Josh Downs Fantasy Football Outlook (2025)

By Derek Brown (FantasyPros), Thu, Aug 14th 2025, 1:02pm EDT

Downs displayed real growth in year two, finishing as the WR28 in fantasy points per game, but it still doesn't tell the entire story of his 2024 season. That end-of-season finish doesn't fully illustrate Downs' upside. In the games that Joe Flacco played at least 80% of the snaps last year, we got a glimpse of it. In those games with Flacco, Downs had a 25.7% target share, 2.38 yards per route run, 66.4 receiving yards per game, a 32.4% first-read share, 0.144 first downs per route run, and 15.5 PPR points per game (per Fantasy Points Data). If he had kept that pace up in those categories, among wide receivers with at least 50 targets last year, he would have ranked ninth, 15th, 20th, ninth, and fourth as the WR21 in fantasy points per game. With Richardson under center, his numbers dipped with a 21.3% target share, 2.15 yards per route run, 48.3 receiving yards per game, a 26.8% first-read share, 0.076 first downs per route run, and 10.7 PPR points per game (WR44). Downs is a stable WR3/4 who could easily out-kick his ADP in 2025 if Indy gets more consistent quarterback play.