Fantasy Football Bounce-Back Candidates You Must Have in 2025

Aidin Ebrahimi bounce-back and rebound candidates for 2025 fantasy football. His draft targets and sleepers for players who underperformed last season.

One bad season shouldn't deter you from drafting players in fantasy football. Bounce-back seasons are more common than you think, and we'll likely see a bunch of them this season.

For several reasons, these players struggled to live up to the hype in 2024 and let their fantasy managers down. However, these stars are determined to prevent that from happening once again in 2025. They want to prove that their bad 2024 season was just an exception, not the rule. 2025 will be a crucial year for most of these guys if they want to prove they can still be fantasy football superstars.

Without further ado, let's look at five fantasy football bounce-back candidates for the 2025 season.

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Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Trevor Lawrence has had a very interesting career so far. He was regarded as one of the best QB prospects ever following an exceptional high school and college career.

Trevor Lawrence is still only 25 years old pic.twitter.com/uIHVhPFpNi

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) May 2, 2025

Teams tanked for him like they had tanked for Andrew Luck and Joe Burrow, and when the Jaguars drafted him, he was given the nickname "The Prince who was promised."

Unfortunately for the prince, he lost 20 of his first 25 games, but then went on a great run to get everyone back on board. After an incredible midseason turnaround in 2022, which included a playoff victory against the Chargers, people expected Lawrence to take the leap to superstardom.

However, after a promising start to the 2023 season, everything has gone wrong for Lawrence and the Jags. The 6'6" quarterback has lost 13 of his last 15 games, and the Jaguars lost their title as "the team of the future."

But now, they can easily get that title back, and Lawrence can get back on track with a strong 2025 season. New HC Liam Coen made a controversial exit from Tampa Bay to be a part of Jacksonville's project and has already begun to surround Lawrence with weapons.

Travis Hunter is set to play both WR and CB in the NFL, and can become one of the most exciting and unique rookies in league history. Bhayshul Tuten was a great value pick in the fourth round, and even 236th pick LeQuint Allen is arguably the best rookie receiving back and could get some playing time in Coen's system.

Speaking of Coen's system, that will likely be the key for Lawrence's bounce-back year. Dave Canales helped Baker Mayfield become a good QB in 2023, but Coen helped him become truly great, despite missing his main WR targets, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, for most of the season.

With Brian Thomas Jr. and Hunter at his disposal, Coen has no shortage of star WRs who can help Lawrence bounce back and finally go from a prince to a king.

Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Arizona Cardinals

Speaking of Brian Thomas Jr., very few people expected BTJ to become the leader in receiving yards among 2024 rookies, as most people were focused on other wideouts such as Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze, and, of course, Marvin Harrison Jr. MHJ was viewed as a sure thing in 2024, and everyone (including myself) thought he could help Kyler Murray take the Cardinals to the next level.

Unfortunately, MHJ couldn't live up to those massive expectations. Despite falling short of fans' expectations, Harrison's rookie stats of 885 yards and eight touchdowns are absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

They're very similar to his father's rookie stats of 836 yards and eight touchdowns, with one fewer game played. It took Harrison Sr. until he was 27 to become a Pro Bowler, but Harrison Jr. is just 22, and time is on his side to achieve this feat quicker than his legendary father.

The Cards had a good offense in 2024, but missed the playoffs due to an abysmal defense. Instead of panicking and drafting a WR to compete with MHJ, Arizona played it safe and drafted defenders with six of its seven 2025 draft picks.

This shows that the Cardinals are still firmly behind Harrison to have a great sophomore season and become the face of their franchise. The fans' expectations were always unrealistic, but he's still well on track to become a star, and this is a great opportunity to buy him at a low price.

Christian McCaffrey, RB, San Francisco 49ers

Everyone wanted to have Christian McCaffrey on their fantasy football team in 2024, but he only played in four games as the 49ers went through an injury crisis. McCaffrey missed the start of the season with an Achilles injury before going down with a PCL injury that ended his season.

Christian McCaffrey can do it all on the football field 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/JvD07ujfhj

— Football’s Greatest Moments (@FBGreatMoments) May 14, 2025

However, the Niners are still keeping the gang together and want to contend for at least one more year. The disappointment of their loss in Super Bowl LVIII is still fresh in their minds, and they're counting on McCaffrey to take them back to the biggest stage.

"He's an elite player, and we're gonna do everything we can to get him the ball as much as we can," 49ers OC Klay Kubiak said. "[Christian] looks awesome. We're pumped up that he's out there working every day. So we're looking forward to getting him back out there full time."

These words suggest that McCaffrey will still be the leading force of the Niners offense in 2025, and the fact that his PCL injury and Achilles injury were both unrelated and have both recovered seems very promising.

T.J. Hockenson, TE, Minnesota Vikings

After an unexpected 14-win 2024 regular season, the Vikings suffered a humiliating defeat in the playoffs against the Rams despite the Rams' home-field advantage being taken from them due to the Los Angeles fires.

That terrible ending to the year won't be forgotten anytime soon by the Vikings stars, and they're looking to prove everyone wrong in 2025. Among the many players with something to prove is tight end T.J. Hockenson.

Hockenson was on track to have his first 1,000-yard season in 2023, but tore his ACL and MCL in Week 16. Hockenson wouldn't return until Week 9 of the 2024 season, but he got going from Week 12 to Week 17, recording 55.7 yards per game as the Vikings went 6-0.

But he failed to score a touchdown during the regular season, which is almost certain to change in 2025. Rookie QB J.J. McCarthy needs a reliable big target in the end zone, and Hockenson is perfect for that.

He'll still be the third main receiving target behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, but we could expect to see his numbers return to what they were before his injury.

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

So, Jerry Jones has finally done it. After years of promising that the Cowboys would go "all-in," they traded for Steelers WR George Pickens. Prescott and the Cowboys are coming off a down, injury-riddled year in 2024, but let's not forget how good Dak was in 2023.

Dak looks angry. I like angry Dak. Maybe determined is more appropriate. But I like angry and determined to prove a point. pic.twitter.com/eL7VUaYqoZ

— ✭ 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒂 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆 ✭ (@ParisaMichelle) May 9, 2025

That season, Prescott finished second in MVP voting as he threw for 4,516 yards, had an exceptional 105.9 passer rating, and led the league in passing touchdowns (36) and completions (410).

Despite hiring a run-heavy head coach, the Cowboys don't have a star back and let go of Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, and Rico Dowdle in recent seasons, so their main priority is still throwing the ball with Prescott. With CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Jake Ferguson, and Jalen Tolbert, Prescott has many talented weapons to throw to.

The Cowboys' main weakness in Prescott's peak 2023 season was their old offensive line, but now they have the youngest O-line unit in the NFL. With those weapons and an upgraded O-line, Prescott could have a season for the ages in 2025.

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