Second-Year Fantasy Football Breakout Candidates - Sophomores With Upside

August 29, 2025

Second-year fantasy football sleepers, breakout candidates, draft values to target in 2025. Dan' sophomore risers include Michael Penix, Ricky Pearsall, more.

The 2025 NFL regular season is quick approaching. Fantasy football leagues will be drafting daily, and managers will be starting their push for a fantasy championship with their draft prep.

One of the best things you can do in a fantasy football draft is identify second-year players who are poised to take a developmental step. Arguably, the most significant growth from a player occurs from their rookie season to their second year in the league. Understanding the players who are set to take that jump can unlock big scoring opportunities for your fantasy football team.

Below are seven second-year players that can be considered fantasy football breakout candidates and/or fantasy football sleepers heading into the 2025 season. Target these sophomore risers as value picks with upside.

Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals

ADP: 163.9, RB47

Trey Benson was drafted in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft to upgrade the running back room behind James Conner, who historically has missed games due to injury. However, Conner played a career-high 16 games in 2024, relegating Benson to a minor role throughout the season. As a result, Benson racked up just 63 carries for 291 yards and a touchdown with six receptions for 59 yards in 13 games.

Arizona signaled they were content heading into 2025 with Conner and Benson as their top two backs this offseason when they didn’t add any meaningful competition to the backfield. Benson has consistently been praised by the front office, coaching staff, and even Conner himself throughout the offseason.

However, the most meaningful data point came from a game that Benson didn’t even play in. In Arizona’s second preseason game, the team opted to rest its starters. One of the players who didn’t dress for the game was Benson, signaling that he has a defined role with the team’s first offense this season.

Benson has both the size (6-foot-0, 216 pounds) and speed (4.39 40-yard dash) to be a featured back at the NFL level. At worst, he seems to be entering 2025 with the hopes of an expanded role in a backfield committee. The Cardinals were top-10 in rushing success rate (43.2%) and yards before contact (2.5) last season and return five contributors from their offensive line.

Conner will be the lead back to start the season, but he still carries a high injury risk despite being healthy last season. At worst, Benson is a contributor in Arizona’s backfield. But at best, he gets starts thanks to an oft-injured veteran in front of him on the depth chart.

Braelon Allen, RB, New York Jets

ADP: 179.4, RB51

Nobody expected Braelon Allen to carve out a significant role next to Breece Hall in 2024. However, the fourth-round pick was able to put together a respectable stat line (92 carries for 334 yards and two touchdowns with 19 receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown). Even more impressive, Allen didn’t even turn 21 until after his rookie season had concluded.

There has been a steady drumbeat from Jets camp that the team’s new coaching staff loved Allen and was going to expand his role in his second season. That has been reinforced throughout the limited preseason action this offseason. At worst, it appears that Hall and Allen will split this backfield two ways in 2025.

Allen was highly productive during his three seasons at Wisconsin, handling 597 carries for 3,494 yards and 35 touchdowns. He isn’t the most explosive player, but he can still run away from defenders once he gets into the open field.

Simply begging you to not sleep on Braelon Allen any longer pic.twitter.com/HrW5iDuCGb

— Sean Mitchell (@smitchell17) August 10, 2025

The Jets seem committed to splitting a backfield, which makes sense considering their background with the Detroit Lions. That means that Allen will have a consistent weekly workload throughout the 2025 season behind one of the better offensive lines in the NFL.

Rome Odunze, WR, Chicago Bears

ADP: 79.9, WR36

It’s hard to imagine a way that Rome Odunze’s rookie season could have gone worse relative to the expectations we had for Chicago’s offense with Williams at the helm. Odunze was targeted 101 times, catching 54 passes for 734 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately, the presence of D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen relegated Odunze to inefficient deep targets. The result was a WR56 finish in fantasy with just 8.5 PPR points per game.

Despite the underwhelming production, there were some positive signals for Odunze was a rookie. He finished 14th among all wide receivers in air yards (1,398). He was 11th in both average depth of target (13.8) and deep targets (23). He also finished 10th in red zone targets (18). Based on his usage, he was the WR37 in expected fantasy points per game (13.7).

A lack of connection with Williams was just too much to overcome. Odunze had the second-most unrealized air yards in 2024 (917) and finished as the WR75 in yards per route run (1.33). The rookie also had the sixth-lowest catchable target rate (58.4%).

As noted above, there is a reason to be optimistic about Chicago’s offense looking much better in 2025, thanks to the team hiring Ben Johnson as their head coach. Johnson has consistently praised Odunze throughout the summer, citing his ability to win one-on-one matchups and his route running as big benefits. There have also been numerous positive reports from training camp regarding the connection between Williams and Odunze ahead of their second season.

In Chicago’s first preseason action with starters, the Bears moved Odunze all over the formation and even used him in the slot. He didn’t bring in his only target, but the willingness to involve him in other places, instead of just making him a one-dimensional deep threat, gives reason for optimism for Odunze in 2025.

Ricky Pearsall, WR, San Francisco 49ers

ADP: 100.3, WR37

2024 was a strange year for Ricky Pearsall. The 2024 first-round pick missed the first six weeks of the season recovering from a gunshot wound. Once Pearsall returned, it took him time to get up to speed. He averaged just 3.0 targets, 1.6 receptions, and 19.1 yards per game over his first eight games.

Pearsall’s role shifted over the final three games of the season, and we got a chance to see how he fit the 49ers' passing attack. The results were quite positive.

From Weeks 16 to 18, Pearsall caught 18 of 22 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns. Pearsall was 10th among wide receivers in yards and 19th in yards per route run (2.47) and yards per target (11.23). He was the WR14 in PPR points per game (18.4) during that three-game sample size.

