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. Let’s look at a few notable players from the NFC East.
- Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2025 Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football ADP
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Draft Values/Busts/Sleepers: NFC East
Fantasy Football Bust Candidates
Saquon Barkley (PHI): ADP 2.8 | RB2
Rarely will fantasy players see a league winner in the first round of their drafts. However, despite having a first-round ADP, Barkley was a league winner last year. The superstar finished as the RB1 before sitting out a meaningless Week 18 contest, averaging 22.2 PPR fantasy points per game. Barkley’s 22.2 fantasy points per game average was 10.8% higher than any other running back heading into Week 18. Unfortunately, he is overvalued as the RB2 in the ADP.
While the superstar should remain a first-round pick and a top-five running back off the board, Barkley has too much risk to get drafted as the RB2 and as a top-three selection. Last season, he had 2,005 rushing yards, becoming the ninth player to hit the 2,000-yard mark. The previous eight running backs to hit that mark severely regressed the following year, averaging 966.4 fewer rushing yards. Each running back had at least 562 fewer rushing yards following their 2K season.
Yet, it wasn’t because of injury. The previous eight 2K running backs missed an average of only 3.6 games the following year. Furthermore, five of the eight running backs missed two or fewer games following the 2K season. Terrell Davis (12) and Derrick Henry (nine) were the only two to miss more than four games. More importantly, Barkley has significant injury history, missing 22.4% of the games of his career. Unfortunately, history suggests that the superstar will severely regress in 2025.
|
Player |
2,000 Yard Season |
The Following Season |
|
Stats |
Atts – Yards – TDs – YPC |
Atts – Yards – TDs – YPC |
|
O.J. Simpson (1973/1974) |
332 – 2,003 – 12 – 6.0 |
270 – 1,125 – 3 – 4.2 |
|
Eric Dickerson (1984/1985) |
379 – 2,105 – 14 – 5.6 |
292 – 1,234 – 12 – 4.2 |
|
Barry Sanders (1997/1998) |
335 – 2,053 – 11 – 6.1 |
343 – 1,491 – 4 – 4.3 |
|
Terrell Davis (1998/1999) |
392 – 2,008 – 21 – 5.1 |
67 – 211 – 2 – 3.1 |
|
Jamal Lewis (2003/2004) |
387 – 2,066 – 14 – 5.3 |
235 – 1,006 – 7 – 4.3 |
|
Chris Johnson (2009/2010) |
358 – 2,006 – 14 – 5.6 |
316 – 1,364 – 11 – 4.3 |
|
Adrian Peterson (2012/2013) |
348 – 2,097 – 12 – 6.0 |
279 – 1,266 – 10 – 4.5 |
|
Derrick Henry (2020/2021) |
378 – 2,027 – 17 – 5.4 |
219 – 937 – 10 – 4.3 |
|
Saquon Barkley (2024/2025) |
345 – 2,005 – 13 – 5.8 |
??? – ???? – ?? – ?? |
Terry McLaurin (WAS): ADP 39.4 | WR17
The Commanders and McLaurin are in the middle of ugly contract extension talks, leading to him sitting out training camp. While he will likely play for Washington this season and be on the field for Week 1, players who hold-in during training camp tend to get off to slow starts. Last year, Brandon Aiyuk severely struggled before suffering a torn ACL, averaging 8.9 PPR fantasy points per game despite coming off a career year after sitting out most of training camp over contract talks.
Therefore, fantasy players should avoid taking McLaurin anywhere near his fourth round and WR17 ADP. While the veteran is coming off a career season, averaging 15.8 fantasy points per game, McLaurin wasn’t as productive as his fantasy points per game average would suggest. He was the WR14 on a points-per-game basis. Furthermore, his 0.53 fantasy points per route run was lower than Marvin Mims Jr.’s (0.72) despite having a 12.9% higher target share (per Fantasy Points Data).
McLaurin had a career season because of a jump in touchdowns. After totaling 25 over the previous five years, he had 13 last season, the second-most in the NFL. Meanwhile, the rest of his stats were similar to previous years’ marks. Therefore, expect meaningful touchdown regression for the veteran, especially after the Commanders added multiple pass catchers this offseason. Between the touchdown regression and contract dispute, fantasy players should avoid drafting McLaurin as a top-24 wide receiver.
|
Year |
Receptions |
Targets |
Yards |
TDs |
FPPG |
Finish |
|
2024 |
82 |
117 |
1,096 |
13 |
15.8 |
WR7 |
|
2023 |
79 |
132 |
1,002 |
4 |
12.3 |
WR28 |
|
2022 |
77 |
120 |
1,191 |
5 |
13.5 |
WR14 |
|
2021 |
77 |
130 |
1,053 |
5 |
12.6 |
WR25 |
|
2020 |
87 |
134 |
1,118 |
4 |
14.9 |
WR20 |
|
2019 |
58 |
93 |
919 |
7 |
13.7 |
WR29 |
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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.