Note: ADP and rankings based upon a 12-team league with PPR scoring

Red Flag Warning: Upon further review, there are three WRs who won’t be on my shopping list for 2025. Deebo Samuel will be the most controversial, but his situation makes me nervous. It’s nothing to do with his new QB Jayden Daniels or the coaching staff. What’s troubling me is the trust I put in the 49ers process. Knowing WR Brandon Aiyuk was likely to miss half the 2025 season, SF still sent those “Deebo Dollars” to D.C. for a fifth-rounder. The 49ers were also aware they could face Samuel and the Commanders in a possible NFC Title game, and weren’t worried.

Michael Pittman Jr. plays through pain. The pain of watching repeated, badly-off-target wobblers, and the pain of playing 16 games in 2024 with a fracture in his lower back! If Daniel Jones starts at QB in Indianapolis, it should offer Pittman some relief. But with that uncertainty, the emergence of WR Josh Downs, a rough schedule for Colts wideouts and target-hungry-rookie TE Tyler Warren …I’ll pass.

I’m also allergic to the Dolphins Tyreek Hill in 2025. For my thoughts on Hill, please refer to my 7/29 assessment of overvalued-QB Tua Tagovailoa, and the mess in Miami.

Undervalued WRs

Mike Evans, Buccaneers
ADP: 4.10, WR 19

I’ve completed 11 drafts for the 2025 fantasy season, and this stud’s ADP is slipping. This is a subtle-value call. Monster Mike isn’t two-rounds out of position, but he offers top-13 WR value, for a WR19 price. Finishing last season as WR11 (in just 14 games), QB Baker Mayfield was continually feeding him the ball -- to move the chains, and to get Evans his 1,000 yards. In the final regular-season game of 2024, Evans lined up right, then motioned to the left slot. Veteran WR Sterling Shepard rubbed coverage perfectly as he flashed straight downfield, allowing Evans to break behind him into the left flat for an 8-yd catch and run. Michael Lynn Evans III reached 1004 receiving yards, with a little help from his friends.

We’ll be watching for signs of aging and rookie Emeka Egbuka’s early camp hype is on full blast, but Godwin’s early season status is TBD so I recommend you ride Evans and that supporting cast through one more fantasy season, especially at a discount.



Jakobi Meyers, Raiders
ADP: 9.02, WR 44

In 2019, Meyers was undrafted, undervalued, and unemployed. He was also undeterred! The first GM/HC to call Jakobi’s agent (after the draft) was Bill Belichick. The Patriots liked this free-agent underdog, and he had 41 targets as a rookie. Meyers had 81 and 126 targets over his next two seasons. Signed away by Las Vegas in early 2023, Meyers has produced 1,834 receiving yards and 12 TDs in his two seasons with the Raiders. Not bad for a WR2-turned-WR1, following the Week-7 trade of Davante Adams to the Jets last year.

Production hasn’t been easy for Meyers, as Las Vegas gambled with five “placeholder” QBs -- Aidan O’Connell, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brian Hoyer, Gardner Minshew, and Desmond Ritter. QB play will improve in 2025, as Geno Smith (70.4% completion rate in 2024), and veteran HC Pete Carroll arrive in Las Vegas.

Meyers is in the final year of his contract (always a plus), and on the field, he benefits from TE Brock Bowers being the focus of pass defenses. Rookie Ashton Jeanty (drafted 6th-overall) will be the featured back for these renewed Raiders -- I anticipate sustained drives leading to a significant increase in scoring opportunities. I also envision the underrated Meyers running unhindered to become uncovered. He won’t finish the season WR20, but he shouldn’t be priced like WR44.

Jauan Jennings & Ricky Pearsall, 49ers
ADP: 8.08, WR 41; ADP: 9.04, WR 45

It’s a “two-fer,” FFT style. Situational awareness is critical on the football field, and in fantasy drafts. With 32 NFL teams, WR ratings in the 40s indicate a belief that every team in the NFL has a better WR1 than JJ or RP. It also means that fantasy GMs are taking about a dozen WR2s, before selecting either starting 49ers wideout. Receivers like the suspended Jordan Addison and Rashee “my-suspension-will-be-bigger-than-yours” Rice are being taken earlier in drafts. I can only hope those folks are in my leagues.

