First TD Bets — Wild Card Monday Slate
Alex Christenson
There are four teams left with a shot at this year’s title, but everyone has a shot at next year’s Super Bowl … and next year’s fantasy football crown. So if you and your favorite team are out of the running for this year’s crown, it’s good to start looking forward.
While we can’t get into all the specifics for the 2025 season, we can start taking a look at some of the storylines that could define the season. If you know who is positioned to pop, which teams are due for a fall, where the key stories could come from, it can help shape your draft prep and fantasy strategy. So below, we’re taking a look at some of the (probable) top fantasy storylines of the 2025 NFL season.
2025 Fantasy Football Storylines
How High Can Jayden Daniels Rise?
At least as of now, Daniels is the top storyline of this year’s playoffs, beating the Buccaneers and then topping the No. 1 seed Lions to achieve the Conference Championship Round. It wasn’t out of nowhere, either — Daniels was the fantasy QB5 in 2024, and if he hadn’t left Weeks 7 and 18 with injury, he definitely could have climbed as high as QB2 (if you give him the 45.6 points Marcus Mariota scored those two games, he’d have topped Josh Allen). Those two games with missed time also kept Daniels from overtaking Cam Newton for best rookie QB fantasy season in NFL history, settling for the No. 2 mark. For a draft that looks like it has produced a record number of productive NFL quarterbacks (Bo Nix, Drake Maye and Caleb Williams all look like solid-at-least starters, Michael Penix Jr. looked good in limited play, and who knows what the Vikings have in J.J. McCarthy), Daniels torched the strong field.
Now, the future. We saw guys like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes win MVPs and set scoring records in their second seasons. Given how good Daniels looked as a rookie, even a small next step would be enough to make him the fantasy QB1 and reset expectations for the entire Washington offense. There’s a potential downside, though. Daniels crushed C.J. Stroud’s rookie season (Daniels had 355.8 fantasy points compared to Stroud’s 276.0), but it was only a few months ago that Stroud was going as a top-five quarterback in fantasy drafts, and he let his fantasy managers down in 2024 to the tune of a QB18 finish.
Dyami Brown’s postseason explosion aside, the Commanders have only one sure weapon we can rely on going into 2025 (Terry McLaurin). Brown and Olamide Zaccheaus have been inconsistent-at-best for his career, Zach Ertz turns 35 in November, Brian Robinson Jr. and Austin Ekeler are good-but unspectacular out of the backfield. Sam Cosmi tore his ACL in the Divisional Round, making him a question mark to return to the offensive line next season.
But! Per OverTheCap, the Commanders have the third-most cap space for 2025 and will be an appealing landing spot for offensive weapons who might want to play with a star quarterback. Kliff Kingsbury is getting some murmurs about returning to head coaching after an impressive year as the offensive coordinator, but Washington’s playoff run has kept him from diving all the way into the cycle and he seems like a guy who could take another year as a coordinator.
Whichever way Daniels’ 2025 goes will go a long way toward defining the next fantasy season overall. Stake your claim and make your choice.
Ashton Jeanty’s Arrival
Boise State’s Jeanty would have won the Heisman in a lot of college football seasons. He only came up short this year because Travis Hunter was his own Power Ranger, putting up good seasons on offense and defense. He ran for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns (plus 1 as a receiver), with at least 104 yards in every game. Yes, his worst game came against one of Boise State’s toughest opponents, with 104 yards and no scores against Penn State in the College Football Playoff, but Jeanty also managed 192 yards and 3 scored at Oregon in Week 2. He’s good. He’s going to be a first-round pick. The most popular pairing is Jeanty landing in Dallas to be Jerry Jones’ newest backfield toy, but even if the Cowboys go elsewhere (they have a lot of needs, y’all), Jeanty will be a first-round running back and should be a starter and at least a borderline bell cow right away.
Sure, the identity of the team that takes him and the makeup of the rest of its offense will go a long way to defining Jeanty’s outlook. But regardless, we’re talking about a guy who very easily could be a first-round fantasy pick this season who has spent his last few months in Idaho. And that’s going to be one of the things we talk the most about come August.
