Fantasy Veteran Winners and Losers of the 2025 NFL Draft

This weekend’s NFL Draft saw a couple hundred NFL careers begin, and that’s the big story of the weekend. But in addition to all the fresh faces, the draft will prove to have permanently altered some career trajectories. Some for the better, some for the worse, but there are plenty of veterans whose fantasy football value will never be the same.

So while we’re all caught up in the rookies and what their draft slot means for their career, we’re also going to look at the older guys. Below are some of the veteran winners and losers of draft weekend among players whose careers aren’t just starting.

2025 NFL Draft Winners: Fantasy Football Veterans

Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears

There’s been a trend in recent years of teams just saying, “Look, we don’t know if our guy is THE guy, but we’re going to surround him with enough weaponry that it doesn’t matter.” Think A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley for Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia, or Tyreek Hill and De’Von Achane for Tua Tagovailoa in Miami. Williams is our latest entrant in that series, as the Bears — who already had WRs DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, TE Cole Kmet and RBs D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson — still spent their first two picks in this year’s draft on skill players, grabbing TE Colston Loveland out of Michigan and WR Luther Burden III out of Missouri. Williams might prove to still be the generational quarterback he was seen as a year ago, but even if he isn’t, the Bears are trying to make it so he doesn’t have to be.

(Worth noting: Each individual Bears weapon might qualify as a loser here — one in particular, but more on that later — just because there are now so many mouths to feed in Chicago that it might be hard for any single guy to pop. But the offense at large should be in good shape.)

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Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots

Patriots front office: “Hey, Drake, last year your line didn’t do anything for you, your wide receivers couldn’t separate, and your running back became alarmingly spotty. So we picked up the best lineman in the draft, an elite running back prospect who is also a wonderful blocker, and an absolute speed demon receiver. All before Day 2 was over.”

Drake Maye: /does backflips out of happiness

Bryce Young, QB, Carolina Panthers

Young showed some real development last year. You know what can help carry that forward? A tree of a receivers to throw to when the 34-year-old and the second-year bust can’t do it. Tetairoa McMillan alone makes Young a more interesting fantasy option.

Mason Rudolph, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Maybe Aaron Rodgers still comes to Pittsburgh. Maybe they trade for Kirk Cousins. But for a team with desperate need under center, the Steelers didn’t take a quarterback until the middle of the sixth round, when they grabbed Ohio State’s Will Howard. That means their entire QB depth chart is Howard, Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson, and that means Rudolph is, for now at least, very likely still slated to be an NFL starter.

Brian Robinson Jr., RB, Washington Commanders

The Commanders not only didn’t take a running back until super late in the draft as many thought they might, they spent their first pick on a tackle in Oregon’s Josh Conerly Jr. who might kick inside to guard, and pairing that with the offseason trade for Laremy Tunsil gives Washington a way better line than it had last year. That’s all-around good news for Robinson.

Javonte Williams, RB, Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys were rumored to be in on guys like Ashton Jeanty or Omarion Hampton. Instead, they didn’t act on the backfield until the fifth round, when they grabbed Jaydon Blue out of Texas. It’s certainly possible Blue beats Williams (and fellow castoff-turned-Cowboy Miles Sanders) to take over the backfield, but if Dallas had gotten a back earlier, it wouldn’t even have been a question.

Chris Olave, WR, New Orleans Saints

Tyler Shough isn’t a sure thing by any means. But based on what we saw out of Spencer Rattler/Jake Haener last year, he’s closer to a sure thing than anyone else in New Orleans, especially if Derek Carr can’t play. If Shough wants to make it as an NFL quarterback, he’ll make a point to get it to the team’s best receiver as much as possible, and that’s Olave by a million.

Calvin Ridley, WR, Tennessee Titans
Chig Okonkwo, TE, Tennessee Titans

Will Levis has proven to not be a very good NFL quarterback. And while he and Mason Rudolph did help Ridley to 1,017 yards last year, Cam Ward should be worlds better. Ridley gets a bump up in the rankings now that he has a competent passer. As for Okonkwo, a couple of years after he was a breakout candidate, he has a shot now, given he has Ward to catch passes from and the team didn’t add anyone else at tight end.

Michael Wilson, WR, Arizona Cardinals
Keon Coleman, WR, Buffalo Bills

Marvin Harrison Jr. and Khalil Shakir have very little in common, but one thing they do have is that they came into the draft as the clear No. 1 receivers in their offenses. Trey McBride and Dalton Kincaid are set as the starting tight ends. But both the Cardinals and the Bills could have bolstered the receiver room after their WR1s, and any such move would have dinged Wilson and Coleman in particular. Instead, both skated through the draft (or almost all of it, in Coleman’s case) with no additions to their room, and that keeps them relevant.

