4 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers to Avoid in Drafts: Injury-Prone Bust Candidates (2025)

John breaks down four injury-prone fantasy football players to avoid in 2025. These injured players are potential busts: Brandon Aiyuk, Stefon Diggs, Cooper Kupp, and Rashid Shaheed.

Sometimes, star players suffer serious injuries that sideline them for extended periods. They then return to play, and after getting re-acclimated to NFL competition and shaking off some rust, they go right back to their winning ways and make us all feel stupid about writing them off for fantasy football that season.

It would be really nice if things always went that way. Unfortunately, they don't, and it's fair to try to assess the risk of the ideal situation not happening, and just how bad it might be. There are a few obvious players to break down here, but I'll try to include at least one that's less obvious.

Injuries can also have permanent impacts on players' career production. "He never looked the same" is a depressing reality that sometimes simply comes to pass. Just look at Javonte Williams. Never the same after shredding his knee in 2022. Sucks. Let's break down some injured players who might struggle to return to form in 2024.

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Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers

The elephant in the room here is Aiyuk. The knee injury he suffered in Week 7 was just horrific. With his leg in a straight position and planted in the ground through his cleat, he suffered simultaneous hits from two players, one of which bent his right knee in sideways at an extreme angle.

🚨WARNING: GRAPHIC🚨#49ers star receiver Brandon Aiyuk appear staff suffered a serious injury according to this gruesome video.

😳

Aiyuk was carted off the field in serious pain.pic.twitter.com/O1XlNThO8J

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) October 20, 2024

Aiyuk tore his ACL, MCL, and suffered significant damage to his meniscus. No one but Aiyuk himself seems to be mentioning his meniscus damage, but that's significant. Such extensive damage might not have been limited to just those parts of his knee, too, but we won't ever have access to the complete medical reports.

#49ers Brandon Aiyuk gave a one week post ACL tear update on his YouTube

Aiyuk said he has walked a little but has been tentative to fully weight bear at this time.

Long road to recovery ahead 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/vDlP3Or6k2

— OurSF49ers (@OurSf49ers) October 28, 2024

Of course, we all want him to recover swiftly, but these things take time. We also appreciate him giving us this extra knowledge. It's important. I'm more than a little worried that Aiyuk's injury also qualifies as his knee being "shredded". More importantly, I'm really worried about his role in 2025.

For starters, we don't know if he'll start in Week 1. I'm not sure if I believe he will. Missing a few weeks at least would be pretty unsurprising. Even so, he might not be 100 percent at any point this season, even if he does eventually recover fully. Which, in itself, seems somewhat unlikely.

Synovial plicae are embryological remnants of synovial lining, found in most knees.
Commonly asymptomatic but due to inflammatory process, commonly due to overuse or trauma, plica becomes symptomatic (intermittent knee pain) termed plica syndrome.

Image: UpToDate pic.twitter.com/tJULbHJe2x

— Dr. OMID BANDARCHI (@OBandarchi) June 7, 2024

You can ignore the jargon and complicated text above and look at the diagram. The knee is an incredibly complicated joint, and a lot goes into NFL players being able to accomplish such feats of athleticism on their feet. I'd avoid Aiyuk in 2025. The 49ers have plenty of receiving options to fall back on.

There's no need to rush Aiyuk back to a team that has tight end George Kittle, running back Christian McCaffrey, and receivers Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall.

Stefon Diggs, WR, New England Patriots

Right now, Diggs' value really isn't high. He's the WR44 (78th overall) in FantasyPros average draft position (ADP) rankings. I don't imagine this will hold for too long, though. As redraft draft season draws nearer, I'm sure most will be sold on the idea that Diggs will be the clear Patriots WR1.

However, I can't get behind drafting a 31-year-old wide receiver who's set to turn 32 during the 2025 season at whatever his eventual ADP lands at. He'll creep into the sixth round, I imagine. He'll probably have significantly less juice than he had last season.

#Texans WR Stefon Diggs is down and grabbing his knee. It appeared to be non-contact. pic.twitter.com/IIgB411T0J

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 27, 2024

There is generally very strong pushback in the community against rookies coming in and taking the roles of established veterans who recently scored well in PPR scoring formats. But we see it happen pretty often. Like last season, when Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving stole Rachaad White's RB1 job.

Generally, several key factors must be in place for this to occur. The first is that the rookie needs to be underrated by the community in general. I've argued this about Williams for some time now -- he has an excellent suite of skills that should grant him early success.

Don't sleep on Kyle Williams 😴 pic.twitter.com/EyZAZzrmxx

— PFF Fantasy & Betting (@PFF_Fantasy) May 24, 2025

My film analysis of Williams, combined with him backing up his tape with excellent athletic testing at the 2025 NFL Combine, has led me to believe that Williams is already set to be the WR1 in New England. Rookies tend to start slow, though, so it might not be apparent right away.

Then again, Williams has a fantastic ability after the catch, so the moment he starts ripping off huge plays, the job could be as good as his. I believe that even if Diggs has some solid stretches, he'll still be 32 years old and recovering from an ACL tear by the end of the season.

