While it’s important to know who to target as you prepare for your fantasy football drafts, it’s equally as important to know which fantasy football draft landmines you’re avoiding. Our analysts provide players they are avoiding in their fantasy football drafts. Here are a few players they consider overvalued or are otherwise avoiding this fantasy football draft season.
You can find all of their players to avoid here: Fitz | DBro | Erickson | Joe
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Fantasy Football Draft Landmines to Avoid
Here are a few fantasy football draft landmines our analysts avoid.
Fitz’s Players to Avoid
Justin Herbert (QB – LAC)
Herbert is a fine quarterback who might be a fantasy star in different circumstances.
The Chargers were the 10th run-heaviest team in the league last year under run-loving offensive coordinator Greg Roman, and the Chargers have since spent a first-round draft pick on RB Omarion Hampton.
The Chargers’ offense operated at the second-slowest pace in the league last season, averaging 28.7 seconds between offensive snaps. Only the Buccaneers were slower at 28.9 seconds between plays.
With a run-heavy offense and a sluggish pace, Herbert simply won’t get enough pass attempts to have a chance to be a needle-moving QB.
Check out all of Fitz’s fantasy football picks to avoid 
DBro’s Players to Avoid
Jonathan Taylor (RB – IND)
Last year, Jonathan Taylor racked up another RB1 season (RB7 in fantasy points per game) while dealing with a high-ankle sprain. While Taylor could post another top-12 season in 2025, I do have some huge concerns. First, it’s his ability (or inability) to stay healthy. He hasn’t played a full 17 games since 2021. As the mileage cranks up for running backs, injury issues aren’t something that usually goes away.
Second, the quarterback play for the Colts is a worry with how often they could be in the red zone this year, as well as his lack of passing game involvement. Last year, Taylor ranked sixth in red-zone touches. I don’t know if he comes close to that number this season, but I could easily be wrong. I don’t see more check-down opportunities for Taylor this season with Daniel Jones or Anthony Richardson under center. It’s not like he’s demanding those looks either, with his per-route performance in 2024, anyway.
Last year, among 45 qualifying backs, Taylor ranked 37th in target share (7.4%) and 43rd in yards per route run and first downs per route run, per Fantasy Points Data. Taylor has all of these red flags, and we haven’t even discussed his efficiency drop-off last year. Among 46 qualifying backs last season, he ranked 42nd in missed tackle rate and 44th in yards after contact per attempt. Taylor could get enough volume in 2025 to pay off his draft cost, but there is too much downside for me to invest.
Check out all of DBro’s fantasy football picks to avoid
Erickson’s Players to Avoid
Chris Olave (WR – NO)
Chris Olave enters 2025 with more red flags than breakout buzz. Now 25, he’s coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season in which he played just six full games and averaged a disappointing 10 fantasy points per game (WR40). While still efficient on a per-route basis (2.15 YPRR), Olave was out-targeted and out-produced by Rashid Shaheed, who doubled him in air yards and posted more top-12 weekly finishes.
Shaheed doubled Olave’s air yards. 25% target share to 20% target share. 338 receiving yards to 275 receiving yards. Over the last 24 games he has played alongside Chris Olave, Shaheed has averaged 56.5 receiving yards per game compared to Olave’s 64. Shaheed also had more top-12 finishes (4) than Olave (3) since 2023.
Olave has struggled to deliver high-end fantasy weeks throughout his career (fewer than two top-12 finishes per season, three years into the league) and now faces even murkier outlooks with shaky QB play likely incoming in New Orleans. Given that Olave doesn’t offer much after the catch he is hardly worth the headache. Olave has five documented concussions dating back to Ohio State as well.
Deebo Samuel (WR – WAS)
Terry McLaurin is still not attending the Commanders’ OTAs in the pursuit of a new contract. With him not in attendance and threatening a holdout, we could see Deebo Samuel step in as the de facto No. 1 WR with some strong early-season production. We have seen recently that players who have missed offseason time due to contract disputes have not produced up to expectations, besides, of course, Ja’Marr Chase.
If McLaurin’s contract dispute lingers into the summer, Deebo’s ADP might rise. And even though I spoke about Samuel being a potential bust in a recent podcast, I can admit that his price is more palatable than McLaurin’s as a fantasy WR4, especially with him slated for some decent early-season opportunities while he’s at his healthiest. That being said, you need to be careful with Samuel if his ADP continues to climb. Because he also has glaring red flags in his profile.
Samuel averaged just 8.5 PPG and finished outside the top-40 WRs in 2024, even with Brandon Aiyuk sidelined and minimal target competition. Just one game over 22 receiving yards in his final 7 outings; Jauan Jennings overtook him as the top target in the 49ers offense.
In his defense, the RB/WR hybrid battled through injuries and pneumonia, but the production cratered despite a strong opportunity. In 15 games, he surpassed his weekly projection thrice (20%). Samuel was expected to be cut from the 49ers, but they instead traded him to the Commanders for a fifth-round pick, followed by a one-year reworked contract. His injury history is well-documented, and it’s clear that the 29-year-old is way past his peak form. There’s only so much fantasy juice to squeeze for an aging player potentially pigeon-holed into a surplus of screen passes out of the backfield.
Check out all of Erickson’s fantasy football picks to avoid
Joe’s Players to Avoid
Travis Kelce (TE – KC)
The 35-year-old Travis Kelce is not who he once was. The offense has been moving away from him, specifically in the red zone, where his touchdown equity has fallen off a cliff to just three last season (five the year before).
In full PPR leagues, Kelce is still a decent mid-level TE1, but I prefer to look for more upside later in the draft or even take two fringe TE1 players and play weekly matchups, hoping one emerges over time as a viable weekly starter at some point.
Kelce has had a brilliant career, but I fear his name recognition will artificially inflate his value in drafts again this season, especially in more casual league settings.
Check out all of Joe’s fantasy football picks to avoid
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