Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Watchlist for Week 1

Joey's fantasy football waiver wire watchlist before Week 1 of 2025. You should keep an eye on these emerging players and consider them waiver wire stashes.

Welcome to Week 1 and our fantasy football waiver wire watchlist article for the 2025 season! While a good draft is key to winning your fantasy league, making smart moves on the waiver wire can be a sneaky-good way to make up for a bad draft or strengthen a good one.

Young and/or unproven players who start the year as bench stashes or afterthoughts can potentially turn into league winners. In this article, I'll identify five players who you can find on waiver wires before Week 1 that you should consider stashing on your benches if they're still available in your leagues. These players might just turn your fantasy football league upside down.

All players listed in this article are on waivers in over 50% of fantasy football leagues. Good luck in Week 1 RotoBallers!

• 2025 fantasy football rankings
• Running back (RB) fantasy football rankings
• Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
• Tight end (TE) fantasy football rankings
• Quarterback (QB) fantasy football rankings
• FLEX fantasy football rankings
• Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
• Kicker (K) fantasy football rankings
• Dynasty fantasy football rankings

Week 1 Waiver Wire Running Backs

Ollie Gordon II, Miami Dolphins - 42% Rostered

Gordon II may be a sixth-round rookie, but he brings a unique skill set and decorated college career to the Miami offense. At 226 pounds, Gordon is a bruiser who loves getting downhill and powering through contact.

Oklahoma State RB Ollie Gordon is going to be a STAR ⭐️

🟠 1,732 Rushing Yards
🟠 22 Touchdowns
🟠 2023 Doak Walker Award Winner

(@Ollie_Gordon2/@OKSTProbs)
pic.twitter.com/VqemaZjU0s

— SleeperCFB (@SleeperCFB) June 25, 2024

Gordon is also a reliable target in the screen game, with soft hands and great vision, and to top it all off, the rookie is a strong pass protector, meaning he can hold his own on all three downs. This makes him an incredible handcuff to Dolphins star De'Von Achane, whose injury record is spotty at best.

Gordon struggled in 2024, his final season at Oklahoma State, but it was due to no fault of his own. In 2023, Gordon ran for over 1,700 yards and won the Doak Walker award as the nation's top running back.

Gordon was not expected to be Achane's backup come the start of the year: that role was supposed to be filled by second-year back Jaylen Wright. However, Wright struggled in the preseason and has been ruled out of Week 1 after undergoing surgery on his lower leg.

But even when Wright and Achane are both healthy, neither of them is a big and powerful runner like Gordon. He'll have a role in this offense, and if Achane gets hurt, expect the rookie to make a big impact in his place.

Bhayshul Tuten, Jacksonville Jaguars - 43% rostered

It's honestly pretty surprising that Tuten is rostered in 43% of ESPN fantasy football leagues. Seems like managers have been doing their research this year.

A fourth-round rookie out of Virginia Tech, Tuten averaged over six yards per carry in his final year at Virginia Tech, displaying impressive burst and home-run speed. And speaking of home-run speed, Tuten blazed a 4.32-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.

That explosiveness is something both of Jacksonville's incumbent running backs, Travis Etienne Jr. and Tank Bigsby, cannot match. Jaguars head coach Liam Coen hit the jackpot on fourth-round RB Bucky Irving last season in Tampa. Can he repeat the trick with Tuten?

Bhayshul Tuten finds the end zone 💪

Led @HokiesFB with 1,159 rushing yards (183 carries, 6.3 per), 15 rushing TDs in 2024 👀

Watch live out-of-market games on #NFLPlus
Blackout restrictions may applypic.twitter.com/Z9Rzsy4LQ3

— NFL+ (@NFLPlus) August 17, 2025

There is one big obstacle in Tuten's way, and that is his propensity to fumble the football. Tuten fumbled the ball 10 times in his final two seasons at Virginia Tech, a concerning statistic. But if he can clean that up, his big-play ability should certainly earn him a role in the Jags' new-look offense.

Kyle Monangai, Chicago Bears - 2% rostered

Even though D'Andre Swift struggled for efficiency in 2024, the Bears only addressed the position in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by selecting Monangai, a hard-nosed runner out of Rutgers, not too dissimilar from alumni Isiah Pacheco.

A downhill runner with a low center of gravity, Monangai rushed for 1,279 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2024 on 5.0 yards per carry. The rookie also impressed in the preseason with improved vision, which was an issue for him at times while at Rutgers.

Bears RB Kyle Monangai's vision and violence on fill display here
pic.twitter.com/VE80HvxKuo

— Dave (@dave_bfr) August 11, 2025

At five feet, eight inches, and 211 pounds, Monangai is also a tough and willing pass-blocker, which head coach Ben Johnson will love. Johnson operated a run-heavy offense in Detroit that relied on multiple running backs, so Monangai could carve out a significant role for himself as an early-down and goal-line back.

With incumbent backup Roschon Johnson not practicing the past two days, Monangai could get a leg up on the RB2 job, and possibly even earn a role similar to what David Montgomery had in Detroit in the past two seasons.

Monangai should certainly not be on waivers in most leagues, so that 2% rostered figure is comically low. Add him if you want to take a flier on a high-ceiling running back in a good offense (The Bears aren't a good offense yet, but I believe they will be by season's end).

Week 1 Waiver Wire Wide Receivers

Dont'e Thornton Jr., Las Vegas Raiders - 12% rostered

Al Davis might not be running the show for the Raiders anymore, but his impact still lives on because the team is still drafting players like Thornton in 2025. The fourth-round rookie wideout stands six feet, five inches and has 4.3 speed - making him excellent at going deep and snagging contested catches.

Dont'e Thornton Jr. with a 4.30U!

HE'S 6'5 by the way! 🤯

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/sSLmT3iqq0

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) March 1, 2025

Thornton is obviously a freakish athlete, but a lack of production in college caused him to slip to Round 4 (his career-high in catches in a single season is just 26). However, he's made sure to overcome that perception, passing second-round rookie Jack Bech on the depth chart before the season's start.

With Amari Cooper's retirement, nothing is stopping Thornton from being an every-down WR opposite Jakobi Meyers. His size and speed should make him the ideal big-play target for new Raiders QB Geno Smith.

A high-upside talent, Thornton could hit the ground running while defenses panic trying to stop Meyers and superstar tight end Brock Bowers. He's got serious potential to pay off big as a Week 1 waiver pickup.

Elic Ayomanor, Tennessee Titans - 4% rostered

If Ayomanor's name sounds vaguely familiar, that's because it probably is. In 2023, the Stanford wideout detonated for 13 receptions, 294 yards, and three TDs against Colorado - and future Heisman winner Travis Hunter.

ELIC AYOMANOR OVER Travis Hunter IN OT 😱#SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/5odnyQrttn

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 14, 2023

If that doesn't scream "NFL talent" to you, I don't know what does. Ayomanor went to the Titans in the fourth round of this year's draft and, like Thornton, has solidified his role as the WR2 on his team.

During his time at Stanford, Ayomanor displayed a knack for making highlight-reel catches in tight coverage. But that's not all he can do - the receiver has legit NFL speed, which he put on display with a 4.44 40-yard dash at the Combine.

His impressive ball-winning could make him an immediate favorite of fellow rookie Cam Ward. Considering he plays for the Titans, a team that struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball last year, Ayomanor could be seeing the football early and often in 2025.

There is a slight worry with drops regarding the rookie, but if he can clean that up, he'll step into a decent target share right away. Don't sleep on Ayomanor - he has real league-winning upside.

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