2025 NFL Free Agency: Austin Hooper, Marquise Brown, Joshua Palmer (Fantasy Football)

If you want fantasy takeaways on every free-agent signing, FantasyPros has you covered. This is where we’ll compile fantasy football takeaways for 2025 NFL free agent signings. Major signings will get their own articles, which we’ll also include. So bookmark that page and check back often because we’ll have you updated throughout the frenzy that is NFL free agency. And be sure to check out our 2025 NFL Free Agency Tracker page that includes the status, signing, and contract details for every fantasy-relevant NFL free agent.

Here is the fantasy football outlook for a few notable 2025 NFL free agency signings.

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2025 NFL Free Agency Signings & Fantasy Football Outlook

Austin Hooper Re-Signs With Patriots

Hooper returns to the New England Patriots on a one-year deal worth $5 million with as much as $7 million if he hits all his incentives. Hooper was forgettable for fantasy last year as the TE30 in fantasy points per game with three TE1 weeks (TE11, TE11, TE6) in weekly scoring. Hooper drew only an 11.4% target share, but he excelled in a number of efficiency metrics. Among 47 qualifying tight ends last year, he was 14th in target per route run rate and 11th in yards per route run and first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data).

Hooper is entrenched as the team’s TE2 behind Hunter Henry, which limits his ceiling for redraft fantasy football, but he’s worth tossing a few darts at in the final rounds of early best ball drafts if you’re taking a swing on Drake Maye for 2025. If Henry misses any time this season, Hooper will likely be an interesting streaming option.

Marquise Brown Re-Signs With Chiefs

After nearly all of his 2024 season was lost due to injury, Brown returns to the Kansas City Chiefs with a one-year contract that can be worth up to $11 million. Last season, Brown missed 14 games with a sternoclavicular joint injury. He returned for Weeks 16-17 of the regular season with part-time duty in those contests (27.8-40.3% snap shares). Brown was a full-time player in the playoffs, earning a 15.7% target share with 0.67 yards per route run, a 14.8% first-read share, and 0.040 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). None of those metrics will get anyone excited. During the playoffs, he had a 0.054 separation score and a 14.9% route win rate, which during the regular season would have ranked 93rd  and 49th among wide receivers with at least 70 routes run.

Rashee Rice’s 2025 season has a murky outlook, and Xavier Worthy has been garnering less-than-ideal news headlines recently. Brown will be in the mix as one of Patrick Mahomes’ trusted weapons this upcoming season, but I don’t know if that will equate to more than another run-of-the-mill WR4 for fantasy. That’s assuming that Brown will stay healthy, which has been a struggle during his NFL career.

Joshua Palmer Signs With Bills

The Buffalo Bills have added another weapon to their potent offense with the signing of Joshua Palmer to a three-year deal for 36 million dollars.

This is great for their offense and Josh Allen, but it increases the blood pressure and anxiety for fantasy gamers weekly. Khalil Shakir was the only Bills receiving threat to surpass a 20% target share last year, and that only carried him to a WR33 finish in fantasy points per game. Palmer could easily out-kick his ADP in 2025 and become a nice flex play/WR3 like Shakir did before him.

For more on the Joshua Palmer signing: Joshua Palmer Signs With Bills