Fantasy football breakouts can be what separates a truly great team that contends in the fantasy playoffs from the rest of the pack. Just think about those teams last season that were able to nail guys like Bucky Irving, Chase Brown, or Brian Thomas Jr.

Sounds nice, right?

Dwain McFarland recently went in-depth at the WR position to highlight both Year 2-3 WR breakout candidates as well as veteran WRs primed to break out. So, for this piece, we'll include all positions and provide six fantasy football breakout candidates for 2025. Players with league-winning upside that could vastly outperform their ADPs ... if things break right.

2025 Breakout Candidates for Fantasy Football

Drake Maye | QB | NE

The stats weren’t impressive for Maye in his rookie season last year. He passed for 2,276 yards, rushed for 421 yards, passed for 15 touchdowns, and threw 10 interceptions. This was behind one of the worst offensive lines and with one of the worst receiving corps, resulting in 34 sacks on the rookie QB.

That being said, the Patriots upgraded the offensive line and improved the receivers, bringing in Stefon Diggs and drafting Kyle Williams in the third round. New England drafted left tackle Will Campbell with the fourth overall pick. Mike Vrabel took over as head coach, and Josh McDaniels is the offensive coordinator.

Quarterbacks who provide rushing yards are desirable in fantasy, and most of the top ones go early in drafts. Maye is one of the few who go later in drafts. Taking out Week 18, where Maye was pulled after a series, Maye averaged 38.3 rushing yards in 11 full starts. Plus, there’s been talk out of New England that there will be more designed runs for Maye.

Caleb Williams | QB | CHI

There are no more excuses for Williams. It’s time to perform. Williams couldn’t have asked for a better offseason. The Bears have done everything to put Williams in a position to succeed. Ben Johnson was brought in as the Head Coach after leading the Lions to the most points last season. The offensive line was improved, and wide receiver Luther Burden and tight end Colston Loveland were drafted to add more weapons to the offense.

Trevor Lawrence | QB | JAC

Too many things went right for Trevor Lawrence this offseason not to see him have the best season of his career. Liam Coen becoming the new head coach helps this team—according to Ian Hartitiz's team preview, offensive playcaller metrics placed Coen as the league's third-best option last season behind only Todd Monken and Joe Brady.

Now we add in the fact that the team went all-in to get Travis Hunter to pair alongside Brian Thomas Jr., and they are cooking with gas. Yes, Lawrence has been a disappointment since entering the league with his best finish in terms of fantasy points per game coming back in 2022 (QB11), but his current QB19 price tag is too cheap for a quarterback that could hit his strides as a passer and a rusher this season.

Kenneth Walker | RB | SEA

Walker has been the feature back when healthy in his first three seasons in the NFL. Injuries have limited him to 15, 15, and 12 games. Last season, Walker missed time with oblique and ankle injuries, playing 11 games and averaging 18.1 touches. He had seven touchdowns in the first five games.

The Seahawks made a lot of changes, including adding offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. They drafted guard Grey Zabel in the first round, and running backs tend to excel under Kubiak, especially in the passing game, as Kubiak tends to feature one running back rather than take a committee approach.

Walker wasn’t featured as much in the passing game in his first two seasons and saw a career-high 53 targets in the lowest amount of games he played. He went from 2.2 targets per game in 2023 to 4.7 last year.

Calvin Ridley | WR | TEN

No matter which way you look at it, this is a big quarterback upgrade for Calvin Ridley (sorry, Adam, we can still pretend to like Will Levis). He led the league in air yards and ranked sixth in downfield receptions last season (WITH A BAD QUARTERBACK), but led the league in total unrealized air yards last season by 179. Cam Ward will be the upgrade he needs, plus he is projected for 115 targets with a mediocre receiver room behind him.

A big focus will be on producing more in the red zone—last season, Ridley only had four red zone targets. We've been hearing that the Ward-Ridley connection has been getting stronger and stronger this offseason, and with Ridley, I'm imagining a season where he can convert all that opportunity into fantasy goodness.   

Josh Downs | WR | IND

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Quarterback is a problem. It would be better for Downs if Daniel Jones were the quarterback, but the risky quarterback is reflected in the ADP for Downs, who averaged 7.1 receptions, 66.4 yards, and 15.5 PPR points with Joe Flacco as quarterback. 

The Colts clearly aren’t enamored with Anthony Richardson, who is already dealing with a shoulder injury, and brought in Jones to compete for the job. In his second season last year, Downs had 72 receptions for 803 yards with five touchdowns on 107 targets in 14 games. Downs had seven weeks as a Top 20 receiver in PPR. Downs created great separation and was targeted on 27.9% of his routes. Not only can he get open, but he also gets yards after the catch. Of his 1.574 receiving yards, 767 are after the catch. He has a career 68.3% catch rate.

Tucker Kraft | TE | GB

OK, so Tucker Kraft gave fantasy managers an enjoyable TE10 finish last season, so maybe this is a second breakout coming?

Kraft is a good pick at cost right now because it feels like there's a lot left on the bone for him heading into the 2025 season. The Packers drafted Matthew Golden with their 23rd overall pick, which made him the first receiver they've taken in the first round since 2002. But do they truly have an alpha receiver on their team now? Kraft had eye-popping stats last season—unfortunately, Green Bay is 24th in target rate to tight ends, but this is my plea to Matt LaFleur to give more opportunities to Kraft. Right now, he is 16th in projected targets among tight ends. GIVE US MORE KRAFT!

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