I’ll take Kyle Shanahan calling plays, CMC and Kittle spreading defenders, Deebo playing for the Commanders, Brandon Aiyuk out for half the season and a squishy-soft SOS in the range of the Panthers, Jets, Cardinals, and Rams. Six divisional games promise to be high-scoring affairs, too.

What’s the biggest value boost for these two? There’s no timeline for Aiyuk’s return -- only this anxiety-inducing assessment from the 49ers, “Sometime in the second-half of the season.” Dissecting that schedule, SF shouldn’t need Aiyuk to beat the Giants in Week 9. If he’s still not game-ready, would waiting until after their week-14 bye become a possibility? Could he sit again in Week 18, if SF has clinched a playoff spot? Since he signed an extension last August (with $76 million guaranteed), will he feel compelled to “rush” his return? There are big questions surrounding Aiyuk for 2025. The answers are Pearsall and Jennings.

Overvalued WRs

Rashee Rice, Chiefs
ADP: 4.11, WR 20

We’re awaiting final word from the NFL office, about impending discipline. I’m in the minority, but I think six games will be the minimum suspension. That’s the number of vehicles he took out during his 119-mph Lamborghini joy ride in Dallas. I think Commissioner Roger Goodell will also consider the fact that Rice never checked on the people in the other vehicles, and fled the scene of the crash. Could those irresponsible actions cost him another two games?

It’s going to be tough for the NFL not to come down hard after he put so many lives in danger. Rice was found guilty of two felonies, sentenced to jail time, and 5-years of probation. He paid more than $1 million in injury settlements, and was found responsible for all medical costs incurred by the victims. For fantasy valuation, let’s project a 10-game season. I’ll never spend enough to secure his services as WR20-25 (and I’m just fine with that). I’m not sure 8-10 games are adequate in such a frightening case, but the NFL has yet to consult with me on such things.

Jayden Reed*, Matthew Golden (R), Romeo Doubs, Packers
*ADP: 9.9, WR 46

There’s a saying in fantasy, “When a team has two QBs, it really doesn’t have one.” Think Steelers last season, or Cleveland in 2025. Surely GB has a trade in the works, right? Most-likely involving, say, Doubs? Make the call Cardinals, Titans, Panthers or Patriots, and give fantasy players some clarity in Packerland. Let’s say a trade doesn’t materialize, but a couple WRs become cut-down casualties (Watson? Melton?), leaving “only” 7 WRs on opening day. No help. In 2024, the Packers (QBs Love/Willis combined) ranked 30th in completions with 308. No help, whatsoever! Even when they did pass, the distribution among the top-4 WRs was brutal for fantasy purposes.

It was TE Tucker Kraft with the 2nd-most receptions, and the most TDs. Jayden Reed managed 199 fantasy points last season. RB Josh Jacobs scored 299, including 16 total TDs and 36 receptions of his own. Remember, this watering-down of WR value took place even before first-round draft pick, Matthew Golden (4.29/40 yds), or third-rounder, Savion Williams, arrived at Lambeau. Do yourself a favor and move each GB “job-share” WR a full-round lower in your rankings. Until there’s a trade, the only Packers you want are Jacobs and Kraft.

Keon Coleman, Buffalo Bills
ADP: 10.09, WR 48

Coleman is a hoot, but he didn’t earn any votes for NFL Rookie of the Year, with 29 receptions on 57 targets (51%). Making the math easier, was leading WR Khalil Shakir, 76 catches on exactly 100 targets (76%). I’m not sold on Keon in his sophomore year, because the Bills aren’t sold on Keon. Buffalo signed Josh Palmer (LAC) and Elijah Moore (NYJ/CLE) this offseason, to compete with Coleman and Curtis Samuel.

Coleman was drafted by the Bills with the 33rd-overall pick in the 2024 draft, and struggled as a rookie with MVP Josh Allen at QB, on a team that scored 525 points. Elijah Moore (NYJ 34th) and Josh Palmer (LAC 77th) were taken in the 2021 draft. If you’re looking for a last-round wildcard in a national tournament, consider Elijah “I-can-do” Moore who might have more upside, given consistency at QB, on a team that routinely scores. His 2024 season with the low-scoring Browns (258 points) was riddled with Jameis Winston, Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe at quarterback.

If Shakir misses a game with his recent high-ankle sprain, it could give Coleman a slight boost, but I’m guessing his ADP edges higher, too. With my money, I’ll take Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins, Tank Bigsby, or Tucker Kraft at 10.09 and let someone else key-on Keon.