The Fantasy Footballers’ Top 10 Things To Remember For 2025

Just before all this legal tampering and free agency craziness started, Andy, Mike, and Jason took the time to share with the FootClan one of the most valuable episodes of each offseason: the Top 10 Tips To Remember for 2025. Like every year, the Ballers condensed 10 important learnings to remember for this next fantasy season.

If you haven’t listened to it yet, I strongly encourage you to do it. But if you’d rather take a slower approach at this crucial chunk of golden information and digest it properly while taking notes, here is the article version of the episode. Use these tips wisely as you prepare to beat everyone in your league this year.

You can also watch the episode on Youtube here:

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

10. Buy The Hype, Shoot Your Shot

Andy kicks off telling us that when there are early signals of a player being on his way to a career season in the first few weeks of the year and you really believe in him, that’s the moment to get that player before his legendary season starts. For example, Saquon Barkley, Ja’Marr Chase, Lamar Jackson, and Brock Bowers were players that became untouchable for most of the season. And the only way of getting this kind of players on your roster (besides drafting them, of course) is to get them via early season trades before those legendary seasons happen. 

It’s not easy to buy in on a player after one or two weeks. But if you don’t get them early in the season, they will become completely untradeable over the course of the year. Also, it’s the time of the season when rosters are more valuable because players’ stories haven’t yet revealed themselves. So you can leverage that perceived value on some of your players to send a 3-for-1 or 2-for-1 trade to get THAT player you want.

So if you really have a conviction in some guy early in the season and have reasons to believe he can be a league winner, getting in early might be your only chance to land a Ja’Marr Chase caliber player. It won’t always work, but this is about winning your league and a move like this can make the difference.

9. Start At The Top

As Mike suggests, there are some offensive coaches out there that we simply have to trust; Kevin O’Connell proved it last season. After a very negative offseason when everyone thought things wouldn’t work without Kirk Cousins, he showed he can turn bad QBs into productive offensive assets, both for real life and fantasy football. We all had doubts about Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison because they would be catching passes from Sam Darnold. 

But Kevin O’Connell has worked wonders with all sorts of random QBs. The least random is Kirk Cousins, who finished as QB7 in 2022 and was on pace to be the QB4 in 2023 before injuring his Achilles. But O’Connell’s offensive scheme made Joshua Dobbs a top-5 QB in his first two games as a Viking. Nick Mullens was a top-12 QB in three of his four starts with the team. And this last season, Darnold became one of the eight QBs in NFL history with 14+ wins, 4300+ passing yards, and 35+ passing TDs.

O’Connell has proved that he can get it done with whoever is throwing the ball, as we saw both Jefferson and Addison were much better than anyone expected last season. We have to learn to trust in what proven offensive coaches can do. Some other coaches to keep in mind here are Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and Matt LaFleur. Andy Reid should be part of the list, but since he figured out how to win Super Bowls, things have not been as high powered during the regular season, which hurts the fantasy outlook of his players. 

Sean Payton is another interesting name here. He used to run very fantasy-relevant offensive schemes in New Orleans, and this past season, he figured out how to be efficient with a rookie QB. The Broncos had a good passing game, so we should keep an eye out for his players.

8. The Pendulum Swings

We don’t always take the advantage we should on people overreacting too heavily to what happened the previous season. Take QBs for example. For years, getting an elite QB like Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, or Tom Brady was a must in drafts. Then Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson came in back-to-back years, and it was all about finding that late-round gem at the QB position. The same happened when Christian McCaffrey broke fantasy. The following season, there were 10 RBs drafted in the first round.

This past season, the opposite happened. Everyone was so adamant on getting top wideouts in the first round, which pushed down some elite RBs. But if you look at most championship rosters, there were a lot of Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Kyren Williams. All these RBs were monster values because they didn’t cost a top-5 pick and delivered excellent results.

Jason thinks the pendulum might swing back again this year and flip the whole thing – because of the success of these RBs, we might be able to get stud WRs at a discount in the second round.

7. The Schedule Is A Lie

Every year we try to project fantasy outcomes based on the schedule. But it’s not that predictable year to year to look at matchups defensively and forecast too far in the future. Things change a lot on defense from one season to the other. Just look at how the top-10 defenses in 2023 against fantasy QBs finished in 2024.

Yup, the Panthers were the best defense against QBs in 2023 and finished second to last in 2024. And guess what? The two worst defenses against the position in 2023 (Philadelphia and Washington) finished third and fourth the following year. We can’t put that much confidence in data from last season when predicting favorable and unfavorable matchups. 

Being the toughest defense one season is not an easy feat to repeat. Going back to 2002, only one fantasy DST repeated as number one in consecutive years. In that same span, only six times has the previous year’s best defense finished inside the top 5 the following season. Too many things change year over year and defensive coordinators make adjustments all the time. We really can’t get a lay of the land on favorable matchups and strength of schedule until at least Week 6. 

6. Drift Players

Mike makes an interesting comparison here between race cars and players joining high-powered offenses. When a car slides behind another and catches the speed from that car that has a much higher wind resistance, and it’s able to generate more speed with less fuel, it’s just like when a player joins a high-powered offense, replacing a guy who wasn’t the reason that offense is good. We should have more faith in players entering this kind of situation.

It happened to Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, and Stefon Diggs last year. They joined new teams replacing Gus Edwards, D’Andre Swift, Aaron Jones, and Robert Woods, respectively. In all these cases, it’s not like the guy they replaced was the team’s foundational engine. They were already in high-powered offenses and their fantasy results were excellent thanks to those offensive schemes. So why doubt these newcomers who we knew were much better players drifting into perfect situations; of course they would work. It even sounds obvious in hindsight. But these players weren’t drafted nearly as high as they finished. 

