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John dives into new offensive schemes and which players will benefit from them the most for 2025 fantasy football. Which players could shine in new offenses?
Changes in offensive schemes are one of the biggest ways in which players can exceed expectations and reset the fantasy football market for themselves. We've seen this happen numerous times.
There are plenty of players who languish under the "guidance" of poor offensive coordinators and offensive-minded head coaches who hold back their ability to reach their full potential. That's not fun, but things become interesting when coaching changes occur.
New offensive schemes can breathe new life into certain players' careers, and as fantasy managers, it's important for us to get ahead of the game and try to sniff production jumps before they happen. So let's dive into the players set to benefit the most from new offensive schemes in 2025!
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Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Lawrence has been much maligned throughout his NFL career. Seen as a disappointment of a first-overall pick, Lawrence has admittedly struggled and played very inconsistently so far. But it's hard to blame a QB's struggles when his offensive coordinators have been Darrell Bevell and Press Taylor.
Lawrence has had awful, awful offensive coaching for his entire career now. That's changing in a big way. The Jags hired Liam Coen, the former offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In just one season, Coen led one of the league's best offenses. Notably, QB Baker Mayfield threw 41 touchdown passes in 2025.
The Jalen McMillan biggest gains of the year are a great highlight package for Liam Coen. pic.twitter.com/T3W77nUI4m
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) May 19, 2025
Mayfield had never thrown for more than 28 in a season. I expect a comparable jump for Lawrence. Mayfield had the best offensive coaching of his career and shone in his great situation. The presence of WRs Brian Thomas Jr. and rookie Travis Hunter, himself having elite WR upside, will pay dividends.
Coen's schemes were so good that even when both WRs Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were injured and off the field, the team's passing offense still moved the ball down the field. The film is incredibly impressive -- receivers were constantly schemed open. The fantasy values of all Bucs players could be inflated this season.
Lawrence has some level of rushing upside that could be utilized as well, but even if it's not a ton, I expect him to have the best season of his career. The offense should take a quantum leap, if for nothing else, than the Jags' previous offensive coaching was just that bad.
The #Jaguars really just went from Press Taylor running the offense to Liam Coen. pic.twitter.com/8pIqVJWb2T
— Andrew Gibson (@1010XLAG) January 25, 2025
Caleb Williams*, QB, Chicago Bears
After an absolutely atrocious rookie season by absolutely every metric except touchdown to interception ratio and completion percentage, which quarterbacks know they can cheese by choosing to take a billion sacks and rack up stats in garbage time, Williams was rewarded with a shiny new head coach -- Ben Johnson.
Johnson was the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in 2023 and 2024, and he engineered one of the league's best passing and rushing attack combinations. Johnson's schemes helped the Lions make the playoffs in two consecutive seasons, and they even made the NFC Championship Game for the 2023-2024 season.
The word "intense" was used a lot this spring to describe practice and the shared mentality of Ben Johnson and his coaches. That carried over to Day 1 of training camp where the 1st team offense got thrown out of a drill by Johnson during a drill when they couldn't get lined up…
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) July 23, 2025
Johnson, unlike previous Bears coaches, doesn't have much tolerance for mental errors. HOWEVER... Williams was surely atrocious in his first season. His accuracy downfield was the worst in the entire league by a solid margin, even from a clean pocket.
Caleb Williams delivered a 58% catchable ball rate on throws of 10-19 air yards without pressure in 2024.
QB39 out of 39 qualifiers
(Source: @FantasyPtsData) https://t.co/q0niUbkKI8 pic.twitter.com/dL2qIUKSFS
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) May 22, 2025
In both brackets -- throws between 10-19 air yards and 20 or more air yards -- even on the plays where the overly-maligned offensive line did their jobs, Williams was putrid. The combination of being inaccurate and taking sacks is something we call an "OC-killing" combination.
Caleb Williams with a clean pocket in 2024:
+ 75% catchable throw rate (33rd among 34 QBs)
+ 0.9% CPOE (30th)
+ 6.69 YPA (31st)While his O-line certainly wasn't great, Caleb faced the the 13th highest pressure rate, and the 15th highest pressure rate when not blitzed.. both…
— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) May 18, 2025
Even with the ability to pad the hell out of his stats in garbage time and against a few hapless teams, like the Jacksonville Jaguars, Williams failed miserably in season-long efficiency stats. He's a bust in the making, and perhaps not even Johnson can save him.
