Fantasy Football Injury Stashes to Draft (2025)

We’ve made it through the preseason. Next stop: Real football. FantasyPros analysts Mike Maher, Derek Brown, Andrew Erickson and Pat Fitzmaurice conclude a series of preseason roundtables by discussing favorite injury stashes.

Fantasy Football Roundtable: Fantasy Football Injury Stashes

You can find the first four articles in our roundtable series here:

Favorite Fantasy Football Injury Stashes

Is there an injured player worth drafting and stashing on injured reserve (IR) early in the season?

Darnell Mooney (WR – ATL)

Pat Fitzmaurice: Darnell Mooney could miss some early-season games with a shoulder injury. He had a 93% snap share last year, and the Falcons didn’t make any significant offseason additions at wide receiver.

Mooney fell just short of 1,000 receiving yards last year. His FantasyPros Real-Time ADP as of this writing was WR54, 145th overall. At that price, he’s worth drafting and stashing.

Tyjae Spears (RB – TEN)

Andrew Erickson: There are still a lot of players with questionable tags, and you might have to wait until Week 1 before you can stash them in an IR slot. But you can draft them instead of a D/ST or kicker and make the transaction prior to Week 1.

Take Tyjae Spears and stash him on IR. He was someone I was very high on before the high-ankle sprain as a third-year running back breakout. Spears was always going to be a stash behind Tony Pollard. And the Titans’ opening schedule features some tough defenses, so you wouldn’t be starting Spears anyway. But if Pollard disappoints, well, maybe Spears gets more run than most anticipate once he’s back healthy.

Brandon Aiyuk (WR – SF)

Mike Maher: I could maybe get down with stashing Brandon Aiyuk, but only if I can get him super late in drafts.

Aiyuk wasn’t having a great year last year, even before tearing his ACL, and now we have questions about when he is going to be ready to play and what his role in the offense will be when he’s back. Who knows, but maybe the return of Christian McCaffrey helps fix things in San Francisco, and there is more volume to go around. But FantasyPros has Aiyuk’s bust risk as very high, and I am inclined to agree.

I will roll the dice on Aiyuk as an upside stash, but only if I can get him super late in drafts. And someone else in my league is likely willing to take that swing 2-3 rounds before I am.

No Preferred Stash

Derek Brown: Unfortunately, not. Right now, all of the players with talent and a possible pathway to fantasy relevance in 2025 are looking likely to suit up for Week 1. This easily could change, though, so stay up to date with all of the news.