Ranking The 10 Biggest Busts Of The 2025 Fantasy Football Season By The Numbers

We’ve passed the halfway point of the 2025 NFL season, which not only means that the playoff picture is starting to shape up in real life, but also that fantasy football leagues across the country are beginning to take shape as well.

While the resurgence of Jonathan Taylor and breakout seasons from players such as Daniel Jones and Caleb Williams have some fantasy managers riding, others aren’t feeling so great.

There are several instances of fantasy managers counting on players they drafted early to produce big points, only for those players to fail to deliver on a regular occasion.

We’re counting down the 10 biggest busts so far in this fantasy football season.

10 Biggest Fantasy Football Busts By The Numbers

For the purpose of this exercise, we decided to set some ground rules.

First, if a player has missed the majority of the season due to injury, they are not on the list. That means that players such as Joe Burrow and Malik Nabers, both of whom were considered superstar fantasy players, are safe from the list.

Additionally, to add some objectivity to the ranking, we looked at ESPN’s preseason projections in typical PPR scoring leagues. We then broke those projections down into a 17-game average and compared them to the players’ average points per game to get a difference.

Players with the largest negative difference between their projections and actual production are the ones who made the list.

Lastly, we decided that a player can only truly be considered a bust if they were expected to be a major contributor or starter in most fantasy lineups. So while someone like Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith would qualify for the list mathematically, he does not qualify because he was not expected to be a regular starter in a normal league.

So, without further ado, here are the 10 biggest fantasy football busts of the 2025 NFL season.

10) Ashton Jeanty – Las Vegas Raiders (17.8 Projected, 14.6 Average, -3.2 Net)

Some will tell you that Ashton Jeanty’s rough season is a lesson about drafting rookie running backs in the first round. Instead, we will simply tell you that the Las Vegas Raiders offensive line is atrocious, and when you factor in their inability to throw the ball downfield even a little bit, you begin to understand why Jeanty has struggled a bit.

The No. 6 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft has just one game over 100 yards rushing and has yet to find the end zone more than once on the ground.

When he does get the rare chance to reach the second level, you can see all the physical tools that make him an elite running back. Unfortunately, he hasn’t gotten that opportunity nearly enough to warrant the use of a first-round fantasy football draft pick.

9) Jayden Daniels – Washington Commanders (21.8 PPG Proj., 18.5 PPG Avg, -3.3 Net)

Yes, Daniels has been hampered by injuries this season. But he’s also played in the majority of the games for the Commanders, who have been wildly disappointing this season after making the NFC Championship Game a year ago.

Daniels’ fantasy value was derived from his ability to run the ball as well as a deep wide receiver corps for the Commanders. Unfortunately, injuries have severely limited Daniels’ mobility and willingness to run the ball this season, and each of his top three wide receivers have missed time as well.

Daniels certainly hasn’t had a bad fantasy season by the numbers. But he hasn’t been able to consistently carry a team in a way that many would have hoped.

8) Derrick Henry – Baltimore Ravens (16.6 Projected, 13.0 Average, -3.6 Net)

Could it be? Is Father Time finally catching up to Derrick Henry?

The Baltimore Ravens running back began the season looking absolutely unstoppable for three quarters against the Buffalo Bills. Then he gave an extremely costly fumble that led to Baltimore blowing what seemed like an insurmountable lead.

In fact, Henry fumbled in each of his first three games of the season.

Through nine games played, he has just three 100-yard rushing performances and two games with multiple touchdowns. At 31 years old, we may finally be seeing the point at which Derrick Henry slows down.

Then again, he’ll probably come back next year and put up 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns just to make this look ridiculous.

7) Chase Brown – Cincinnati Bengals (16.5 Projected, 12.8 Average, -3.7 Net)

Ironically, superstar wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have continued to produce at an extremely high level without star quarterback Joe Burrow on the field.

Running back Chase Brown, however, has not had as much luck.

Perhaps Brown is a victim of a 2024 season that set expectations a bit too high. But his yards per carry have dropped from 4.3 a year ago to just 3.9 this season, and he’s found the end zone just three times through nine games.

Brown has established himself as a solid RB2 or FLEX option in most leagues, but he’s definitely not the lead back that some believed he might be able to be when the season started.