First three Brock Purdy dropbacks:

1. Ricky Pearsall
2. Slick Rick recognizes soft spot in zone, cuts route short, Purdy finds him
3. Ricky again (on 3rd and 18) - Purdy gets ball out before Pearsall has his head turned

Incredibly bullish signals after first full offseason https://t.co/UOjWP8IBia pic.twitter.com/3JUo8IrLyJ

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) August 20, 2025

Pearsall enters his second season healthy and with an opportunity to carve out a significant role in San Francisco’s passing attack. Deebo Samuel Sr. was traded to the Commanders this offseason. Brandon Aiyuk is working his way back from a 2024 knee injury and could miss the first six weeks of the season. Jauan Jennings has been nursing a strained calf throughout the entire offseason program, and is in danger of missing regular season games.

San Francisco’s passing attack will continue to run through Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, but Pearsall will have very little target competition among the team’s other healthy wide receivers. Reports indicate he has looked fantastic through camp, which was reinforced by a solid performance in his lone preseason game (four targets, three receptions, and 42 yards).

Pearsall has the draft pedigree and has shown the ability to earn targets and produce in a small sample size. He’s set to have a big second year in an ambiguous 49ers wide receiver room in 2025.

Theo Johnson, TE, New York Giants

ADP: 264.5, TE32

We all know how fantastic Brock Bowers was in his first season, but the rest of the tight end class didn’t produce much for fantasy or real NFL football. One of the few rookie tight ends to make an impact in 2024 was Theo Johnson, the Giants’ fourth-round pick.

Johnson was limited to just 12 games as a rookie, but was gradually seeing his role increase in the Giants' passing attack before his season ended. From Weeks 1 to 7, Johnson averaged just 2.3 targets, 1.6 receptions, and 16.4 receiving yards per game.

He started to see an expanded role starting in Week 8. Over his final five games, his averages jumped to 5.4 targets, 3.6 receptions, and 43.2 receiving yards with one touchdown scored. He was the TE21 during that stretch, but did have one top-10 positional finish.

New York upgraded their quarterback room this offseason, but didn’t make any significant upgrades to the pass-catching group. This passing attack will continue to flow through Malik Nabers, but there is no clear secondary pass catcher. Johnson could fill that void, especially in the red zone.

Johnson is correctly going undrafted in most fantasy leagues, so he could be a late-round flier at tight end with upside. Fantasy managers could just opt to leave him on the waiver wire to start the season, making him a priority pick-up if he has a clearly defined role that reflects the final five games of his rookie season.

Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears

ADP: 139.0, QB15

If you just look at box scores, Caleb Williams had a respectable rookie season. Williams completed 62.5% of his passes for 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also added 81 carries for 481 yards, helping him finish as the QB21 in fantasy points per game (15.3). He failed to meet the excessively high expectations of a top overall pick in the NFL Draft, but he also didn’t completely implode as a rookie.

Of course, if you look deeper, you start to see serious flaws.

Williams was sacked an NFL-leading 68 times as a rookie and pressured 227 times. A bad offensive line can shoulder part of the blame, but many issues stemmed from the rookie quarterback's inability to get the ball out of his hands on time and his tendency to revert to hero-ball tendencies.

Beyond the sacks, the pressure sped Williams up and led to very inconsistent issues throwing the ball. The rookie completed just 27.2% of his deep passes. He completed just 65.4% of his passes from a clean pocket (QB31) and 49% of his passes when pressured (QB33). By the end of the season, Williams was throwing endless screens and dump-offs just to move the ball.

However, he received a huge boost when Chicago was able to land Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, to be their next head coach. Johnson is an innovative play caller who gained a reputation with the Lions for his ability to get the most out of players. His first task in Chicago was fixing Williams.

There have been reports of Williams struggling early in the summer and in training camp. However, those reports have slowly started to become increasingly positive the closer we get to the season. Fantasy managers got a glimpse of Williams in the new offense in the team’s second preseason game, and the results were largely positive.

Caleb Williams entire first drive pic.twitter.com/sesyjzLVRF

— Dave (@dave_bfr) August 18, 2025

Williams has all the natural talents in the world, and now he is paired with an innovative offensive mind that will give him every opportunity to succeed. Fantasy managers are still skeptical based on his QB15 price, but he is a player who can finish in the top 10 quarterbacks given his weapons, offensive improvements, and rushing ability.

Michael Penix Jr., QB, Atlanta Falcons

ADP: 180.3, QB22

We got to see a three-game sample size of Michael Penix Jr. to close out the regular season in 2024. The results were generally mixed (58% completion rate for 737 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions), but there were plenty of bright spots that showed why the Falcons drafted him with a first-round pick despite signing Kirk Cousins to a massive contract that same offseason.

Every Michael Penix Jr. throw of 20+ air yards from a clean pocket in 2024: pic.twitter.com/awlATdpHrr

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) May 14, 2025

From Weeks 16 to 18, Penix finished as the QB24 in fantasy points per game (15.2), but did have a QB6 finish in Week 18 (26.0 points). Among quarterbacks who made two starts during that stretch, Penix was 10th in expected points added (16.27) and was second in 20+ yard completions (11). He was also first in the percentage of throws that traveled 20+ yards (29%).

Penix enters his second season as the unquestioned starter in Atlanta. He’s already shown a strong connection with Drake London and has had moments throughout the summer targeting Kyle Pitts. Once Darnell Mooney returns, Penix will have three downfield weapons that can make use of his strong arm and accuracy to all three levels of the field.

The Falcons also feature a strong offensive line and one of the best pass-catching running backs in the NFL (Bijan Robinson). Penix is a candidate for a late-round quarterback in fantasy that can provide consistent scoring that allows you to load up on other positions early in drafts.

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