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Justin Carter looks at eight veteran fantasy football wide receivers who are set to lose targets in 2025. These WRs are fantasy football bust options in 2025.
New, young wide receivers enter the NFL every year, and their targets don't materialize out of thin air. Instead, they come at the expense of veteran players.
Who are some of those veteran players in 2025? Names like Kendrick Bourne and Sterling Shepard headline the list of veteran wideouts who simply won't see as much usage in 2025 as they have in the past.
Below are eight veteran wide receivers who are set to lose targets in 2025. These are largely players who fantasy football managers want to avoid in 2025.
Editor's Note: Identify fantasy football draft busts, overvalued ADPs, and key players to avoid so you can draft with confidence this season.
Curtis Samuel - Buffalo Bills
2024 Targets: 46
Curtis Samuel's first season in Buffalo already saw a drop in usage. After being targeted 91 times in 2023 with the Commanders, marking the fourth time in five years that Samuel had seen 90 or more targets, his numbers dropped dramatically in 2024, down to just 46 targets.
I will not fall for the Curtis Samuel trap again in 2025 https://t.co/JLdtlDu8Wd
— Kevin (@Daboys_22) May 3, 2025
Things should continue to get worse in his second season with the Bills, as the team added Joshua Palmer and Elijah Moore this offseason. While neither is an elite wideout, both have upside and should be in the battle for the No. 3 role.
With Khalil Shakir still blocking Samuel from slot snaps, there's just not much reason to think a bounce-back 2025 campaign is in the works for the speedy veteran receiver. With Keon Coleman likely set for a breakout sophomore season, Samuel will largely take a backseat in this offense in 2025.
Adam Thielen - Carolina Panthers
2024 Targets: 62
Adam Thielen's 2024 numbers look worse than they were because he missed seven games. On a per-game basis, he was still basically where he had been. His 61.5 receiving yards per game were his most since 2020, when he finished with 61.7 per game for the Vikings.
Thielen wasn't the elite player he was from 2016 to 2018, but he was still a productive player when he was on the field in 2024, standing out in a weak Panthers receiving unit.
Unfortunately for Thielen, the Panthers added the best wide receiver in this year's draft class, using a first-round pick on Tetairoa McMillan. With Xavier Legette in line to take on a larger role, plus Jalen Coker offering the team another enticing young option at receiver, Thielen is likely going to see his role reduced a bit in 2025.
John Metchie III - Houston Texans
2024 Targets: 37
If you were hoping for a John Metchie III breakout campaign in 2025, then those hopes were dashed during the NFL Draft as Houston spent both a second- and third-round pick on the wide receiver position.
Metchie, a 2022 second-round pick, saw his NFL career get off to a slow start after he was diagnosed with leukemia, causing him to miss his rookie season.
It'd be a great story if Metchie reached the level that his pre-illness college production suggested he could reach, but the fact that Houston invested so heavily in wide receivers this offseason says a lot about how it views Metchie.
May be time to call the Texans on the availability of John Metchie after all the receivers they’ve added this off-season 🤔 pic.twitter.com/TKZqHcVqOO
— Air Raid | Buffalo (@TheBillsGuys) April 27, 2025
Specifically, the use of a second-round pick on Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins suggests that Houston doesn't view Metchie as a starting outside receiver. The acquisition of Christian Kirk and the drafting of slot receiver Jaylin Noel don't impact Metchie too much, but Higgins is direct competition for targets as the second outside receiver.
JuJu Smith-Schuster - Kansas City Chiefs
2024 Targets: 26
The JuJu Smith-Schuster era is about to finally come to an end.
The former Steelers receiver was still a really good player as recently as 2022, when he caught 78 passes for 933 yards and three touchdowns for the Chiefs. An ill-fated signing with New England in 2023 led to Smith-Schuster being nearly invisible, though, and a return to K.C. in 2024 didn't change that.
Last year, Smith-Schuster was targeted just 26 times, the fewest in his NFL career. That number could drop even more in 2025, though, as the Chiefs are expected to have a healthy Marquise Brown all year.