2025 NFL Draft Losers: Fantasy Football Veterans

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Credit to the Cowboys for grabbing Tyler Booker at 12^th overall. That’s the good news for Dak. The bad news? He still doesn’t really have anyone to throw to. There’s CeeDee Lamb, of course, but one good (great) receiver does not make an offense. The Cowboys didn’t address any pass-catchers in the draft and only grabbed a running back in the fifth round. Lamb’s set up to threaten 200 targets in 2025, but if he starts to get banged up like he did last year, the cupboard in Dallas is almost bare.

Russell Wilson, QB, New York Giants

The leash was already going to be fairly short on Wilson in New York, given his performance has fallen off in a big way in recent years, Jameis Winston was behind him, and the Giants’ coaching staff and front office have no more room to struggle. But now there’s also a first-round quarterback hanging out there in Jaxson Dart, and a first-round quarterback they had to trade up to acquire. Maybe Dart is just a project, but if Wilson struggles, that project will go into hyperspeed, if only to appease what would be that point be an increasingly frustrated fanbase.

Travis Etienne Jr., RB, Jacksonville Jaguars*

Bhayshul Tuten is absurdly fast. Tank Bigsby is … well, a tank. Those two could form an excellent lightning-and-thunder backfield in Jacksonville. Except Etienne is there, a pick from a long-departed front office who nobody really seemed enamored with on the team (see the Tuten pick in the first place). If the Jags go with Tuten/Bigsby as the duo, Etienne is the odd man out.

*There’s a very obvious caveat here that could bump Etienne up into the “winners” section. If the Jaguars shelve Etienne but keep him as depth/insurance, sure, he’s a loser. But if they shelve him to the point that he hits the trade market and lands elsewhere (Dallas?), then suddenly he’s a clear RB1 with massive upside.

Najee Harris, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, New England Patriots
Jaylen Warren, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers

A few days ago, all three of these backs looked like they would be in good shape to be their respective teams’ RB1s, bordering on bell cow status given the other options in their backfields. Now, there are high-upside replacements for all three (Omarion Hampton in Los Angeles, TreVeyon Henderson in New England, Kaleb Johnson in Pittsburgh) who should take over for the incumbents in no time, possibly immediately. Of the three, Warren is the only one who maintains any standalone fantasy value as anything beyond a handcuff, and there’s a chance even he is rendered irrelevant.

Jayden Reed, WR, Green Bay Packers
Romeo Doubs, WR, Green Bay Packers
Dontayvion Wicks, WR, Green Bay Packers

“What if we made the entire roster out of WR2s?” is a good joke, but it’s not actually a team-building approach. We’re going to get to August fantasy draft season and be absolutely throwing darts about who to draft in Green Bay between these three, first-rounder Matthew Golden, third-rounder Savion Williams and TEs Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave, not to mention the possibility of a late-season Christian Watson The best strategy? Let someone else take the stabs at the Green Bay receiver room. Just ignore it altogether. It means you’ll miss out if one of them does pop into a real fantasy factor, but it also saves you all the headache of the potential (likely) misses.

Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Chris Godwin, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I might take all three Tampa Bay receivers (these two and first-rounder Emeka Egbuka) over anyone in Green Bay. But that doesn’t mean it’s that different a situation. Egbuka’s arrival makes another high-end mouth to feed, and while that should be good for the Tampa offense, and all three could potentially be fantasy factors, the two veterans aren’t going to be as important as they were when the WR3 was Jalen McMillan (and of course, McMillan looked pretty good last year and is also around).

Christian Kirk, WR, Houston Texans

It’s easy to forget now because of Kirk’s name value, but the first news about his departure from Jacksonville was that the Jags were outright releasing him. The Texans swooped in for a trade instead, but all it cost them was a 2026 seventh-rounder, which is basically “free.” Now, with Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel in Houston as Day 2 picks, it would almost be more of a surprise to see Kirk on the Houston roster in Week 1 than not. He’s going to be job hunting soon.

Cole Kmet, TE, Chicago Bears

DJ Moore and Rome Odunze should still get their opportunities despite the arrival of Luthern Burden III. But Kmet is all but irrelevant thanks to the selection of Colston Loveland. It’s hard to envision a scenario absent a Loveland injury where Kmet has any standalone fantasy value.

Noah Fant, TE, Seattle Seahawks

Speaking of no standalone fantasy value, Fant really didn’t have it to begin with — he hasn’t had more than 500 yards since playing in Denver in 2021 and has 15 total touchdowns in six years. But what little value he did have basically evaporated Friday when the Seahawks took Miami’s Elijah Arroyo in the second round. Arroyo is worlds faster than Fant and more of an offensive weapon. Maybe Fant still has some value just from being on the field as a blocker, but really, he’s consigned to the waste bin.