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Justin's veteran NFL players to target and avoid in 2025 fantasy football leagues. His aging sleepers or busts for 2025, including Mike Evans, Aaron Rodgers, and more.
Fantasy football managers are always chasing the next big thing, but what about the same old thing? Sure, Father Time comes for every player eventually, but surely there are still some older dudes out there who can help you in fantasy.
There are! But other veteran players have just been around the league a bit too long at this point and need to be avoided.
Here are four aging players to target and four to avoid in 2025 fantasy football.
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Target: Mike Evans - WR - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Mike Evans just keeps doing it, year after year. He barely got over the mark in 2024, but with his 1,004 receiving yards, Evans finished with over 1,000 yards for the 11th season in a row.
It's a streak that has to end one day, and it seems like several people expect this to be the year. Evans is another year older. The Buccaneers added Emeka Egbuka, suggesting that the team is looking ahead at the post-Evans future.
Those reasons make sense, but the only reason Evans didn't smash far past 1,000 yards last season was that he missed three games due to injury. His per-game numbers were still largely in line with his career numbers, his 71.7 receiving yards per game just a small bit behind his 75.5 career average.
Evans still caught double-digit touchdowns for the fourth time in five years. He's still playing in the same offense, as Tampa promoted its pass game coordinator to offensive coordinator after Liam Coen left to take the Jaguars' head-coaching job.
Maybe Evans can't be relied on as he enters Year 12 to be a fantasy WR1, but he's still a high-upside WR2 play.
Avoid: Aaron Rodgers - QB - Pittsburgh Steelers
Sometimes, you have to just state the obvious. In this case, the obvious is this: Don't draft Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Renegade A-Rod: Four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers informed the #Steelers he’ll fly to Pittsburgh on Friday and sign before next week’s minicamp, sources tell The Insiders.
Finally, a done deal: Rodgers, 41, will play his 21st NFL season in black and gold. pic.twitter.com/zuDXWrSDG0
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 5, 2025
Yes, Rodgers is one of the greatest players of all time, but he's not aging like Tom Brady and Drew Brees did. His 2023 torn Achilles clearly limited him in 2024, with Rodgers just lacking a lot of what made him so dangerous. His accuracy was down. His ability to avoid turnovers vanished.
From 2018 to 2021, Rodgers posted the league's lowest interception rate in four consecutive seasons. However, his last two full seasons have seen turnovers rear their head, with Rodgers tossing double-digit interceptions in both seasons. He hadn't done that at all since 2010.
Rodgers might be a better option for Pittsburgh than backup Mason Rudolph if the team wants to make the playoffs again in 2025, but he's a very bad option if your fantasy team wants to make the playoffs.
Target: Davante Adams - WR - Los Angeles Rams
Davante Adams showed in 2024 that he still has what it takes to be a high-end NFL receiver. His 2023 struggles -- which saw him still finish with 1,000 yards, but also fail to hit 70 yards per game for the first time since 2017 -- weren't a sign he was over the hill.
Adams might have had a better chance to showcase his talent last year if he'd been traded to the Jets in the offseason instead of midseason, but in the 11 games he played in New York, Adams caught seven touchdowns and averaged 77.6 receiving yards per game.
That came still playing with the shadowy remains of Rodgers. Now, Adams is on the move to the Rams, where he should immediately see an upgrade in target quality with Matthew Stafford throwing the ball. Adams is a high-end WR2 with upside in 2025.
Avoid: Cooper Kupp - WR - Seattle Seahawks
Meanwhile, the player who Adams replaced in Los Angeles, Cooper Kupp, finds himself in Seattle, but it's not clear if Kupp has enough left in the tank to make an impact.
Kupp hasn't played a full season since 2021, and at this point, he no longer looks like the player who led the NFL in receptions, yards, and touchdowns that season. In 2024, he dropped below 60 yards per game for the first time since 2017.
At this point, Kupp looks like an injury-prone, ninth-year receiver who is about to play in a new offense for the first time. That's not a recipe for success.
In Seattle, he'll play a pretty clear second fiddle to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and his value will be tied closely to whether or not Sam Darnold can prove his 2024 breakout campaign was real and not just a one-season mirage.
