Thankfully, the 2025 fantasy football season is just around the corner. Each year, fantasy players want to construct their team with a proper mix of good-value players and upside sleepers while avoiding players with high bust potential. Here are fantasy football draft notes on a few relevant players from the AFC North.
- Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2025 Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football ADP
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Draft Advice
Fantasy Football ADP Values
Chase Brown (CIN): ADP 26.8 | RB11
The Bengals did their homework on the 2025 NFL Draft running back class, leading many to worry about Brown’s featured role this season. However, Cincinnati waited until the sixth round of the draft to select Tahj Brooks. Furthermore, they only added Samaje Perine and his 20 rushing attempts from last year in free agency. Therefore, Brown will have no significant competition in the backfield this season. More importantly, he was a fantasy superstar after taking over as the starter last year.
Brown had 19 touches for 123 scrimmage yards and 17.3 PPR fantasy points over the first three weeks. However, he was the RB6 from Week 4 through Week 17, averaging 20.3 touches for 94.4 scrimmage yards and 18.3 fantasy points per game. The former Illinois star scored 13.1 or more fantasy points in 84.6% of those contests. More importantly, Brown was a significant factor in the passing game, averaging 4.5 targets per outing over the final 13 contests.
His 4.5 targets per game ranked third on the team behind Ja’Marr Chase (10.8) and Tee Higgins (9.5) from Week 4 through Week 17. Furthermore, Brown posted the same route participation rate (46.6%) as Jahmyr Gibbs and a higher target per route run rate (20% vs. 15%) than Saquon Barkley last season (per Fantasy Points Data). Josh Jacobs and Bucky Irving have a later ADP than the former Illinois star. Yet, I would draft Brown ahead of both.
DK Metcalf (PIT): ADP 51.2 | WR22
Last year, Metcalf was the WR32, averaging 12.7 PPR fantasy points per game. It was the lowest fantasy points per game average of the former Ole Miss star’s career since his rookie season in 2019. Unfortunately, Metcalf took a backseat to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. According to Fantasy Points Data, he averaged fewer targets per game (7.8 vs. 7.2), posted a lower target per route run rate (23% vs. 21%), and fantasy points per route run (0.44 vs. 0.38) than the second-year star.
However, Metcalf’s fantasy outlook for 2025 got a massive bump after the Steelers traded away George Pickens and did not add any other meaningful wide receiver in free agency or the NFL Draft. Furthermore, Aaron Rodgers loves targeting his No. 1 wide receiver. Last season, his top wide receiver averaged 10.7 targets and 17.4 fantasy points per game. While Arthur Smith wants a run-first offense, he has never had a quarterback like Rodgers at his disposal.
The closest Smith got was in 2019 and 2020 with Ryan Tannehill during A.J. Brown’s first two seasons in the NFL. Brown averaged 6.3 targets and 15.3 fantasy points per game over those two years. By comparison, a 15.3 fantasy points per game average would have finished as the WR9 over a 17-game pace last season and the WR13 in 2023. Don’t be surprised if Metcalf has that type of fantasy production with Rodgers under center.
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Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.