Let’s learn about this and consider it once free agency moves and draft picks settle down. We should ask ourselves: Was this already a top-half offense? Was the run scheme already effective? Was the offensive line already elite? Can this WR soak up a meaningful share of targets in a young, ascending offense?

5. Remember Mike’s Advice (Targeting Late-Round RBs)

Just for the record, this was Jason’s advice in the episode. He recalled one of Mike’s recommendations from last season’s tips and tricks episode regarding drafting late-round RBs. These players usually have a lot of question marks surrounding them, which is why they are being drafted in the late rounds. But how can we know which players to pick there? Should we follow talent? The advice here is to choose the talented teams with good QBs that are projected to run good offenses, instead of focusing on the player’s talent. Every year, some RBs are drafted outside the top 24, but finish within it. And they are usually part of a top-14 NFL offense. That was the case with Chase Brown, JK Dobbins, and Rico Dowdle last season. There were reasons to doubt all three of them, but they were good late-round picks because they had a path towards being involved in a winning offense.

So if you want to follow Jason’s advice to follow Mike’s advice, target good teams when targeting late-round RBs to find this year’s potential breakout players. Examine the ADP and look for players outside the top 24 (or even further down the draft board) that are part of a high-performing offense.

4. Plant The Seeds, Work The Room

Andy has a history of being successful at accomplishing trades. What’s the key to successful trading? You need to become a lobbyist and invest time. It’s not about making a lot of trades, but you have to send offers and do the due diligence of what people in your league need. Find out which teams or players they’re fans of, their type, and their tempo, and start planting the seeds to keep conversations warm so you can get the trade done when the time is right. 

It takes time in fantasy football to build relationships. You need to make clear that you’re actively seeking the benefit of both sides in a trade offer and do the dance. Sometimes you have to get into conversations that won’t end in a trade offer. Still, you might open a door to come back later to that conversation in case you or the other fantasy manager is doing better later or needs something else.

You also must be active on the latest news and hype around the NFL, because value is subjective and some news about a player might mean different things to different people. There’s no winning or losing in trades. You need to keep those conversations open to gauge what your league mates value. And of course, if a good trade comes into your inbox, smash the accept button ASAP.

3. Rookie WRs. They’re Still Good Bets. Bargain Shop ‘Em

Everyone loves finding the next hot rookie WR, since that infamous 2014 season when Odell Beckham Jr. and Mike Evans changed fantasy football forever. But let’s look at this past season: Marvin Harrison Jr. did not work out. Then Malik Nabers did, but the rookie WRs with lower ADP are the ones who can really pay off. Brian Thomas Jr., Ladd McConkey, Keon Coleman, and Adonai Mitchell. Two of those four were busts and the other two were smash hits.

Rookie WRs continue to get it done, and it’s about finding the best investments at a low price. Ja’Marr Chase and Marvin Harrison had bad rookie seasons considering their high ADP. You have to look lower in the ADP, and this year it was Brian Thomas Jr., but there was Puka Nacua the previous season, Amon-Ra St. Brown the year before that, and Jaylen Waddle three years ago. Buy low on rookie WRs and see if it pans out.

2. “Second Year System” Leap

We always hear about the second-year leap for WRs. But we never talk about how continuity matters in coaching systems. There aren’t many offensive coordinators getting continuity in the NFL, with 21 of the current OCs being with their respective teams fewer than two years. The longest-tenured OCs in the league have been in their position for just three years. So, a lot of new systems are constantly being applied to most offenses. But systems usually don’t fully work in year 1 – it takes time.

Last season, there were some notable playoff teams who were in year 2 of their offensive system. Todd Monken’s scheme in Baltimore is a good example, and it helped Lamar get a career-high 16 top-12 fantasy finishes. In his second year as the Bills’ OC, Joe Brady emphasized the rushing game, causing Josh Allen to become the MVP and James Cook to go from four to sixteen career rushing TDs. And of course, there’s Sean Payton, who finally got a QB who fits his system, which resulted in Courtland Sutton having a career year.

Here are some interesting second-year systems to keep an eye on this season: 

• Zac Robinson and the Atlanta Falcons. Just look at what Michael Penix was able to do in his final two games: 31 fantasy points per game, 69 plays per game, and Drake London getting targeted 31 times.
• Dave Canales and the Carolina Panthers. Things finally clicked with Bryce Young at the end of the season.
• Greg Roman and the Los Angeles Chargers. Yes, they started slowly, but he eventually learned how to use Justin Herbert’s skills. If they add some key pieces like an RB and WR, they could be unstoppable.
• Kliff Kingsbury and the Washington Commanders. Let’s see what Jayden Daniels could become with an improved offensive line and the addition of Deebo Samuel.

1. Act Now, Get it Done

It’s early in the offseason but this is the time to start working on your fantasy league. If you’re the champ, you should start plotting how you’re going to celebrate it on draft day. If someone should be flushed out of your league, now’s the time to do it and find an ideal replacement. If you’re thinking about trying new rules or scoring settings, start talking it out with your league mates now. Whatever you want to do to improve your league, start getting it done now before it’s too late. Draft season will come sooner than you think. And if you’re flushing out the turds from your league, you can find some excellent replacements in JoinTheFoot.com.

Last but not least, if you have any other things the FootClan should remember this 2025, share them here in the comments.