So why's he on this list? Well, it's because Johnson is really good at what he does. This year's Bears will be a titanic battle between Johnson, desperately trying to elevate this team, and, hopefully for fantasy managers, Williams stumbling his way towards better production.
C.J. Stroud, QB, Houston Texans
The Texans' offense last year looked far too much like a cheap off-brand Shanahan-style clone. OC Bobby Slowik, who has since been fired, decided early on that running the ball 20 times per game was an absolute must, no matter the situation. That didn't lead to great results.
Rather than allowing the passing game to get into a groove, Slowik insisted on hammering the ground game, even when it was averaging under three yards per carry. The results were predictable, and the Texans' offense often absolutely floundered as a result. It's not all Slowik's fault, but he didn't do much to help.
🧠 2024 Play Caller Ratings 🧠
Using @PFF grades and play calling data from the last 15 years, I created scores on how well a play caller influenced each regular season
You may agree or disagree, but the statistics are solid🧵 pic.twitter.com/brw1RRZmNK
— Joseph Bryan (@KoalatyStats) June 25, 2025
Stroud's remarkable rookie season thus soured incredibly quickly. Though much of it was indeed Stroud's fault, as he showed that he's basically completely incompetent under pressure, often throwing absolute ducks straight into the hands of the defenders, it's on the offensive coordinator to cover for their players' mistakes.
Slowik's offense essentially hamstrung Stroud's development -- rather than helping boost his confidence, it was destroyed, and he never seemed to recover. The additions of rookie WRs Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel and veteran slot man Christian Kirk should allow new offensive coordinator Nick Caley to thrive.
The Texans offense under Nick Caley will likely look different with motion & quick game giving some easier answers & tells for C.J. Stroud with his increased control in the offense.
Make sure you follow @Cody_Stoots for Training Camp news and updates 🤘🏻 https://t.co/05UddqgzRG pic.twitter.com/plWzeO42s8
— Jacob (@TexansJacob) July 23, 2025
Notably, Slowik further kneecapped Stroud by not scheming up quick passes for him to alleviate the problems caused by how awfully Houston's offensive line played. That's still a big concern, but not a be-all-end-all, necessarily. Stroud's new weapons, especially Kirk and Noel, should help with this as well.
Caley was the pass-game coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams in 2024 -- it's good that he'll bring his passing game expertise to Houston, as they don't have a great run-blocking offensive line, and running backs Joe Mixon (undisclosed) and Nick Chubb have recently (or are currently) dealt with lingering injury issues.
Kenneth Walker III, RB, Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks have plenty of problems on offense. But, at least, the offensive coordinator shouldn't be one of them in 2025. The head-scratching hire of Ryan Grubb ahead of the 2024 season won't weigh down the rushing attack for the 'Hawks any longer.
Grubb readily and willingly abandoned the run game for Seattle time and time again, forcing the team into pass plays and crippling the running backs' abilities to get into consistent rhythms. The result was very little rushing upside from their lead back, Walker, aside from in a few games.
Now, the offense has other issues, of course. Seattle's offensive line is consistently one of the league's worst, both in run and pass blocking. That's the fault of general manager John Schneider, who doesn't seem interested in building the unit meaningfully through the draft.
Kenneth Walker himself forced 4.18 missed tackles per game last year which was 2nd only to James Conner. If you can get him through the box with the concepts that Klint Kubiak, his father, Rick Dennison, and Kyle Shanahan perfected, he can make defenses pay.
— Andrew Cooper (@CoopAFiasco) July 22, 2025
I'm including two tweets above because they're both relevant. For starters, the schemes should help open up more space in the run game. Walker is an absurdly talented athlete, having broken 22 miles per hour on a run in his first season. Very few players log speeds that fast as a ball-carrier.
Secondly, he has solid receiving upside, and Kubiak loves throwing the ball to his running backs. Considering how poorly the offensive line blocks on passing plays, we could see a significant amount of check-downs and dump-offs from quarterback Sam Darnold, who historically struggles mightily under consistent pressure.
#Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak on his outside zone scheme, throwing the ball to running backs, and Kenneth Walker:
“Looking forward to him in this scheme, and we’re gonna ask a lot out of him.”
Wheels all the way up for K9, pants all the way off for K9 fantasy managers pic.twitter.com/JGgRqfkHJW
— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) February 11, 2025
Walker is perhaps the player on this list that stands to benefit the most from the coaching change aside from Lawrence, so his value is intriguing. He isn't being drafted much differently than he was ahead of the 2024 season, so he seems like a nice pickup at ADP.
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