Players Experts Avoid: Rashee Rice, Cooper Kupp, Terry McLaurin (Fantasy Football)

Drafting the right players is key to winning your fantasy football league, but avoiding the wrong ones is just as important. Every year, certain players get overhyped, over-drafted or simply don’t live up to expectations.

To help you steer clear of potential landmines in your 2025 fantasy football draft, we asked our collection of Featured Pros to weigh in on which wide receivers they’re avoiding at their current average draft position (ADP). Whether it’s due to workload concerns, injury risk or inflated cost, these are the wideouts our experts believe carry more risk than reward. Before you make your next pick, make sure these names aren’t on your draft board.

Players Fantasy Football Experts Avoid

What one WR inside the top 100 in our consensus ADP do you plan on avoiding in all your drafts relative to their price and why?

Rashee Rice (WR – KC)

“The one receiver inside the top 100 in the consensus ADP I plan on avoiding in all of my drafts relative to the price is Rashee Rice of the Kansas City Chiefs.

My two reasons for avoiding Rice are:

He’s coming off of season-ending knee surgery and may not be 100% at the start of the season.
He may be facing suspension from the NFL for unresolved criminal charges from last year’s speed racing incident in Dallas.

Hopefully, seeing Rice perform in the preseason will lower my injury concerns. It would also be great to know Rice’s suspension time, if any, before fantasy football drafts this season.”
– Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire)

Cooper Kupp (WR – LAR)

“Player development isn’t always linear, but player decline almost always is. Cooper Kupp has missed 18 games in three years and steps into his age-32 season as a dangerous pick. Many key metrics (yards per catch, yards per target) sank to career lows last year. Don’t swim against this tide.”
– Scott Pianowski (Yahoo! Sports)

Terry McLaurin (WR – WAS)

“Terry McLaurin tallied a bloaded 15.8% touchdown rate last season. Even with the rise of Jayden Daniels, regression is a near lock. Deebo Samuel — if healthy — could also limit McLaurin’s target ceiling.”
– Kevin English (Draft Sharks)

“Why is Terry McLaurin a third-round pick in 12-team leagues? It’s banking on a lot of things going his way again in 2025 after a career 2024. McLaurin scored 13 touchdowns as the only show in town for Washington, and now has another bona fide wideout to deal with in Deebo Samuel. Add in the holdout over a new contract, and this feels super risky. He was a 4-5 touchdown pass-catcher before 2024. Any regression to that and he’ll slide back into the WR20s he’s been throughout his career.”
– Justin Frye (Pro Football Network)