2025 Fantasy Football Bounce-Back Players: Top Rebound Candidates to Target In Drafts

Some of the NFL's best athletes and fantasy superstars endure below-average seasons. Like a roller coaster, there are ups and downs in NFL careers. Before you know it, they're back at the top.

Josh Jacobs, Drake London, and Ja'Marr Chase appeared in this article last offseason (as did a certain quarterback that we're rolling the dice on again).

Below we dive into four candidates who can exceed their 2024 output in the 2025 NFL season.

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Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs

From 2018 to 2022, Patrick Mahomes averaged 23.5 fantasy points per game en route to multiple QB1 finishes. He's now posted back-to-back 17 PPG campaigns.

Is it because Travis Kelce isn't as dominant as he once was? Is it due to offensive line issues? Is it caused by a change in philosophy by the coaching staff that uses the running game and defense to win? Or are secondaries preventing Mahomes from attempting deep passes?

The latter is true. Mahomes' deep ball attempts have dropped every season since 2021. There are ways to beat the two-high safety look and still score heaps of fantasy points. The best strategy involves a running game, scrambling (something Mahomes saved for the postseason), and connecting on deeper post-corner routes.

Kelce is losing a step (and weighing retirement as you read this) but there are plenty of offensive weapons in the Kansas City passing attack. Xavier Worthy learned the NFL game and dominated in the second half of the season and playoffs. And he did it on screen passes and short routes. His speed is still his best asset. Cornerbacks may start taking a half-step forward to better defend Worthy, opening the door for a deep route.

NO. 1 IS ON ONE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ihHcq1mqxJ

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 27, 2025

Rashee Rice will return in 2025. He topped 100 yards or scored in his three healthy games. The Chiefs could add more talent in that room and/or improve the offensive line, giving Mahomes more time to improvise.

The best part about Mahomes' possible resurgence is the cost. No longer is Mahomes the first or second quarterback selected in fantasy football drafts. He's in the second or third tier now and can be found in the middle rounds. That's worth taking the shot on an elite quarterback whose points were submarined by too many Kareem Hunt touchdown plunges.

Kenneth Walker III, RB, Seattle Seahawks

Approximately halfway through the fantasy football regular season, Kenneth Walker III appeared to be one of the year's best draft picks. Seven of his eight touchdowns came before Week 8. He saw five targets in over half of his active games. His 22.3 PPR fantasy points per game trailed only Derrick Henry through Week 7.

And then it all came crumbling down. Offensive line woes prevented Seattle from succeeding in goal-to-go operations. Geno Smith stopped dumping passes to running backs. The yards per carry never topped 3.9 and he missed four games due to injury. Some in the fantasy football community were rooting for him to sit so Zach Charbonnet could thrive in a workhorse role.

When all was said and done, Walker was the RB27 and tied for 24th in PPR points per game from Week 8 through the end of the season. This isn't so much a bounceback from the entire 2024 season, but rather a rebound from a second half that made him almost unplayable.

Smith attempted the fourth-most passes (578), and the Seahawks passed at the fifth-highest rate in the league, which led to the firing of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. Head coach Mike Macdonald wants a dedicated rushing attack, so he hired Klint Kubiak. The new OC is giddy about Walker in his outside zone run scheme.

#Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak on his outside zone scheme, throwing the ball to running backs, and Kenneth Walker:

“Looking forward to him in this scheme, and we’re gonna ask a lot out of him.”

Wheels all the way up for K9, pants all the way off for K9 fantasy managers pic.twitter.com/JGgRqfkHJW

— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) February 11, 2025

Health remains a concern, but as long as he's active, Walker will get plenty of opportunities under Kubiak. The offensive line, one of the league's worst, has nowhere to go but up.

Rome Odunze, WR, Chicago Bears

It's odd to call a rookie a bounceback candidate. But he had back-to-back seasons with at least 1,100 yards at Washington, making him the ninth pick in the NFL Draft. There were high expectations.

There's a chance Rome Odunze doesn't have the chops to be a good NFL player. I don't believe that.

Odunze finished his first season as the WR48 while other receivers in his rookie class (Brian Thomas Jr., Malik Nabers, Ladd McConkey, and m0re) celebrated breakout campaigns. Odunze was selected before Thomas and McConkey in fantasy drafts last summer.

The drum beat for Odunze's breakout campaign will only get louder if Keenan Allen signs with another franchise (and it's trending in that direction).

Another fit that Matt & I talked about with Ben Johnson in Chicago is Johnson potentially using Rome Odunze in a power slot role like Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Odunze is a big body, had some nice moments working from the inside and is a plus-blocker.pic.twitter.com/3Hz1EsRk47 https://t.co/Pg37dmw7Lh

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) January 22, 2025

New head coach Ben Johnson turned Jameson Williams, once considered a bust, into a 1,000-yard receiver. His Detroit offense scored a league-leading 33.2 points and second-best 409.5 yards per game. Done are the days of constant screen passes and an ineffective run game.

Jake Ferguson, TE, Dallas Cowboys

At the time of this writing, Jake Ferguson is still the second offensive option in Dallas. That may change once the offseason proceeds through the NFL Draft and free agency. For now, let's treat him as such.

Nearly everything that could have gone wrong in Ferguson's 2024 campaign did so. He injured his knee in Week 1 and missed Week 2 (he also missed nearly three full games with a concussion in Week 11). There was zero threat of a running game when Dak Prescott was quarterback, leading to shaky scoring outputs. Then, Prescott suffered a season-ending injury. Cooper Rush was not as big of a Ferguson fan as Prescott.

The yardage wasn't always ideal in Prescott's starts but Ferguson was heavily involved in the first half of the season. He caught at least six passes in five of his seven games with Prescott. The two misses were in Week 1, a game he left early, and a blowout to the Detroit Lions in Week 6. Ferguson averaged three receptions per game with Rush under center.

But, the biggest culprit for Ferguson's disappointing season was a lack of touchdowns. The 2023 Pro Bowler saw the most red-zone targets among tight ends (25) two seasons ago. That number plummeted to six in 2024 (30th at the position). He finished the season with zero touchdowns. That won't happen again, especially with a healthy Prescott in the starting lineup.

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