With just the Super Bowl remaining to close out the 2024-25 fantasy football calendar year, it is time to focus on next season, with an early look at sleepers to target.

Several players closed out this season strong and captured my attention, so I’m jotting them down to keep track of with free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft right around the corner (both of which have the potential to alter this list). Here are a few early fantasy football sleepers to keep an eye on.

• 2025 NFL Draft Guide
• Dynasty Trade Value Chart
• Fantasy Football Trade Tools
• 2025 Fantasy Football Redraft Rankings

Early Redraft Fantasy Football Sleepers

Brock Purdy (QB – SF)

This past season was a testament to the “Murphy’s Law” adage of “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” for Brock Purdy and San Francisco. Injuries plagued the team all year long, highlighted by:

• Brandon Aiyuk – Missed 10 games with a torn ACL after a slow start due to a contract dispute
• Christian McCaffrey – Participated in just four games total due to Achilles tendinitis and a PCL strain
• Jordan Mason – Missed the final four games with a high-ankle sprain
• Ricky Pearsall – Missed the first six weeks of the season due to a gunshot wound suffered in the offseason but was slowly worked back in
• Trent Williams – Sustained an ankle injury in Week 11 against Seattle and was later placed on injured reserve (IR)

I’m sure we can add the “partridge in a pear tree” as well if you were humming the holiday ditty.

Remember that this is just on the offensive side of the football — a litany of defensive players going down throughout the year placed further pressure on an already beleaguered offense to keep it afloat. There was little Purdy could do to right the ship.

Should the key core of San Francisco talent remain healthy for 2025, Purdy is primed for a bounce-back campaign. He still finished as the QB13 in fantasy points, despite the need to adapt to the injuries above while constantly under duress and missing two games of his own (Weeks 12 and 18).

Time to gel with Pearsall (who put up a tremendous 14/210/2 split over his final two games) and the healthy return of Aiyuk will provide him with weapons on the outside to complement yards-after-the-catch monsters Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, and the threat of a run game will significantly aid his play-action usage.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. (RB – NYG)

Lost amid yet another godawful season in New York was Tyrone Tracy’s stellar debut, eclipsing 1,100 scrimmage yards and six touchdowns over 17 games, despite not starting until Week 5. Tracy was initially anticipated to be in a timeshare with veteran Devin Singletary, who Giants brass signed to a three-year deal in the offseason, but played his way into a starting role.

After Singletary began the year with a sluggish start (combined with Daniel Jones imploding yet again), head coach Brian Daboll opted for a full-blown youth movement and headlined the New York Giants offense (if it could be called an offense) alongside fellow rookie Malik Nabers.

New York is sure to address the quarterback position this offseason for the first time since Daniel Jones was drafted in 2019. Any competent and able-bodied human being will surely be an upgrade over what the team started under center last year. The mere threat of an improvement in the passing game, coupled with another year of Tracy being accustomed to the offense, will result in an uptick in production for the youngster from Purdue.

Should the Giants further bolster their offensive line (which did take a step forward last year in run blocking but remained lackluster in the passing game) with a bonafide right tackle (and not the turnstile known as Evan Neal), Tracy could climb into the mid-range RB2 discussion for fantasy purposes. He finished as the RB26 this past season. I’d view that as his baseline for 2025.

Jerome Ford (RB – CLE)

Recommending the consideration of a Cleveland Browns player might raise some eyebrows, but hear me out on this one.

For most of 2024, fantasy managers were waiting with bated breath for the return of veteran Nick Chubb in the backfield, intrigued by his videos on social media of his rehab process, coming off of a gruesome knee injury for the second time in his playing career. Chubb was activated off IR in Week 7 and eventually thrust back into action amidst a timeshare.

Unable to regain his prior form, Chubb rushed for a meager 332 yards on 102 carries for the remainder of the season and is entering 2025 as a free agent at nearly 30 years old. The most recent reports from beat writers around Cleveland stated the “future is uncertain at best” for Chubb with the Browns, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team move on in a different direction.

Enter Jerome Ford.

Cleveland has no other existing running back on the roster with intrigue. In limited time last year, Ford rushed for 565 yards on 104 carries, adding another 37 receptions for 225 yards as a receiver.

The upcoming draft is chock full of talent at the running back position (it has been described as the deepest class in over a decade by top pundits), so Cleveland is almost certain to address the position on a cost-effective contract if possible.

That aside, if the team chooses to address other needs (and they have plenty) or draft a complimentary back rather than a bell-cow option, Ford is a dart throw I’m happy to take a chance on in the later rounds based on workload alone.

Jakobi Meyers (WR – LV)

Want another bargain-basement option you can use next year? Look no further than Meyers, who continues to fly under the fantasy radar each season despite improving his statistics yearly since 2021.

If you want to win some bar bets this offseason, Meyers’ 2024 statistics are a fantastic place to start. His 129 targets topped other household names like Tyreek Hill, Terry McLaurin and Zay Flowers. He finished with more receiving yards (1,027) than Calvin Ridley, Mike Evans or George Pickens. Even though it feels like Meyers has been in the league since the Y2K scare, he just turned 28 and has several incredibly productive years ahead of him.

Atop the depth chart on a team utterly bereft of offensive talent other than Brock Bowers, Meyers is a shoo-in for low-end WR2 territory based upon pure volume alone — an upgrade under center through free agency (Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold) or the draft (should the team acquire Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders) would catapult his prospects and average draft position (ADP).

The cherry on top of his 2025 outlook? He enters a contract year determined to acquire a long-term extension (either with Las Vegas or elsewhere) and the most productive portion of his 2024 season came after the team parted ways with Davante Adams. I’ll be happy taking the non-sexy pick every draft when others reach on rookies.

Malik Washington (WR – MIA)

I’ve discussed Malik Washington in several articles this offseason, but I wanted to plant my flag again in case it went unnoticed thus far. A first glance over his rookie statistics isn’t particularly inspiring — 26 receptions on 36 targets for 223 yards and zero touchdowns won’t draw much attention for those unwilling to see the bigger picture.

Hopefully, you are.

I kept my eye on Washington all year long since I was a big fan of his skill set in college at the University of Virginia. His small stature but outstanding speed is a calling card of the Mike McDaniel playbook — spread apart defenses and force them to respect your speed, and then dominate the game with drag routes and slants with players that can add massive yardage after each reception.

Washington saw little action before Week 10 last year and was predominantly used as a return specialist. Extending the timeline even further, he only had 10 receptions entering Week 15, when Miami finally woke up and realized he was ready to handle a more prominent role. Over the final four weeks of the season, he reeled in 16 receptions on 20 targets and began siphoning work away from secondary options Jonnu Smith and Jaylen Waddle.

During the final game of the year against the New York Jets, Tyreek Hill utterly quit on the team halfway through the game and refused to retake the field after playing just 40% of the offensive snaps. Afterward, he notably stated that he was “out” from Miami and “needed to do what was best for his career” moving forward.

I’d be shocked if the team put up with that sort of behavior willingly and didn’t seek to trade him. Hill will enter 2025 at 31 years old and failed to eclipse the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the first time since 2019. I’m contemplating that he has lost a step and that his best days are behind him.

Miami has routinely finished among the league leaders in pass attempts each year and I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon. Washington’s talent, coupled with the uncertainty ahead of him on the depth chart and an offense needing pivot options, intrigues me. He has received little fanfare from other pundits, but I expect him to shine in training camp this year and be a much more significant part of Miami’s plans moving forward.