While we’re only near the end of March and Week 1 is almost five full months away, that doesn’t mean we can’t have our favorite players in the draft process already. Some of these players have a lot going for them and there are very remote circumstances that could drastically alter their 2025 trajectories.
Here, we’ve got four players I’m already sold on for the 2025 NFL season and for fantasy football. Let’s dive in.
- 2025 NFL Draft Guide
- 2025 NFL Draft Scouting Reports
- 2025 NFL Mock Drafts
- Dynasty Mock Draft Simulator
Must-Have Players
Brock Bowers (TE – LV)
I have never been more sold on a player than Brock Bowers. What he’s done in his career from being an 18-year-old target leader on a National Championship-winning Georgia Bulldogs team to producing the best rookie tight end season with Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder is unbelievable. Imagine what Bowers could do with a real NFL quarterback?
Well for 2025, we do not have to imagine, as the Raiders brought in former Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. Smith is an accurate “point-guard” type of quarterback with two of the last three seasons having a 69% or better completion rate. There’s no doubt Smith is a massive upgrade as a distributor of the ball.
Geno Smith:
#1 in QB accuracy the last four years
Raiders offense last year:
#26 in QB accuracy
#29-of-36 in accurate TE target rate to Brock Bowers
#63-of-103 in accurate WR target rate to Jakobi Meyers
Geno Smith to the Raiders via @RMSummerlin https://t.co/vUAuivKAFK
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 8, 2025
While the Raiders are unlikely to be a contending team in 2025, Bowers will still be one of the best tight ends in football and fantasy. Teams knew Bowers was going to get the ball and it didn’t matter. Bowers led all tight ends in targets, receptions, receiving yards and fantasy points. He also racked up the fourth-most yards after the catch (YAC) last season among all pass-catchers.
Bowers is an early-to-mid second-round pick in early best ball drafts right now and even that feels too late. I’m happy to draft him no matter where I’m at in the mid-to-late first as he’s a clear difference maker at a position that doesn’t have very many of those.
Ladd McConkey (WR – LAC)
Ladd McConkey came into Week 1 with a lot of buzz. After some sporadic weekly production, he turned into a beast from Week 8 until the end of the season. McConkey was WR8 in total points and WR11 in points per game from that point and was a mainstay in the slot for the Chargers, totaling 70% of his total snaps there in 2024.
With double-digit PPR games in all but one played game from Week 8 through the rest of the 2024 campaign, McConkey was insanely efficient as he made the most of his opportunities. McConkey’s 2.38 yards per route run (YPRR) was the best of anybody in this article. Los Angeles hasn’t exactly stocked the cupboard with other target-earning options to challenge McConkey’s new reign as the top target in the passing game.
Ladd McConkey is a stud pic.twitter.com/i5avD4TZde
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 12, 2025
Out is Josh Palmer; in is the returning Mike Williams — a new positive for McConkey. Quentin Johnston was solid last year after a dismal rookie season, but his fantasy value was mostly derived from touchdowns with 27.4% of his fantasy scoring coming via getting into the end zone. Besides Will Dissly‘s 61 targets last season, the next highest remaining target total from last season’s Chargers team is Derius Davis‘ 15.
While the Chargers may draft either a wide receiver or tight end in the 2025 NFL Draft, nobody else is being added to challenge McConkey for target supremacy. He’s a rising star. While you have to draft him at the end of the second round or into the beginning of the third round, according to average draft position (ADP), getting Justin Herbert‘s top target is as safe as it gets in McConkey’s second season.
Tee Higgins (WR – CIN)
With Tee Higgins signing a new contract with the Bengals, we no longer need to try and project Higgins on other NFL teams and hope we get the same production we’ve gotten with him in Cincinnati. Higgins will maintain the status quo as one-half of the best wide-receiver tandem in the NFL alongside Ja’Marr Chase.
The Bengals’ offense is one of the most fruitful offenses for fantasy production and with Mike Gesicki also staying in Cincinnati, there’s not much to keep the train rolling in 2025. Cincinnati has been a top-three team in pass rate over expected (PROE) in each of the last three seasons, so there’s no danger of the team rolling back the passing game in the immediate future.
As for Higgins, he’s been amazingly consistent when on the field throughout his career. With four out of five pro seasons with at least 1.80+ YPRR and a 20% targets per route run (TPRR) rate, and all five seasons with at least six targets per game, Higgins is entering his age-26 season squarely in his prime and ready to produce in a prolific passing offense perfect for fantasy football.
Rashee Rice (WR – KC)
There’s a bit to unpack here with Rashee Rice from an injury standpoint as well as his off-field incidents but there’s no denying Rice was a clear difference-maker for the Chiefs in the early part of 2024. The Chiefs missed Rice’s ability to move the chains and rack up receptions as the team had to acquire DeAndre Hopkins to try and (unsuccessfully) fill that receiving void.
In three full games in 2024, Rice averaged 9.6 targets, eight receptions, 96 receiving yards per game and scored touchdowns in two of those three games. Rice would likely have been a clear step up in 2024 from a promising rookie campaign. Fantasy managers who drafted Rice were robbed of that thanks to a fluke knee injury on an interception return.
Nobody has any idea if Rice will be suspended or for how long related to his involvement in a high-speed car crash. Also up in the air is Rice’s injury status and if he would even be available for Week 1 if not suspended. That said, when he does play, Rice will be one of the best target-earning wide receivers in fantasy and a weekly low-end WR1.
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Kevin Tompkins is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Kevin, check out his profile and follow him on Bluesky @ktompkinsii.bsky.social