Could Kupp still have a solid year? Sure. But with JSN there to take 100-plus targets again, Kupp's floor is low, and his ceiling is low. He's the exact kind of player you can ignore in fantasy -- if, somehow, he does end up posting a big bounce-back season, I'm not going to feel too bad about having faded him because the process was still right.
Target: Josh Jacobs - RB - Green Bay Packers
Josh Jacobs proved he still had it last year when he moved to the Packers, rushing for 1,329 yards, the second-highest total of his NFL career. He found the end zone 16 times, with 15 of those coming on the ground.
A big part of that was that the Packers didn't have much else at running back. Emanuel Wilson had 103 carries for 502 yards as Jacobs' backup, but I don't believe he's an actual threat to Jacobs' role as the lead back.
"Bad luck" stats from 2024: Packers RB Josh Jacobs had league-high 94 rush yards, 3 TDs negated by penaltieshttps://t.co/3grssQIgSN pic.twitter.com/0Je9v22Kv9
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) June 13, 2025
The good news for Jacobs is that Green Bay didn't bring in competition for him in 2025. MarShawn Lloyd, whose rookie season never got off the ground last year because of injuries, will be expected to press Jacobs for snaps, but Lloyd doesn't worry me. This is Jacobs' backfield once again.
Avoid: Aaron Jones - RB - Minnesota Vikings
Jacobs wasn't the only veteran back to change teams last offseason. Aaron Jones left Green Bay and landed in Minnesota, where he rushed for 1,138 yards, the most of his career. So, why am I advocating Jones as a fade while Jacobs was a target?
Part of it is age. Jacobs might seem like he's been around forever, but he's only 27 years old, while Jones is 30. That's a huge difference in the NFL, especially at running back, a position where players tend to wear down quickly.
Additionally, Jones faces added pressure after the Vikings traded for Jordan Mason, who rushed for 789 yards last year in San Francisco. That number would have been higher if not for an ankle sprain in Week 13 that kept him sidelined for the rest of the regular season.
Mason is a real threat to Jones' playing time. I'm not predicting he wins the starting job right away because Jones isn't washed up or anything like that. However, you have to think the team wants to get the younger back that it just traded for on the field for a lot of snaps in 2025.
Target: DeAndre Hopkins - WR - Baltimore Ravens
There are valid concerns about DeAndre Hopkins at this point, but his current ADP is so low that you might as well roll the dice on the veteran wideout in his first season with the Ravens.
2024 was an off year for Hopkins, but we have to consider some key factors. The main one is that Hopkins was traded midseason. It was clear from the start that something was off with him and the Titans, and he improved in Kansas City. However, it's tough to make an impact in a new situation in the middle of the year.
I think it’s safe to say Lamar Jackson LOVES the addition of DeAndre Hopkins:
“I’m just gonna say that guy is dope. He’s different. I threw him a shallow today, and he caught the ball so smooth. I don’t even think he even put his other hand on the ground to get up. He just… pic.twitter.com/0wAdon9mTo
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) June 17, 2025
Everything we've heard about Hopkins out of Ravens OTAs has been positive. He'll have a full offseason to train with Lamar Jackson, which should allow Hopkins to have a major bounce-back campaign in 2025. Let's not get too wild here -- he won't be a WR2 option.
With that said, Hopkins will be a startable flex option that you can get for next to nothing right now, as he's being drafted near guys like Cedric Tillman, Adam Thielen, and Kyle Williams.
Avoid: Mark Andrews - TE - Baltimore Ravens
For a time last year, it looked like Mark Andrews was done. Over the first four games of the season, he averaged 1.5 receptions for 16.3 yards per game.
He bounced back after that, but even then, he saw five or more targets just eight times in 2024. Compare that to 2023, when he hit that mark eight times as well, but while playing just 10 games due to injury.
Now, Andrews is a year older, and the Ravens have brought in Hopkins, another threat to Andrews as far as targets go. Isaiah Likely hasn't gone anywhere. So why, then, is Andrews getting ranked as a top tight end again this year? He's sixth in the RotoBaller rankings, for example.
Sure, the position is fairly shallow, but Andrews feels very much in danger of falling off a cliff in 2025. At his current ADP, I'll pass every time and wait for a guy like Evan Engram or Tucker Kraft.
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