RADIO
John's fantasy football outlooks for six second-year wide receivers. Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze, Brian Thomas Jr., Xavier Worthy, and Ladd McConkey.
Last year's wide receiver class was touted as one of the best in the history of NFL drafts. For three receivers -- Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., and Ladd McConkey -- it lived up to the billing. But the depth wasn't quite what it was claimed to be, as we saw in Year 1.
Instead, both Marvin Harrison Jr. and Rome Odunze, hyped as elite prospects and sure-fire WR1s for years to come, flopped in their first seasons by any angle you look at it from. Raw statistics, efficiency, and film-wise, both were big disappointments.
Xavier Worthy got off to a slow start, though he had three nice games to finish the season. I'm ignoring the Super Bowl performance because it was trash. He did nothing until the other team put in their backups. With all that in mind, let's dive into fantasy football outlooks for Year 2 for all six players!
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Brian Thomas Jr. Fantasy Football Outlook
Thomas was the best performer of all the rookie wide receivers from the 2024 NFL Draft class. He racked up 87 catches on 133 targets for 1,282 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. Thomas developed nicely as a route-runner, and his combination of height and blinding speed made him a matchup nightmare.
Brian Thomas Jr is so good man
pic.twitter.com/23xurOYt91— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) May 17, 2025
Thomas dominated in virtually every game he played in. Unfortunately for him, he played in a horrifically bad offensive system run by certified football terrorist Press Taylor. Now, the Jaguars have head coach Liam Coen running the show. Things should turn around quickly.
Coen just led quarterback Baker Mayfield to the best season of his career. The Bucs had an elite passing offense that routinely shredded opposing defenses. So expect Lawrence to have the best season of his career. The Jags drafted elite WR/CB prospect Travis Hunter, which will help draw coverage away from Thomas.
Statistically, a season similar to 2024 seems to be very plausible. I'd be shocked if he can't reach his rookie year numbers again. I'd say 145 targets, 100 catches, 1,350 yards, and 13 touchdowns.
Malik Nabers Fantasy Football Outlook
After Nabers' 36.1 PPR fantasy point performance against the tanking Indianapolis Colts in Week 17, the entire fantasy football community collectively got amnesia and forgot how miserable the majority of Nabers' season was in 2024. Now, people expect quarterback Russell Wilson to feed Nabers with elite target volume.
If Russell Wilson ends up being the NY Giants starter (which seems likely at this point), it could be bad news for Malik Nabers.
Wilson has a real tendency to avoid throwing over the intermediate and deep middle of the field, limiting his pass attempts targeting posts, slants,… https://t.co/nhLPtuNcPz
— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) March 26, 2025
The problem is that Wilson is so risk-averse that he'll refuse to throw a lot of tight-window passes in between defenders. What's most important to him is preserving his touchdown-to-interception ratio and passer rating. Not winning games if it comes at the cost of him looking bad.
For Nabers, as you can see from the post above, this isn't very good. Nabers thrives at getting open in the parts of the field where Wilson is scared to throw. So if you draft Nabers, you're in for another season of angst, as you'll likely see him streaking open and Wilson just refusing to hit him.
People forgot that Malik Nabers had such a miserable stretch last year. Russell Wilson, who's afraid to throw over the intermediate and deep middle of the field, won't fix this. I don't understand why he's being picked in the top 6 in some leagues. There are much safer bets pic.twitter.com/cO7wqfUBAJ
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 22, 2025
It's really tough to predict Nabers' Year 2. The Giants' quarterback situation is just too rocky. At some point, Wilson will likely be benched for rookie Jaxson Dart, who could have some growing pains, though I have a lot of faith in Dart. Also, New York easily has the most challenging schedule in the NFL.
#Giants strength of schedule over the last 5 years:
25’- 1st
24’- T-6th
23’- T-3rd
22’- 29th
21’ 25th pic.twitter.com/vM6PfxXVXr— The Giants Report (@GiantsReport1) May 7, 2025
Nabers finished as the WR6 last season. With a full season of good quarterback play and a stable offense, I could see him easily exceeding his rookie season total. But I just don't know about drafting him top 6 in redraft leagues. That's a big risk. Still, the upside is huge, and a 1,300-yard season is likely in the books with at least eight TDs.
Ladd McConkey Fantasy Football Outlook
The biggest problem I had with McConkey's projections was the idea that the Chargers, whose offense is run by certified trash offensive coordinator Greg Roman, wouldn't invest premium draft capital in another wide receiver to take some of the coverage away from McConkey.
Thankfully, they did, and selected Tre Harris in the second round. Now, I'm more comfortable with McConkey at his ADP. He suffered a big rash of injuries in college, and though he miraculously made it through a full year missing just one game, that's now my biggest concern with him.
There’s all I’ve found on Ladd McConkey. Take note of that Jones fracture note on his history of football related injuries.
Class is actually really healthy overall, which makes McConkey stick out even more.