Washington State WR Kyle Williams vs man coverage:

🎯 505 receiving yards
🎯 9 touchdowns
🎯 20 receptions
🎯 33 targets
🎯 0 drops
🎯 25.3 yards/rec pic.twitter.com/fcqoASF5OY

— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) February 16, 2025

I was shocked to see Williams fall as far as he did in the 2025 NFL Draft, based on my evaluation of him, at least. Either way, I don't see Diggs as a horrible pick. I don't think he'll be someone you want in your starting roster come playoff time. That will be Williams.

Rookies tend to come on very strong toward the end of their first season. 32-year-old players tend to fade. You don't want to get yourself in a situation where you have players that are performing in a lukewarm fashion, whose performance you don't know whether you should start or not, either. I'll be taking Williams in a lot of drafts and ignoring Diggs.

Cooper Kupp, WR, Seattle Seahawks

I'm taking a bit of a liberty here by including Kupp. He didn't have a season-ending injury knock him out, but he can't seem to stay healthy for a full season. I had other options for players to include here -- like Dak Prescott, Chris Godwin, and Tank Dell-- but I didn't see the value in writing about them.

Prescott and Godwin's ADPs have fallen enough where I don't think they're terrible deals. No one wants to draft Dell, since he might not even play in 2025. But Kupp will be 32 years old soon, and for some reason, he's still getting significant hype as a "sleeper" player for fantasy football in 2025.

Some of Cooper Kupp's injury history:
-Groin pull
-Sprained MCL
-Torn ACL
-Knee bruise
-Low ankle sprain
-High ankle sprain
-Hamstring strain
-Low ankle sprain again
-High ankle sprain again
All in his left leg. Does no one really think that leg is cooked? pic.twitter.com/plGinwkvRD

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 14, 2025

A 32-year-old receiver is a big, big risk to have on your team, and that should come as no surprise. But Kupp has an extensive history of injuries that's very worrying. To make matters worse, he's steadily declined each season in every conceivable category since his Triple Crown year in 2021.

Kupp played in nine, 12, and 12 games in his past three seasons. That accounts for over a full season of missed time.

Not sure if I've already posted this, but there are a lot of reasons to completely avoid Cooper Kupp in this year's drafts. I wouldn't feel comfortable having him on my roster. Much worse situation, much worse player than 2021-2022 pic.twitter.com/PnmpHkCqIy

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 24, 2025

Being the leading wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams on a team without much more receiving competition is the best situation a wide receiver can ask for. Kupp's 2021 was highly anomalous compared to the rest of his career, from both an efficiency and health standpoint.

Now he's on a team with a piss-poor offensive line, a quarterback that can't deal with pressure and only had a single good season because of Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell's coaching prowess and the elite roster they had built around him. The last two games of his season proved that he was still terrible.

Sam Darnold has the worst Total Sack EPA in the first half of any playoff game since 2000 (-15.6) ⚠️

Darnold ranks 563rd out of 563 for all QBs with 10+ attempts ⚠️ https://t.co/39FAjJfbpR pic.twitter.com/geV2J1dhU0

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) January 14, 2025

I have a lot of faith in Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. I'm just not sure how Kupp, who's a slot receiver, will have a big year after joining WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who's a... slot receiver. In addition, Kubiak is likely to implement an extremely run-heavy offense.

This makes sense to help Darnold as much as possible against opposing pass rushes. But it's not good news for the receivers. I'm avoiding both JSN and Kupp in all drafts this season, but at least JSN has some upside. My film and statistical analysis have led me to believe Kupp has very little to speak of.

Rashid Shaheed, WR, New Orleans Saints

I highlighted Shaheed as a value for most of the offseason. He was effectively the team's WR1 through all the games that he and Chris Olave played together last year. He produced well, especially as a deep threat. But that was with Derek Carr as his quarterback.

As you probably know by now, Carr is gone. He decided to retire due to a variety of factors, including a family tragedy and a shoulder injury that was reportedly likely to knock him out for the entirety of the 2025 NFL season. It's hard to blame him. This makes Shaheed a player probably not worth drafting, though.

TRENDING: Top #NFL quarterback prospect Tyler Shough has gone viral for having one of the worst combine reps ever.

😳😳😳

Shough is already 25 years old and has recently received a lot of fake hype from the media.
pic.twitter.com/IX2FUVPOVw

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) April 15, 2025

The hype machine of desperate Saints fans unwilling to accept that their team is likely going to be a dumpster fire for a few years is working in overdrive on social media, but it's hard to buy into it. Their quarterback situation is among the worst in the league.

Tyler Shough is bad, Spencer Rattler is bad, and Jake Haener (oblique) is bad. Not much else to say. Saints head coach Kellen Moore faces a stiff uphill battle to even make the offense look competent, and they don't have a great offensive line, an elite running back group -- Alvin Kamara is getting old -- or anything else to make up for it.

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