Champ or Chump: Fantasy Football Outlooks for Jordan Mason, DeVonta Smith, Travis Etienne Jr., Jaylen Warren, Hunter Henry

by John Johnson

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Justin's fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks for Week 4 of 2025. He looks at surprising performances from Jordan Mason, DeVonta Smith, Travis Etienne Jr., Jaylen Warren, Hunter Henry.

Making sense of big performances from players who, for a variety of reasons, weren't expected to have huge games in Week 3 is an important task for fantasy managers who want to decide how to move forward regarding certain players.

We can see what seems like millions of examples of players having big games that didn't end up being breakouts. We just saw one. Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tory Horton, a rookie, scored 18.2 PPR fantasy points in Week 3 and followed that up with 2.0 in Week 4.

It's an extreme example, and of a first-year player, but this also happens to veteran players, so it's worth diving into if you're making tough start and sit decisions in Week 4, of if you're just curious if you should trade for a player and expect continued good production. So let's dive in!

Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:

Jordan Mason, RB, Minnesota Vikings

Week 3 stats: 16 carries, 116 yards, two touchdowns, 23.6 PPR fantasy points

Mason's role as the clear lead back and workhorse for the Vikings paid off in a big way in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals. Mason averaged nearly 7.3 yards per carry, Minnesota's offensive line blocked very well, and the former 49er showed great power and ability to break tackles.

It appears that he'll end up being a true gem of the middle rounds of the draft -- at least while fellow Vikings running back Aaron Jones Sr. (hamstring) remains out with his hamstring injury. Jones is on Injured Reserve, meaning he'll have to miss at least three more contests.

Jordan Mason's vision is superb pic.twitter.com/i2gNNRFnED

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) September 25, 2025

Mason is a good running back. Last year, with the San Francisco 49ers, he was a good running back stuck behind another good running back (Christian McCaffrey, when he was healthy) that dealt with injury issues. This year, he's healthy, the team's RB1 and primary rusher, and still very good.

While he's not a PPR machine, he is on a good offense with a good offensive line and good coaching. He's the real deal.

Verdict: Champ - Always Has Been

DeVonta Smith, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

Week 3 stats: nine targets, eight catches, 60 yards, one touchdown, 20.0 PPR fantasy points

In the first game that a team actually managed to put pressure on the Eagles by building a lead, quarterback Jalen Hurts finally threw the ball often, and down the field, and propelled both Smith and WR A.J. Brown to excellent fantasy performances.

Smith is very talented, and though he's his team's WR2, he can easily put up similar numbers as Brown. Everything, and I mean everything, depends on the game script Philadelphia faces. When they can build and maintain a lead, they hardly pass the ball, instead opting to control it and prevent turnovers while grinding down the game clock.

DEVONTA SMITH#Eagles pic.twitter.com/uJxCr9cHIf

— Thomas R. Petersen (@thomasrp93) September 21, 2025

In games where Hurts has to actually pass, it seems that both Smith and Brown will be heavily involved, and the presence of Brown doesn't preclude Smith from getting plenty of work. Hopefully this continues moving forward. It doesn't make sense to heavily feed Dallas Goedert.

But in games with positive schematic matchups for Goedert against bad offenses, things could be pretty ugly. I imagine against the New York Giants, in Week 6, Philly could get away with barely passing the ball and still win. Smith is good, but he's limited in some games by awful, awful pass volume.

Verdict: Heavily Matchup-Dependent Champ

Travis Etienne Jr., RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Week 3 stats: 16 carries, 56 yards, one touchdown, 3.5 yards per carry, 11.6 PPR fantasy points

While it was commonly thought that Etienne would be heavily used as a receiver this season with Jacksonville, we haven't seen a major pass-catching role materialize. And though the team traded away his former backup, Tank Bigsby, rookie back Bhayshul Tuten has still been getting some high-value touches.

Tuten rushed for a touchdown, though he did carry the ball only six times and also didn't log a catch. As the season goes on, we should expect Tuten to get more involved, and within a few weeks, he could force a pretty even committee split in this backfield.

