Top Dynasty Fantasy Football Risers and Fallers For 2025

John breaks down some of dynasty fantasy football's biggest risers and fallers (QBs, RBs, WRs, and TEs) for 2025. Who are the biggest risers and fallers for QB, RB, WR, TE?

Most players don't retain the rankings they had the year before in dynasty fantasy football. There could be a million reasons for this, but change is one of the only constants in the NFL.

Whether due to injury, poor seasons, trades, or unrealistic expectations being adjusted as the reality of each player's situation set in throughout the season, many players inevitably rise or fall, some even significantly. Age is always a factor as well.

Let's break down three risers/fallers ahead of the 2025 NFL season.

Riser: Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets

Perhaps his meteoric rookie campaign, where he produced like an elite RB1 for a short stretch before tearing his ACL, and his fantastic season in 2023, where he finished as the second-best back in PPR on the year, have brought the third-year pro some grace. His 2024 effort was ultimately forgettable, but it wasn't all blamed on him, accurately so.

The Jets were once again a completely miserable team, finishing the season 5-12, despite preseason hype due to new additions to the offensive line, one of the best defenses in the NFL, and the return of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The team was miserable on offense, averaging just 19.9 points per game, easily bottom 10 in the NFL.

𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Breece Hall on the Jets having the least amount of rushing attempts of any #NFL team this season:

“I don’t really have too much to say, obviously I want the ball as many times as I can, but if I’m not getting the ball, all I can do is just my job.”

Breece Hall… pic.twitter.com/JTowNo4rGT

— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) December 21, 2024

The situation was not good. For starters, Hall only averaged just over 13 rushing attempts per game. The team not only averaged the least rush attempts per game (just 21.0), but the Jets opted to give backups Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis a non-insignificant share of the backfield work.

This seemed perplexing, but the splits may not have been without reason. Hall got nowhere near the top speeds he reached in his 2022 and 2023 seasons in 2024. His rookie year, No. 20 reached a blistering 21.87 mph on a 62-yard touchdown run. In 2023, after his ACL repair, he reached 21.5 mph on a 72-yard score.

Yet, in 2024, he only had a handful of plays listed on Next Gen Stats' weekly Fastest Ball Carriers list, with his top recorded speed being 20.43 mph on a 17-yard rush. It was perplexing. There are a few ways to interpret this, though, and a few injury reports can help us.

Breece Hall was dealing with an injury that was never disclosed during training camp and I’d still like to know what it was because these numbers are a massive Dub Tee Eff https://t.co/pU89Rkwega

— Jeff Mueller, PT, DPT (@jmthrivept) February 3, 2025

This is probably the reason why. Hall was reportedly dealing with a "lower-half injury" before the season. It was the reason he was held out of the preseason games. His efficiency went off a cliff, and he was nowhere near as explosive as he was his previous two years.

Then, late in the season, Hall missed time due to problems with his surgically repaired knee. So, it seems like he reinjured it somehow. Not all surgeries are wildly successful, and some can lead to problems down the road. Hall is likely dealing with something here.

His stock has risen back up, and he's the RB5 in FantasyPros dynasty/keeper rankings right now. His managers will wait with bated breath to see if he can return to his rookie form. It would be tragic for him if he couldn't because he was an absolute star in the making. We'll have to pray he can get fully healthy and put these knee issues behind him.

Faller: Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

So, it looks like Kelce will play another year, after all. After a middling 2023 season, from a pure production standpoint, Kelce's athleticism has completely fallen off a cliff. His ability to separate from coverage, explosiveness, and suddenness have all nosedived in the past two years.

That makes sense because those were his age 34-35 seasons. He'll turn 36 on October 5, 2025, in what will likely be his final season. He's maintained his ability to find soft spots in zone coverages, but a lifetime of injuries and beatings taken in the brutal sport has taken a big toll.

Travis Kelce is returning for his 13th season, per multiple reports pic.twitter.com/1wYi7WI56O

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 27, 2025

There's little reason to hold onto him any longer in dynasty. I can't think of a scenario where I wouldn't ship him off for a developmental player or any pick in the first four rounds of rookie drafts. If you read my articles about sleepers, you should be able to find a good rookie to invest in in the later rounds.

Kelce is washed, though his brain still functions reasonably well in certain areas of life. One of them will still be finding open spaces in zone coverages. And he still has quarterback Patrick Mahomes throwing him the ball. It's not like he won't produce at all. But the elite player we saw in 2022 is gone.

Kelce is a shell of his former self athletically, and he won't be winning anyone their leagues in 2025 unless he's magically force-fed targets at an obscene rate during the fantasy playoffs. And it looks like wide receiver Rashee Rice won't be suspended for the full season, so he'll be the target hog next year. If WR Xavier Worthy develops nicely as well, those two will be the primary pass-catching targets, not Kelce.

Riser: Tee Higgins, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

Higgins is staying put in Cincinnati. And if he can just put together a single healthy season, he could easily finish as a WR1 in overall season points. While consistency can be an issue, the upside is massive.

He's paired with one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, is in a high-powered offense, and should get fed plenty of targets. The presence of one of the league's best wideouts, Ja'Marr Chase, definitely siphons away targets, yet Higgins is an elite receiver as well and can beat the best of coverages defenses can throw at him.

The Bengals won't have a ton of cap space to sign reinforcements to the defense. It was terrible last season, allowing 25.5 points per game to opposing offenses, tied for the sixth worst in the league.

Tee Higgins having perhaps the game of his career in what could be his final home game as a Bengal.

- 11 catches
- 131 yards
- 3 TDs (GW in OT)

Cincy might have to just back up the brinks truck.pic.twitter.com/pBpFVr4gkr

— Mike Kennedy (@MikeKennedyNFL) December 29, 2024

Higgins is capable of putting up week-winning numbers and has an elite upside. Though he won't always log massive games due to the presence of Chase, both WRs can put up fantastic numbers, though Chase is generally more consistent. Still, players who have Higgins' ceiling are remarkably valuable.

There's nothing not to like about No. 5 except for his injury history. He played in just 12 games each in 2023 and 2024. He indicated that he'll reach out to Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson for advice and plans to take extra steps in the offseason, whether through studies or extra testing, to figure out why he gets hurt so often. If that's successful, Higgins' season-long upside could be even higher in the coming years.

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