3 Wide Receivers to Avoid (2025 Fantasy Football)

We’ve reached a lull here in the offseason with summer approaching and the NFL Draft pretty far back in the rear-view mirror. There are plenty of detrimental value changes when it comes to some fantasy football wide receivers, whether it’s because of increased competition, quarterback issues, off-the-field issues or other reasons. There are a lot of circumstances leading us to flat-out avoid a handful of receivers in 2025.

A ton of things can happen between now and Week 1, but we’re putting everything on the table here in listing the wide receivers in 2025 we’re avoiding. For fantasy, it’s a matter of the situation, their average draft position (ADP) or a combination of both factoring into these calls.

Let’s take a deep look at several pass-catching wide receivers we’re avoiding in 2025 fantasy football drafts.

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Fantasy Football Wide Receivers to Avoid

DK Metcalf (WR – PIT) | ECR: WR26

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been shuffling some deck chairs around the Titanic (f.k.a. the Steelers’ passing game) this offseason, and DK Metcalf stands to be a beneficiary of that frenetic personnel movement. Metcalf had been a solid fantasy receiver through his six seasons in Seattle, but despite that success, it always felt like we should expect more with his size and frame. He’s never really capitalized on that full potential since being drafted from Ole Miss, and Metcalf never truly dominated games like we thought he would. Still, with a six-season average of 118 targets, 73 receptions, 1,054 yards and eight touchdowns, we can’t call Metcalf a failure.

Metcalf walks through the Pittsburgh saloon doors and is greeted by Arthur Smith and the Steelers’ offense, where the passing game, compared to the rest of the league, is non-existent. The Steelers passed the ball at the fifth-lowest rate (54%) last season, and when they did pass, the quarterbacks threw to the wide receivers at the fourth-lowest distribution rate (46%).

Pittsburgh recently traded George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys, and as it stands right now, the Steelers’ other outside receiver is 33-year-old journeyman Robert Woods — not great. The Steelers likely retain their low passing volume (499 team attempts, fourth-lowest in the NFL) in 2025, and Metcalf gets to catch a limited number of passes from whichever quarterback they settle on. As it stands, it’s Mason Rudolph at the top of the depth chart, but the human soap opera that is Aaron Rodgers is waiting in the wings to find a news cycle that benefits him to announce he’s signing there. Sure, that’s probably an upgrade, but not a substantial one.

Metcalf couldn’t hit a ceiling projection with Russell Wilson, Geno Smith and league-average team pass attempts; why would we think that could happen in Pittsburgh? Arthur Smith’s offenses spanning back to his time in Tennessee have finished no better than 20th in total passing attempts.

We have a six-season sample of what a top pass-catcher in Arthur Smith’s offense looks like:

Metcalf is the WR26 in FantasyPros’ expert consensus rankings (ECR). Around his draft range are receivers like Chris Godwin, Jaylen Waddle, Jameson Williams and the aforementioned Pickens, who stumbles into a treasure trove of targets in Dallas. That price is entirely too steep to pay for a tippy-top ceiling of A.J. Brown in 2020. I don’t have much faith in Smith’s offense in Pittsburgh providing any more upside to a top receiver than what we’ve seen in the last six seasons. At that point, with about a WR30 or so realistic median outcome

Jayden Reed (WR – GB) | ECR: WR47

Looking at where the Packers’ receivers fall in FantasyPros’ ECR will give you some sticker shock. The highest-ranked wide receiver clocks in at WR47 — Jayden Reed. Reed had a solid beginning to last season with two touchdowns in Week 1 to finish as the overall WR1 and then a Week 4 outing against the Vikings where he put up a 7-139 line with a touchdown. Big things seemed to be in store for Reed and the Packers, right?

Well, Jordan Love was banged up for much of the early part of 2024, and after the Packers’ Week 10 bye, the offensive philosophy shifted to a run-oriented offense. So much so that the passing game was entirely touchdown dependent. While Josh Jacobs was rushing for 12 touchdowns in the final eight games of the season, the Packers’ wide receivers and tight ends were fighting for time on the field and the crumbs left behind.

In most systems, Reed should be a burgeoning star. In this case, it’s the system holding Reed back from that. He’s been efficient with two straight seasons of 2.00+ yards per route run (YPRR), and he even has rushing upside, averaging 140 yards on the ground in both seasons. Last season saw Reed put up over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. But 75 targets in 17 games won’t do it. Averaging 4.4 targets per game definitely won’t cut it.

There wasn’t a Packers wide receiver you could start in the second half of the season, and that’s how it’s looking for 2025. Reed at WR47 represents the public sentiment that the Packers’ passing game just won’t be fruitful for fantasy managers. Add first-round pick Matthew Golden to the mix, and that just adds even more questions to who can be viable for fantasy. Can anybody be?

Green Bay was a bottom-three team in pass rate over expected last season and had the third-fewest team pass attempts last season at 479. That’s only higher than the Philadelphia Eagles (447) and the Baltimore Ravens (477) — two passing offenses that have much more condensed target distributions than Green Bay did last season, and likely will this season.

Adding in what seems like some uneasy feelings from Reed himself and his role going forward with the Packers after drafting two wide receivers, it seems like the ambiguity here with the pass-catching group has increased exponentially.

Packers GM Brian Guteksunst met last week with Jayden Reed’s agent Drew Rosenahus to clarify the wide receiver’s status in Green Bay after the team drafted Matthew Golden and Savion Williams. The team said it will not affect Reed’s status as its top receiver, per source. pic.twitter.com/ZsysCOqmXB

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 12, 2025

With so many mouths to feed in the Packers’ offense this season and how devoted to the run Green Bay was last season, it’s a tough call to select Jayden Reed this season unless we see a monumental shift in their offensive approach.

Tyreek Hill (WR – MIA) | ECR: WR14

Over the last decade, Tyreek Hill has been a stalwart option among the elite fantasy wide receivers. Hill enters his 10th season with some serious doubts about his fantasy viability for the first time in his career. Outside of his 2019 campaign, where he missed four games, Hill has been a top-10 fantasy wide receiver in every season until 2024.

When looking at some of Hill’s stats and peripheral metrics over the past few seasons, you can see a steep drop-off in Hill’s targets per game and yards per target, a precipitous decline in yards after the catch (YAC), as well as some of his target-earning metrics like targets per route run (TPRR) and his first season under 2.00 yards per route run. Collectively, those are all hard to ignore for a wide receiver over the age of 30.

Hill was hampered by off-the-field issues as well as a training camp wrist ligament injury that may have sapped some of his productivity. He finished last season with under 85 receptions, fewer than 1,000 receiving yards and fewer than seven touchdowns for the first time since 2019. Add in some more off-the-field distractions with a domestic incident involving Hill and other erratic behavior, and Hill’s week-to-week status is volatile, at best.

It doesn’t feel particularly great to draft Hill amongst some heavy hitters in fantasy drafts right now. Hill is WR14 in FantasyPros’ ECR, among names like Garrett Wilson and Tee Higgins, plus other rock-solid veterans like Mike Evans and Terry McLaurin. Is the juice worth the squeeze anymore with Hill? Remember, we are talking about a 31-year-old wide receiver here, and Father Time is undefeated. I don’t want to be left holding the bag if something happens on or off the field that jeopardizes Hill’s 2025 season.

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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.