Can Ben Johnson Make It Happen for Caleb Williams?
Caleb Williams wasn’t by any means bad as a rookie. He was the fantasy QB16 (ahead of guys like C.J. Stroud and Matthew Stafford) with the 12th-most fantasy points for a rookie QB ever. But given (a) the success stories of Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and to an extent Drake Maye, and (b) what the Bears thought they were getting with the supposedly generational Williams, it was still a letdown, and it led to the Bears axing OC Shane Waldron and head coach Matt Eberflus at different points during the season.
The team gets one more shot at capitalizing on Williams on a rookie contract, and it started Monday with the hiring of ex-Lions OC Ben Johnson. Johnson has been one of the top names on the coaching cycle for three years now, finally agreeing to leave Detroit. The reason he was such a popular candidate is the offensive ingenuity he displayed in Detroit, and bringing that to a Chicago offense that has Williams and a receiving duo of DJ Moore and Rome Odunze (Keenan Allen is due to hit free agency) has the potential to produce the best offense in Bears history — admittedly, that’s a low bar, but it’s true nonetheless.
The (arguable) downside to Johnson is his commitment to trying stuff. The Lions’ Divisional Round game was at least still competitive until the offense ran a trick play to let Jameson Williams throw a pass, a pass that became an interception when he threw it off his back foot into coverage. Was that too cute, or are people just saying it’s too cute because it didn’t work? Your mileage may vary.
At the very least, giving Williams an offensive-minded coach is a promising first step. Now, the team needs to take its cap space (currently fifth most) and throw every available dollar at offensive linemen. If things click with Johnson, Williams could easily become a top-eight fantasy quarterback next year and be the best fantasy quarterback in Bears history.
Now, for the team Johnson left behind…
Brain Drain in Detroit
The Lions had a solid coaching structure the last few years. Johnson had been with the team since 2019 (rising from offensive quality control to tight ends coach to passing game coordinator, then spending the last three seasons as OC). Aaron Glenn has been the defensive coordinator since coming over from the Saints for the 2021 season. But Johnson has already agreed to head to Chicago, and Glenn is heavily linked the Jets and Saints.
It’s going to be a fresh start for Detroit under head coach Dan Campbell. So the question for the Lions becomes whether the success under Johnson and Glenn was lightning in a bottle or whether it was the front office, Campbell and personnel that lifted the coordinators. If Johnson takes the magic with him to Chicago, then the fates of Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta could take a hit and they could become fantasy disappointments in 2025. On the other hand, if it turns out the Lions made the coordinators more than the other way around, maybe the Bears (and Jets? Or Saints?) end up disappointed in their new coaches, and the Lions’ window stays open.
The Tee Higgins Sweepstakes
It is a rough year to be looking for solutions in free agency. The best tight end hitting the market is probably Mike Gesicki or 34-year-old Zach Ertz. Najee Harris is getting out there as a running back, but the reason he’s available is the Steelers didn’t think he was worth the fifth-year option. The help at quarterback really depends on your trust in guys like Sam Darnold and Aaron Rodgers. Of the best receivers on the market, almost all of them are going to be 29 or older and more looking for their last deal than their next one.
The exception, of course, is Tee Higgins, who is hitting the market after a season where he averaged 18.5 PPR points per game (fifth among receivers) and just turned 26 a few days ago. The Bengals are going to be interested in keeping him around (Joe Burrow is certainly in favor), but with Ja’Marr Chase needing to get paid soon as well and the Bengals historically cheap, Higgins might command a cost the Bengals can’t (or aren’t willing to) pay.
Should Higgins hit the open market, he’ll be one of the most popular free agent receivers in a long time. And there are plenty of appealing landing spots. Could he be the premier receiver alongside Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel in New England? Would he like to run alongside Terry McLaurin to give the Commanders an elite 1-2 punch? How about a trip to Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles? All three of those teams are among the top six in available 2025 cap space, with the Bengals just behind in ninth. Being a top-flight receiver on the market where there are several desperate-for-receiver teams with a lot of money is the ultimate catbird seat, and wherever Higgins lands will dictate a lot of fantasy players’ stocks entering next season
