The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LIX less than a month ago, but that is mostly an afterthought across the National Football League. That statement might be hyperbole, but that’s how quickly NFL decision-makers turn the page on the previous season.
With the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine ramping up this week, fantasy football general managers are doing the same. Instead of victory-lapping last season’s results, everyone has turned their attention to incoming rookies, free agency and NFL Draft rumors.
- 2025 NFL Draft Guide
- 2025 NFL Draft Scouting Reports
- 2025 NFL Mock Drafts
- Dynasty Mock Draft Simulator
Among all that chaos, we’re doing our best to project and look ahead to the 2025 season. The limited information at our disposal makes that difficult, but not impossible. It just takes a bit of guesswork and avoiding boom/bust players that could lose significant value in the coming weeks and months ahead.
One ill-advised draft pick won’t tank your entire season but a handful of bad decisions can leave even the best fantasy players scrambling to contend. Luckily, we’re here to help you dodge some potential land mines. Here are three wide receivers to avoid in 2025.
Overvalued Wide Receivers to Avoid
Puka Nacua (WR – LAR) | ECR: WR6
Through two NFL seasons, Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has established himself as one of the top wide receivers in the league. He’s averaged 18 PPR points per game and has finished as a WR1 in 13 out of 28 healthy regular season games.
Despite two years of fantasy greatness, there’s reason for concern moving forward. Nacau has thrived alongside quarterback Matthew Stafford, but recent reports suggest the 37-year-old signal-caller is likely being moved elsewhere this offseason.
Trading Stafford and building around a younger quarterback might not be overly detrimental to Nacua’s fantasy stock, but it could hurt his impact in the short term. However, trading Stafford and signing the Aaron Rodgers/Davante Adams package could lead to a Nacua mini-free-fall in dynasty fantasy football rankings.
Rashee Rice (WR – KC) | ECR: WR16
Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice looked destined to become a fantasy football league winner early in 2024, but a Week 4 LCL injury prematurely ended his breakout season. Now his 2025 Week 1 status is very much up in the air.
Along with rehabbing his LCL and hamstring tendon injuries, Rice’s legal issues put him at risk of being suspended an undetermined number of games this season. Those two red flags combined with Xavier Worthy‘s late-season emergence make me queasy at the thought of drafting Rice at his current expert consensus ranking (ECR) of WR16. I love what Rice did on the field last season, but he’s one of the riskier selections in all of fantasy football right now.
DK Metcalf (WR – SEA) | ECR: WR21
Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf is one of the most athletic players in the entire NFL, but he hasn’t taken that next step in Seattle. Whether that’s due to quarterback play, offensive scheme or his own failures is up for debate, but you can’t argue that Metcalf’s on-field impact has plateaued in recent years.
Last season, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s receiver-friendly offense was supposed to launch Metcalf back into the WR1 conversation. Instead, the opposite came true. Metcalf had his worst fantasy finish (WR32) since his rookie season and watched teammate Jaxon Smith-Njigba emerge as one of the top young wide receivers in the league.
With head coach Mike Macdonald wanting to revert to run-first smash-mouth football, Grubb only lasted one season in charge of Seattle’s offense. A change in coordinators isn’t the worst news for Metcalf after his failures last season, but it’s hard to see an emphasis on establishing the run as a positive for the wide receivers.
With all these factors combined, it’s hard to justify Metcalf’s ECR of WR21 above high-upside players like Terry McLaurin, DJ Moore and Chris Olave.
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