ll team with third-year back and the team’s leading rusher the last two years, Jerome Ford, to wear defenses down and take pressure off their quarterback.
For five straight seasons, the Browns topped 475 rush attempts and over 2,000 rushing yards as an offense. Last year, the team was below 400 attempts and rushed for 1,608 yards. In short, the Browns’ rushing offense in 2024 was a shell of itself.
What the Browns get with Judkins is an RB who can carry a load. He logged 739 rush attempts, averaged 5.1 yards per carry, scored 45 TDs on the ground, and forced 197 missed tackles in three college seasons. Sampson is a speedster who rushed for 1,488 yards and 22 TDs last season. Those two combined with Ford should have no problem keeping defenses on their toes in 2025.
Judkins is likely a 200+ carry back with top 20 upside. Ford will start the season as the change-of-pace 3rd down back, while Sampson works in 5-7 touches a game.
In Justin Herbert We Trust
The narrative heading into 2024 was that Justin Herbert wasn’t going to throw much with Greg Roman as the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator. I only partially bought that. On one hand, offensive coordinators have proven to us over the years that they rarely change their stripes. On the other hand, you don’t keep a bazooka arm like Herbert’s unloaded and on a display shelf.
What 2024 showed us is that while Greg Roman isn’t going to call a ton of passing plays, he’s still going to let Herbert throw the football. While Herbert’s 29.65 pass attempts per game were a career low, Greg Roman called the 2nd most pass plays in a season in his career (510).
Herbert finished last season as the QB11 with a 23:3 TD-to-INT ratio and the highest passing yards per attempt of his career (7.7). He also had the most rushing yards he’s ever had in a single season (306). What Roman and head coach Jim Harbaugh want to do is make Herbert as efficient as possible.
What helps a quarterback’s efficiency? A quality run game and additional pass catchers.
The Chargers had the fewest rush attempts for a Greg Roman-coached offense over his last five seasons as a play caller. In hopes of fixing that, the team signed former Steelers RB Najee Harris to a one-year deal and spent a 1st round pick on North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton.
To help the passing offense and provide some help around rookie sensation Ladd McConkey, the team brought back former 1st round pick Mike Williams, spent a 2nd round pick on Mississippi’s Tre Harris, and drafted Syracuse TE Oronde Gadsden II in the 5th round.
While the three rookies get up to speed and see their roles increase as the season goes on, all of this is great news for Ladd McConkey and Justin Herbert. I fully expect Herbert to finish as a top 10 QB on efficiency alone, while McConkey should maintain his top 15 WR floor as Herbert’s top weapon.
Were there any other fantasy implications of the 2025 NFL Draft? Be sure you’re following Josh Hudson on X, and let him know your thoughts. You can also find more great content from Club Fantasy here!
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