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John Johnson's three biggest aging fantasy football players who you should aim to sell and trade away in dynasty leagues before the start of the 2025 NFL season.
It's hard to always know when to sell off your aging fantasy football players. Often, it's also difficult to accept that it's better to move on from a player when he's coming off a productive season and still has a lot left in the tank. But I believe it's better to be a year early than it is to be a year too late.
Different players start to experience declines in production at different stages in their careers, and some end up being good even into their early 30s. But when the clock is ticking, and you can get a good return by trading some of your veterans away, you should just pounce sometimes.
Let's break down my top-3 aging veterans you should trade away for draft picks and/or younger players in dynasty fantasy football leagues.
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Terry McLaurin, WR, Washington Commanders
I like McLaurin as a player, I just have a few problems with hanging onto him right now. For starters, Washington acquired WR Deebo Samuel Sr. from the San Francisco 49ers. McLaurin was the only good receiver on his team last season, yet in 17 games, he didn't eclipse 1,100 receiving yards and his 13 touchdowns seems like an unsustainable rate.
BREAKING: The 49ers have agreed to send WR Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a fifth-round pick, sources tell @AdamSchefter. pic.twitter.com/4p9wJ1UjCV
— ESPN (@espn) March 1, 2025
I have a hard time not imagining Scary Terry's production at least having a solid chance of dipping in 2025. The Commanders, under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, seemed to want to implement a run-heavy offense, though their RB play wasn't quite elite.
If they draft one of the better running backs in the 2025 NFL Draft, they could lean into a much more run-happy game plan. I don't like the idea of McLaurin competing for targets with Samuel in an offense that passes the ball less, so I'm just a bit nervous about No. 17's production moving forward.
Tyreek Hill, WR, Miami Dolphins
It might be a bit premature to think that Hill won't have at least one more good season, but like I said, I'd rather be a year too early. Hill's 2024 was abysmal, partly due to the injury to his starting quarterback, but even when the QB1 was healthy, it was still pretty ugly.
Tua has 1 bad game and people want a new QB.
T. Hill has multiple bad games vs top teams and people are okay with it. pic.twitter.com/UjLWJjuRIM— Edwin🎙️ (@EdwinSphere) December 21, 2024
The ridiculous explosiveness Hill has had throughout his career masked a variety of other issues with things like lack of effort, lack of hands, and lack of separation skills other than raw speed and burst. He is now 31 years old, and that extreme explosiveness is one of the first physical skills to fade with age among athletes.
I'm very skeptical that he'll be highly productive next season and even more so about 2026, so I'd move on from him now.
Mark Andrews, TE, Baltimore Ravens
I'd be ready to move on from him right now. The Ravens use an ugly, ugly three-tight-end rotation featuring Andrews, Isaiah Likely, and Charlie Kolar, and they split snaps and routes way too evenly between them for how good Andrews still is as a separator. The high touchdown total boosted his production in 2024, but I don't know if that will stick.
Mark Andrews only played 20 snaps (33%) today. He was targeted once.
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— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) September 23, 2024
Here's the deal. The Ravens, after acquiring running back Derrick Henry, tried their best to implement a Philadelphia Eagles style offense that ran the ball ridiculously often and tried to shy away from the pass as much as possible. Their defense didn't hold up like Philly's did, but at least it tried.
The abysmal start to Andrews' season, which featured two 0.0 point performances, was a result of the run-happy offense and the awful TE rotation. And I fully expect the Ravens to lean into that again next season. If the defense manages to play better against the pass, we could see a truly hideous usage rate for Andrews in 2025. I'd be willing to move off him now. I wouldn't want to be holding his bags in that reality.
Who knows if it will come to pass, but I'd rather have the compensation I could get for trading him than be stuck fuming at his poor usage. Baltimore really wants to be able to ignore the passing game as much as possible because that involves taking risks. In Week 3 and Week 4, quarterback Lamar Jackson attempted just 15 and 18 passes, respectively. That's hideous.
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