Newly Signed Free Agents With Fantasy Football Bust Potential - 2025 Draft Avoids

Kevin's newly signed free agents with bust potential for 2025 fantasy football. Read the fantasy football expert analysis for biggest busts for fantasy football drafts.

Now that the dust has settled on the NFL’s free-agency period and we’re in NFL Draft season, it’s time to take some inventory on the players with new locales. Some players landed in great sports to enhance their fantasy value, while the stock of others remains to be seen whether or not they will be worthwhile contributors.

Whether it’s a player with an uncertain quarterback situation, a lack of available targets, or the competition around him, there are many instances where a player was added in free agency and then flops. Especially in fantasy, the buzz can wear off quickly on these players that make them avoids come fantasy draft time.

Let’s take a look at some newly signed free agents with fantasy football bust potential for the 2025 NFL season.

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TE Evan Engram, Denver Broncos

With a rookie season where Evan Engram saw over 100 targets, the upside was sky high as fantasy football drafters were hungry to scoop up the next freak athlete at tight end who would pace the position for years to come. It didn’t end up that way, though Engram has had some solid fantasy campaigns under his belt.

Engram’s best fantasy season came in 2023, with 114 receptions, 963 receiving yards, and four touchdowns en route to an overall TE2 season with the Jaguars. He only played nine games last season and couldn’t recreate anything close to that season, and was cut by Jacksonville just before free agency opened up in mid-March.

Less than a week after being cut, the Denver Broncos signed Engram to a two-year contract as the presumptive starter at tight end. While many analysts are very excited for the addition of Engram as another pass-catching weapon in Denver, I’m not sure we should expect the Engram we saw in New York or Jacksonville. We could be looking at somebody who is fool’s gold for fantasy purposes.

First off, it’s going to be harder for Engram to get on the field and stay there thanks to how Denver operates its personnel. We talk all the time about condensed offenses and how we love them for fantasy football because we don’t have to worry about backups or spells coming in regularly to vulture touchdowns and opportunities. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the Broncos.

Denver regularly used a combination of Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull, Nate Adkins, and Greg Dulcich in every game. All but Dulcich are still on the roster, plus Engram’s addition. Head coach Sean Payton loves to mix and match personnel, and Engram feels much closer to an option that will be used in a more specialized manner than somebody who will be on the field all the time.

At this point in Engram’s career, he probably should be closer to the Jared Cook or Eric Ebron role as a receiving-only tight end rather than an every-down tight end. And even on that front, there’s a huge red flag going forward for Engram after the catch as his YAC per game cratered from 28.2 in 2023 and 31.0 YAC per game in 2022 to just 17.1 last season.

Much has been said about the "Joker" role for Payton, but trusting a heavy volume of targets to a tight end who will be 31 in Week 1 coming off labrum and hamstring injuries? It’s more likely Engram is a placeholder for somebody whom the team eventually drafts rather than the answer the Broncos are looking for.

Engram enters his age-31 season in 2025 and is on his third team in the last five seasons. It feels like Engram is less the athletic marvel and more of a catch-and-fall guy who will be rotated in and out at Payton’s whim. I’m completely out on drafting him, as his ADP is within the top-12 tight ends this season.

WR Brandin Cooks, New Orleans Saints

Brandin Cooks has come full circle as he goes back to the locale where he started his NFL career: New Orleans. After spending the first three seasons with the Saints, Cooks played for the Patriots, Rams, Texans, and Cowboys before signing a two-year contract to return to the Saints.

But what can we expect from the Saints in 2025? Well, it’s already off to a rousing start for new head coach Kellen Moore and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier. Quarterback Derek Carr’s 2025 status is already in doubt thanks to a shoulder injury suffered last season. Do we want to deal with a team’s WR3 who is over 30 with two receivers and a running back ahead of him with quarterback questions lingering with Carr and now adding Tyler Shough into the mix?

Cooks will be 32 years old by the time Week 3 rolls around, and he’s looking up at Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Rashid Shaheed in the receiving hierarchy. His days of 100 targets are likely done. Same with even seeing a usable routes percentage as he only had above 80 percent routes in a game in five of 10 games in 2024.

From a metrics perspective, Cooks is fading fast. His YAC cratered to just 5.7 YAC per game, continuing a steep but steady fall since 2021. After two straight seasons of under 20 percent TPRR, last season’s 0.89 YPRR shows a receiver who likely shouldn’t have even been on the field with the routes he got. The Cowboys were so bereft of receiving talent that they didn’t have much of a choice but to run out Cooks.

While Cooks will likely hang around in the later portion of best ball and redraft fantasy drafts this summer and into the fall, don’t let his name value fool you. Cooks might just be cooked, and in an offensive environment that looks to be in the bottom half of total scoring in 2025, you can let somebody else try to squeeze whatever juice is left from Cooks.

WR Joshua Palmer, Buffalo Bills

Only in this specific free-agent wide receiver class in 2025 could such a mediocre and unremarkable player like Joshua Palmer get a three-year deal worth $36 million. I’m sure he’s a nice young man and will be a boon to the Buffalo community, but for fantasy purposes, Palmer doesn’t move the proverbial needle one iota.

We have four seasons and a 1,647-route sample on Palmer, and the news isn’t -- if you can believe it -- not great! Only once has Palmer eclipsed 100 targets. Only once has Palmer surpassed 40 receptions. Only once has Palmer reached over 600 yards receiving. All of those marks happened in 2022, when most of the wide receivers around him were hurt and Austin Ekeler carried the entire offense.

Palmer heads to Buffalo and will blend into the background. Khalil Shakir remains the clubhouse leader when you ask who will likely lead the Bills in targets. Besides that, it’s anybody’s guess between Keon Coleman, Dalton Kincaid, James Cook, Curtis Samuel, and Palmer. The Bills didn't draft a receiver and make the situation even muddier, so that was nice of them!

The worst fantasy player you know is excited about the Josh Palmer signing.

4 years into his career & he’s topped 40 receptions once.

Has never hit 800 yards or a 70.0+ PFF Receiving Grade.

Just the next “mid” WR in BUF.

No – you shouldn’t care about his “separation metrics.”

— David J. Gautieri (@GuruFantasyWrld) March 11, 2025

Buffalo was a bottom-10 team in 11 personnel usage last season, and not much figures to change in 2025. The Bills also ran the ball at the eighth-highest raw rate last season, so the offense will continue to skew run-heavy. Touchdown equity flows through Josh Allen and Cook, with the rest of the offensive pieces picking up the scraps. It’s not a fruitful offense for pass-catchers despite being one of the highest-scoring teams in the NFL.

It's hard to imagine Palmer making any sort of fantasy noise amongst the non-Shakir wide receivers in Buffalo. When you take a woefully mediocre wide receiver and put him in a group of similarly skilled pass-catchers who fail to separate from each other, you get somebody who's very likely to disappoint in fantasy this season.

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