RBs in 2025 by Missed Tackles Forced per touch:

1. Kendre Miller (0.45) (!)
2. Rachaad White (0.43)
3. Jaylen Warren (0.33)
5. Bhayshul Tuten (0.32)
6. Kyle Monangai (0.31) (?)
...
26. Travis Etienne (0.18)
32. Josh Jacobs (0.16)
...
45. TreVeyon Henderson (0.10)

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) September 22, 2025

Etienne's ability to elude tacklers has been significantly worse than Tuten's. The film shows Tuten being clearly more elusive, and playing with great power. Add in the rookie's elite athleticism and it makes sense that he's likely carving out a bigger role for himself.

It doesn't help that fellow rookie LeQuint Allen Jr. is taking a lot of third-down work, mainly serving as a pass-protector. That limits Etienne's snaps even further. While it does help that the Jaguars have, in general, been a much better rushing team under new head coach Liam Coen, it's hard to imagine Etienne repeating his Week 1 performance.

Jacksonville Jaguars Rush Yards per Game:

2024 - 101.7 (25th in the NFL)

2025 - 141.7 (5th in NFL)

Bhayshul Tuten is in a very nice environment to absolutely explode at some point this season. Should be rostered in 100% of leagues

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) September 23, 2025

I'd be selling Etienne. I definitely do not see a ton of upside in the second half of the season, and though he might have a few more good games, it's better to get out too early rather than too late. A Tuten injury might be the only thing that could change this.

Verdict: More Champ than Chump now (more Chump than Champ around midseason)

Jaylen Warren, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Week 3 stats: 18 rushes 47 yards, 2.6 yards per carry, six targets, five catches, 34 yards

For starters, Warren (knee) is dealing with a knee issue, but he's at least expected to play in Week 4 anyway. Regardless, he's been his team's primary rusher through three games, as the rookie RB Kaleb Johnson experiment has gotten off to a catastrophic start.

Warren's snaps and touches have increased each week, and he totaled 24 opportunities in Week 3. It appears that Pittsburgh knows he's their best back. Not like he has much competition. That said, they likely didn't plan for Johnson to have zero impact this year.

Is Jaylen Warren a legit Top 3 RB after this?

He is going NUCLEAR 👀🔥

pic.twitter.com/2CrE6knBJ9

— MetcalfBurgh 🫡 (@PickensBurgh) September 14, 2025

I don't think Warren is going nuclear. The underlying efficiency stats are impressive, though. For multiple seasons now, Warren has been very elusive and shows nice burst. But Pittsburgh has very poor run-blocking, and often he doesn't have much space to even get past the line of scrimmage.

He's a fine player to start for now, but the Steelers have a bad offense and a poor defense and it's been tough sledding for him. He's held back by his situation.

Verdict: More Champ than Chump

Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots

Week 3 stats: 11 targets, eight catches, 90 yards, two touchdowns, 29.0 PPR fantasy points

It's likely that Henry will be started in the vast majority of leagues in Week 4, considering how tough it is to find good production at the TE position. Henry had a monster game in Week 3, topping all tight ends in PPR points scored.

Henry is the Patriots No. 1 TE, and has already clearly built chemistry with quarterback Drake Maye. But just a week ago, he had only one catch for nine yards on three targets. If Henry truly is the team's best receiving threat and a great TE, games like that shouldn't happen, right?

tidy ball placement from Drake Maye on the Seam to Hunter Henry pic.twitter.com/T1hhiKecZj

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) September 7, 2025

I think that quarterback Drake Maye, the Patriots first-round draft selection in 2024, has been playing fantastic football. But he tends to spread the ball around heavily to his pass-catchers, and it's been difficult for any of them to have consistent upside.

When it comes to tight ends, though, you're really scrabbling for whatever food you can in a gigantic wasteland of a desert, to speak metaphorically. Henry will likely continue to have volatility, but he seems to have a nice ceiling and the potential for multiple more double-digit PPR point scoring games, so he should be started.

Verdict: More Champ than Chump

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