*Image from the @FntsyHeadliners draft guide:… https://t.co/o3MwFxPMKX pic.twitter.com/5FP6JB6CdP
— Ethan Turner (@ETurnerFF) April 23, 2024
He already has a very extensive injury history. The goldfish memories of the fantasy football community ensure that very few people are worried about him missing significant time in 2025. Still, I can't rule out the possibility of that affecting my outlook. Not that McConkey battled through ailments for portions of 2024.
Weirdly enough, it's remarkably boring at times to project players that have big rookie breakout seasons. Roman's offense will still be very run-heavy, and McConkey's usage in 2024 still wasn't enough. I'm thinking he eclipses 150 targets, racking up 1,200 yards and eight touchdowns in 2025 IF he stays healthy. If Roman weren't there, they'd be higher.
Marvin Harrison Jr. Fantasy Football Outlook
One player that I expect to take a leap in 2025, at least for PPR fantasy football purposes, is Harrison. His usage as a rookie was pretty mind-bogglingly stupid. He doesn't have the speed or physicality to play as a true X receiver, and could benefit from running more horizontally breaking routes.
Marvin Harrison Jr. creating separation?!
It's all about the change in his route tree.
MHJ A.S.S.™️ ranks:
🔺86th percentile - horizontally breaking routes
🔻45th percentile - vertically breaking routesThe Cardinals have gotten him more H-Breaking routes as his rookie season… https://t.co/LpVRdSf6Kt
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) November 19, 2024
Last season, Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing didn't tailor the offense to Harrison's strength. Instead, he stubbornly stuck to what his vision of the offense could be if Harrison were better down the field. He needs to correct this mistake in 2025 if Harrison is to have his talents maximized.
Harrison should be moved around the formation more, running routes from the slot and out wide, and focus on more horizontally-breaking routes. That's where he excels and where he can consistently win against NFL coverage. If that doesn't happen, yikes.
Either way, Harrison is a solid red zone threat, and I could see his targets increasing to 150, with 100 catches for around 1,200 yards and nine scores. He could still serve as the second pass-catching option behind tight end Trey McBride.
Xavier Worthy Fantasy Football Outlook
Worthy was horribly inefficient in his first season, but it wasn't all his fault. To no one's surprise, he was terrible against press coverage. He's a diminutive player who doesn't have a great release package, so it's not super hard for offenses to jam him at the line and disrupt his route patterns.
It won't help that he'll likely have WR Rashee Rice to compete with for targets all year. Rice is the better receiver and seems fully recovered from his knee injury. His court case could take over a year to proceed, delaying his inevitable suspension.
rewatching xavier worthy for a youtube video, and these downfield misses remain extremely painful. (but he's good and so it Mahomes. they hit in 2025.) pic.twitter.com/1lqXbPrizz
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) May 19, 2025
Mahomes shoulders the blame for much of their inability to connect, though. He was oddly inaccurate on downfield passes, and Worthy's speed helped him get open deep downfield on many shots that Mahomes just egregiously missed. That seems like it could improve moving forward.
Still, the Chiefs' WR room is crowded with at least decent options. They still have WR Marquise Brown, who has quite a bit of juice left (if he can stay healthy), and drafted speedster Jalen Royals in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Rashee Rice
Xavier Worthy
Hollywood Brown
Jalen Royals 😈pic.twitter.com/eRipvHCTga— Jacob ✍🏼 (@HitStickHicks) May 3, 2025
Combine this with the persisting presence of tight end Travis Kelce and, eventually, running back Brashard Smith's few targets per game, and there isn't much room for Worthy to have a huge season of targets. I have to imagine he'll be a bit underutilized.
So I expect him to finish the season with 110 targets, 75 catches, 950 yards, and eight scores. He could add around 200 rushing yards and one rushing score as well.
Rome Odunze Fantasy Football Outlook
I was not a fan of Odunze at all coming out of college. He doesn't have the long speed to win vertically and struggles against certain types of coverages. It's now very clear that new Bears head coach Ben Johnson wasn't satisfied with just DJ Moore and Odunze as his team's primary pass-catchers.
That's because he used his first two picks to draft tight end Colston Loveland and wide receiver Luther Burden III. It was a brutal turn of events for Odunze fantasy managers in dynasty. I don't expect him to ever live up to his billing. Sucks for anyone who was tricked into drafting him above Thomas, who was clearly a better player in college.
According to Stathead, since 2000, there have been 15 rookie WRs drafted in the top 10 to put up <750 YDS, <45 YDS/G, and <5 TD in their first seasons.
Not good company for Rome Odunze: pic.twitter.com/lbKDL0xp3D
— Frank Ammirante (@FAmmiranteTFJ) May 21, 2025
Sure, Odunze had a lot of target competition in Year 1, so you can excuse his poor production based on that. But he was also very inefficient. And the problem is that now there's more competition for looks. Sell him off now while you still can.
I don't see him getting more than 110 targets, catching 65 passes for 800 yards and five scores. A Burden, Loveland, or Moore injury would be needed for him to put up more impressive numbers. And it will be hard to trust starting him outside of deep leagues.
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