Champ or Chump? Fantasy Outlooks for Bhayshul Tuten, Keenan Allen, Troy Franklin, Kyle Pitts

September 18, 2025

Justin's fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks for Week 3 of 2025. His rest-of-season fantasy outlooks for Bhayshul Tuten, Keenan Allen, Troy Franklin, and Kyle Pitts

So, you clicked on this article because you happen to have one or more of the players in the title on your fantasy roster, right? Or maybe because you're wondering if you should put out a trade offer to the player who does have them. Either way, you're looking at what these players have done so far, and you're trying to make sense of it.

Well, you're in luck. These players could be potential game-changing talents for your fantasy roster, or they could wind up being busts going forward. Figuring out which way that's going to go is crucial to building a competitive fantasy team.

So, are we looking at fantasy football champs or fantasy football chumps here? Let's talk about the current situations for Bhayshul Tuten, Keenan Allen, Troy Franklin, and Kyle Pitts Sr.

Bhayshul Tuten, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Week 2 stats: eight carries for 42 yards, two receptions for 32 yards, and one touchdown -- overall RB17

Before the start of this season, the Jaguars' backfield looked like one of — if not the — hardest backfields to predict. Travis Etienne was coming off a down year but had looked like an elite running back at times during his 2023 campaign. Tank Bigsby had started out his career slowly but came on strong in 2024. Rookie Tuten showed promise.

Luckily for everyone, Jacksonville traded Bigsby to Philadelphia, which immediately clarified things in Jacksonville. The No. 3 and No. 4 running backs, LeQuint Allen Jr. and Cody Schrader, aren't impact players at the moment, so the run game would simply be some mix of Etienne and Tuten.

Early on, it's been all Etienne, who has 30 carries to Tuten's 11 and a significantly higher yards per carry average as well, beating Tuten 7.1 to 4.8. Of course, on such a small sample, Etienne's long run of 71 yards is overrepresented there, but it's still clear that the Jaguars view him as the clear No. 1 back.

Tuten caught a touchdown pass in Week 2 and now has more receiving yards on the season than Etienne, but there's also been some luck involved in that. Etienne has three times as many targets so far, though this offense overall doesn't look like it's going to heavily use backs in the passing game.

If there's a true path to fantasy relevance for Tuten, it's going to require the Jaguars getting him more touches on the ground. That does make what happened this week pretty notable, as Tuten had three carries in the opener but eight of them against the Bengals.

Bhayshul Tuten's got the juice pic.twitter.com/tsymiJw72h

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) September 17, 2025

His snap rate also rose sharply, up from 6.1 percent in Week 1 to 25.4 percent in Week 2. It's an encouraging sign for Tuten's fantasy managers, but it's not quite enough...yet.

If this trend continues and Tuten can get up to somewhere around a 40 percent snap rate, then I think he'll get the touches needed to contribute on a consistent basis. Until then, it's risky to trust him in your lineup, especially with a strong Texans defense coming to town in Week 3.

Verdict: Chump, for now, but this kid is good

Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

Week 2 stats: five catches for 61 yards and one touchdown -- overall WR17

We thought we understood the Chargers' receiving unit. Ladd McConkey was set to break out in his second NFL season. Tre' Harris would get plenty of work as a rookie. Quentin Johnston was probably a bust, but would get the snaps needed to fight back against that label.

Then, just before the season began, the Chargers brought back a familiar face in Allen. The veteran wide receiver spent last season in Chicago, but chose to return to the only team he'd ever played for before 2024.

Fantasy managers were able to go out and get Allen well after Pick 100 in drafts, and that bet on a bounce-back season from the veteran seems to have paid off.

It’s so funny that the Chargers picked up Keenan Allen off the street like two weeks before the season started and he’s just unstoppable pic.twitter.com/UyiQCS3jXl

— Max Loeb (@loebsleads) September 16, 2025

Allen has found the end zone in both games so far this season, and his 17 targets lead the team, with Johnston and McConkey tied for second with 14. No other player has more than four targets.

Quarterback Justin Herbert has plenty of familiarity with Allen, and we're seeing that right now, as he's trusting him consistently as a guy who can move he chains. Nine of his 12 catches are for first downs.

While I do think McConkey's talent will win out in the long term and he'll wind up as the top guy here, Allen should have a key role as long as he stays healthy. He'll get plenty of targets and will remain the go-to guy when Herbert just needs to make a positive play.

Verdict: Considering how cheap he was to acquire in fantasy, Allen's a Champ

Troy Franklin, WR, Denver Broncos

Week 2 stats: eight catches for 89 yards and one touchdown, one carry for 11 yards -- overall WR8

Plenty was made last year of the college connection between quarterback Bo Nix and wide receiver Franklin. While Nix had himself an excellent rookie campaign, Franklin was much slower to get going, catching 28 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns.

Franklin already has 12 receptions in 2025, including eight of them in Week 2's loss to the Indianapolis Colts. In that game, Franklin was the lone bright spot in the Denver passing attack.

The No. 2 receiver by yards in that game? Marvin Mims Jr. with 24 yards. Franklin had 89. Second in targets? Courtland Sutton had four, which was less than half of what Franklin had.

Sutton outplayed Franklin in the opener and remains the No. 1 receiver in Denver, but we knew entering the year that Mims' place as the No. 2 guy was far from secure. With Franklin outproducing him two weeks in a row, it's probably time to acknowledge that Franklin has that role.

Troy Franklin had an up-and-down rookie season. But offseason spent in dedication to his craft has resulted in him getting off to a fast start, allowing him to show the speed and big-play ability that helped him flourish at Oregon with Bo Nix two years ago. My report: pic.twitter.com/NVpoEuqMRZ

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) September 18, 2025

That's not to say Franklin is a league winner. His production is likely to be inconsistent, and it remains to be seen if Nix can sustain two fantasy-relevant receivers. Still, he belongs on fantasy rosters and is playable right away as a flex option if you're dealing with injuries.

Verdict: "champ", but a pretty soft champ – there's a reason this sentence is written in lower case

Kyle Pitts Sr., TE, Atlanta Falcons

Week 2 stats: four catches for 37 yards -- overall TE18

After a pretty strong season debut that saw him catch seven passes for 59 yards, Week 2 saw us get more of a glimpse at the Pitts that we all know as he finished with four catches for 37 yards.

The good news? His five targets tied for the most on the team. The bad news? Michael Penix Jr. threw just 21 passes. Running back Bijan Robinson had more carries than Penix had attempts (22), while backup Tyler Allgeier had more carries (16) than Penix had completions (13).

Pitts could be the best receiving option on this team, but Atlanta clearly wants to run the ball. Sure, there will be weeks where the targets are there like they were in Week 1, but in a game like this, where the Falcons get an early lead, the team can just lean on the run, limiting opportunities for the passing attack.

The lack of high-end talent among Atlanta's pass-catchers means that we should expect a few good showings from Pitts, but a fifth-year breakout doesn't feel super likely here. You can use Pitts as a low-end TE1, but you'd have been better off just passing on him back during your fantasy drafts.

Verdict: I'm done falling for Kyle Pitts — he's a Chump, even if he's bound to have a few good weeks