T5) D.J. Moore – Chicago Bears (13.9 Projected, 10.0 Average, -3.9 Net)

The Chicago Bears offense isn’t quite in full flight under first-year head coach Ben Johnson. But it’s slowly getting there. Second-year quarterback Caleb Williams remains wildly inconsistent, but he ranks eighth in NFL in fantasy points per game under standard PPR scoring.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to wide receiver D.J. Moore, who is averaging a solid, yet unspectacular, 10.0 points per game despite being projected at 13.9 points per game entering the season.

In Moore’s defense, he’s been banged up for most of the season, and he’s coming off a game against the Giants where he had 0.0 points, dropping his average by more than a full point.

T5) Justin Jefferson – Minnesota Vikings (18.6 Projected, 14.7 Average, -3.9 Net)

Justin Jefferson entered the 2025 season as the second-highest projected wide receiver in the league behind Ja’Marr Chase, and for good reason.

Jefferson remains one of, if not the best wideout in the NFL. However, he has fallen victim to the fact that he’s had JJ McCarthy and Carson Wentz trying to throw him the ball. Both of whom have shown to be quite bad at the NFL level.

McCarthy at least has the excuse of playing in what is a de facto rookie season after getting injured in the preseason a year ago. Wentz, however, can’t say as much.

Regardless of the reasoning, Jefferson has still been outstanding, but he hasn’t been the absolute points machine that he has been in years prior.

4) Saquon Barkley – Philadelphia Eagles (19.2 Projected, 14.7 Average, -4.5 Net)

Saquon Barkley had one of the best seasons by a running back in NFL history in 2024, and had it not been for the decision to rest in Week 18, he may well have broken the single-season rushing record held by Eric Dickerson.

So it’s no surprise that Barkley hasn’t quite matched that in 2025. Especially when you consider the loss of right guard Mekhi Becton, who had developed into an elite run blocker, and that center Cam Jurgens has missed time all season long due to injury.

Barkley still looks as explosive as ever. But his offensive line hasn’t given him many chances to get to the second level, and that’s killed the number of big plays he’s produced. In fact, he has just one game over 100 scrimmage yards this season, let alone rushing yards, making him an obvious candidate for this list.

3) A.J. Brown – Philadelphia Eagles (16.2 Projected, 11.2 Average, -5.0 Net)

Saquon Barkley isn’t producing big plays. A.J. Brown has just two games over 100 yards receiving. Surely, the Philadelphia Eagles are having a wildly disappointing season, right?

Oh, they’re 7-2 and in first place in the NFC? Okay then.

Philadelphia has somehow found a way to keep grinding out victories, but its would-be explosive offense has been anything but under first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.

Brown isn’t seeing the ball often, and he’s made it abundantly clear he’s unhappy about that fact. You know who else is unhappy? Fantasy owners who expected to draft a WR1 and instead have gotten an inconsistent WR2/FLEX option.

2) Brian Thomas Jr. – Jacksonville Jaguars (15.9 Projected, 10.2 Averages, -5.7 Net)

Brian Thomas Jr. was an absolute superstar for the Jacksonville Jaguars as a rookie, catching 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns.

This year, Thomas has been a relative disaster for the Jags, who are somehow 5-4 under first-year head coach Liam Coen despite Thomas’ struggles and Travis Hunter going out for the season with an injury.

Thomas’ nine drops are tied for the NFL lead with Cleveland Browns wideout Jerry Jeudy, and his 15.0 percent drop rate is tops in the league among players with at least 20 targets.

So it’s not like Thomas even has anyone else to blame. It’s reasonable that Thomas may have taken a slight step back in year two as teams begin to game plan around him. But his inability to simply catch the ball when it’s thrown his way is stunning, and it’s absolutely crushing for fantasy owners.

1) Alvin Kamara – New Orleans Saints (15.7 Projected, 9.7 Average, -6.0 Net)

At 2-8, the New Orleans Saints are just an absolutely putrid football team. They have zero capable starters at quarterback, meaning that the offense is an absolute disaster.

New Orleans’ 15.5 points per game rank third-worst in the entire league, and star running back Alvin Kamara, as well as his fantasy football owners, are suffering for it.

When Kamara does get the rare chance to get out in space, he looks as explosive as ever. But teams are keying on the run because they have no fear of quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough, and neither quarterback can reliably get the ball into Kamara’s hands in the pass game.

There was speculation that Kamara may have been dealt at the trade deadline, giving fantasy owners some hope. But that deal never materialized, and at this point, it’s hard to see any way Kamara turns his season around given what he has around him.