Add in Xavier Worthy's continued growth, and it's tough to see much of a role for Smith-Schuster. Unless there's an injury to one of the three receivers ahead of him on the roster, he won't have any fantasy usefulness. There's no guarantee he even makes the team's final roster, considering the team drafted Jalen Royals in the fourth round.
Tutu Atwell - Los Angeles Rams
2024 Targets: 62
Tutu Atwell set career-high marks in receptions and receiving yards last season, but that happened with both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua missing time.
Kupp is gone now, but the Rams brought in another big-name receiver to replace him in Davante Adams. Adams should play a larger role than a declining Kupp played in 2024, which is bad news for Atwell.
The departure of Demarcus Robinson could help make up for that, but that's assuming Jordan Whittington doesn't leap. The Rams should also run more double-TE sets with Tyler Higbee and rookie Terrance Ferguson, further pushing Atwell to the sidelines at times.
Kendrick Bourne - New England Patriots
2024 Targets: 38
Kendrick Bourne has been a reliable depth piece for the Patriots in the post-Tom Brady era, but last season saw him record his fewest targets, receptions, and receiving yards since joining the team in 2021. Things will get worse in 2025.
Patriots Biggest Roster Bubble Players heading into Training Camp
1) OLB Jahlani Tavai
2) WR Kendrick Bourne
3) WR Mack Hollins
4) S Marte Mapu
5) WR Javon Baker
6) OG Sidy Sow
7) RB Lan Larison
8) WR Efton Chism III
9) DT Jeremiah Pharms
10) OG Wes Schweitzer pic.twitter.com/q9442yAYs0— PatriotsFanatic75 (@PatsFanatic7512) May 20, 2025
That's because New England made several investments in wide receivers this offseason, led by signing Stefon Diggs in free agency. Diggs might not be the same elite receiver he was in the past, but he's still someone who'll command targets, assuming he's healthy.
Diggs wasn't the only addition, though. Mack Hollins is a solid depth piece, and rookie Kyle Williams should battle for playing time. Add in good young pieces like DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte, and one has to wonder if Bourne's time in New England is going to be up very, very soon.
Allen Lazard - New York Jets
2024 Targets: 60
With Aaron Rodgers gone from the Jets, will Allen Lazard still see the kind of volume he saw in 2024?
Lazard finished fifth on the Jets in targets last year. He was third behind Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams among the team's wide receivers.
Notably, Lazard had a fairly big advantage over the No. 4 receiver on the team, Mike Williams. Williams was targeted just 21 times, as New York went with a very clear three-player wideout rotation.
The Jets added receiving talent this offseason, bringing in Josh Reynolds and Tyler Johnson as well as drafting Arian Smith in the fourth round. None of those guys projects to be a star, but they all cloud the path for Lazard to have the role he had in the past.
Of course, no longer having Adams means that the No. 2 role is potentially available, but this is where we come back to Rodgers. Most people tend to think Lazard only had the role he had in New York because of his familiarity with Rodgers from their time in Green Bay.
That could very well be the case. Not counting his rookie season when he played just one game, Lazard's worst season was 2023, when he came to New York to join Rodgers. We all know how that went: Rodgers tore his Achilles in his Jets debut. Lazard averaged a career-low 22.2 yards per game that season.
Sterling Shepard - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2024 Targets: 51
Veteran wide receiver Sterling Shepard left the Giants last offseason to join the Buccaneers, where he had a bit of a resurgence. After catching just 10 passes for 57 yards in 2023 with the Giants, Shepard had 32 receptions for 334 yards and a touchdown last year.
But he was already in danger of losing work with the emergence of Jalen McMillan, who broke out near the end of the year and looked set to be the team's No. 3 option in 2025.
Then came the draft. The Buccaneers used their first-round pick on Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, further pushing Shepard down the depth chart. He's now set to be the No. 5 receiver on this team in 2025. That's not a role with fantasy football upside unless something changes dramatically in Tampa Bay.
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