{"id":295489,"date":"2025-08-17T13:48:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/295489\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:48:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:48:43","slug":"fantasy-football-draft-fades-10-players-to-avoid-at-adp-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/295489\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy Football Draft Fades: 10 players to avoid at ADP in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo’s fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points! If you like what you see, you can subscribe for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been doing fade columns for many years, and there\u2019s one simple rule to begin with:<\/p>\n

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You have to put some good players in this article.<\/p>\n

I know, sounds wild, right? But every so often I\u2019ll see a fade list filled with back-end ideas and lesser players. What\u2019s the utility in that? Who needs help staying away from Jahan Dotson, or Michael Mayer, or Cam Akers?<\/p>\n

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season<\/a>]<\/p>\n

It should also be stated that in the case of most players, there\u2019s a draft position that would make sense. The reason why I\u2019m fading the names you see below is that I find it unlikely that these options will slide into what I would consider an affordable draft price range. As always, your mileage will vary, and you know your room better than I do. We\u2019ll forever implore you to listen to everyone you respect, but always make your own final decisions.<\/p>\n

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Enough preamble. Here are my 2025 fades for fantasy football.<\/p>\n

RB Saquon Barkley, Eagles (Yahoo ADP: 2.5)<\/p>\n

You surely know the stat by now \u2014 Barkley had 482 touches last year (including the playoffs), a gigantic number. But there\u2019s another stat I can\u2019t get out of my mind \u2014 Barkley\u2019s 15 touchdowns came with a staggering average of 29.4 yards last year<\/a>, and he didn\u2019t have a single score from the 1-yard line (that\u2019s tush push territory for Jalen Hurts).<\/p>\n

Barkley enters his eighth season in the league, and he\u2019s missed at least three games in four of those seasons. It\u2019s a cinch he\u2019ll lose some of last year\u2019s touches, and the long touchdown rate isn\u2019t going to repeat either. I understand it\u2019s no fun to fade a player who just turned in the monster season Barkley had, but we need to skate to where the puck is headed, not where it\u2019s been. In the first round, I\u2019d prefer younger backs like Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs in front of Barkley.<\/p>\n

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WR Puka Nacua, Rams (ADP: 11.7)<\/p>\n

Nacua has been an impactful receiver through two NFL seasons, but not in the red area (a modest nine touchdowns, just three last year). How is that going to change for 2025? The Rams added WR Davante Adams, a Hall of Fame-tracking player who dominates in the red area, and they also extended RB Kyren Williams, the team\u2019s workhorse at the goal line. We also have to worry about 37-year-old quarterback Matthew Stafford, who\u2019s dealing with a bad back and missing all sorts of practice time<\/a>. Nacua\u2019s physical style of play also could bring injury risk \u2014 he was constantly hurt in college, which is how the Rams stole him in the fifth round to begin with.<\/p>\n

WR Tyreek Hill, Dolphins (ADP: 34.2)<\/p>\n

Has the cheese gone bad on Hill? He didn’t have a 30-yard reception after Week 1, a shocking stat. Obviously Miami had to retool the offense to the limitations of Tua Tagovailoa, but I don’t see what’s different with Tua going forward. The offensive line could also be a problem \u2014 this isn’t a unit that encourages deep drops and long-developing routes.<\/p>\n

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Hill wanted out of Miami when the season ended, then walked it all back with some reflection time. But I worry that if Miami gets off to a poor start in 2025, Hill could be unhappy again. I won’t be targeting Hill in his age-31 season. If you want to chase someone in this receiver room, I point you to Jaylen Waddle.<\/p>\n

RB Breece Hall, Jets (ADP: 39.0)<\/p>\n

The Jets could be the run-heaviest team in the league this year, but given the crowding on this offense, they\u2019ll need to be. Hall is talented, sure, but so is understudy Braelon Allen. The club has talked up Isaiah Davis, to the point that all three backs are likely to see tangible work on game day. And then there\u2019s the presence of mobile QB Justin Fields, a threat to run for 1,000 yards himself. Hall\u2019s yards per touch has gone down the last two seasons, and while he\u2019s a talented player, I suspect this might be his last year with the Jets. They have alternatives.<\/p>\n

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QB Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers (ADP: 61.2)<\/p>\n

History tells us to be suspicious when somebody has a career year deep into their NFL run. That’s the situation with Mayfield, who put things together in his age-29 season. Mayfield even spiked his rushing stats, something nobody saw coming. But now Mayfield has to do it without offensive wizard Liam Coen; Mike Evans is in his thirties; and we don’t know when Chris Godwin is going to be ready to play. There’s a lot of moving parts here.<\/p>\n

Even with the addition of classy rookie Emeka Egbuka, Mayfield probably gives back a lot of his juicy stats from last season. Tampa Bay will also start the season without its best offensive lineman, tackle Tristan Wirfs.<\/p>\n

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QB Kyler Murray, Cardinals (ADP: 96.3)<\/p>\n

Murray’s touchdown rate has been below league average<\/a> for three years running, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Murray is obviously an undersized quarterback and there are some red-zone throws that he struggles to complete. And while Murray remains a dynamic runner when the mood strikes him, he’s not a heavy-volume player in that regard \u2014 he averages a useful but modest 33.1 rushing yards per game over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n

There are so many interesting quarterback options on the 2025 board<\/a>, I’m not going to talk myself into a player I don’t completely trust. Murray is not a target for me this summer.<\/p>\n

The injured receivers<\/p>\n

WR Chris Godwin, Buccaneers (Yahoo ADP: 90.1)<\/p>\n

WR Jayden Reed, Packers (Yahoo ADP: 102.5)<\/p>\n

WR Brandon Aiyuk, 49ers (Yahoo ADP: 126.7)<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll link these three wideouts together because they obviously fit a theme \u2014 they\u2019re all currently hurt and unlikely to be ready Week 1 (Aiyuk won\u2019t be, while Godwin and Reed look like long shots at best). And one of my long-standing theories is to not draft into injuries \u2014 injuries will come and find you soon enough in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Even if Reed were healthy, he has to deal with a Green Bay offensive scheme that doesn\u2019t like to feature one player. Since Adams left town, no Green Bay pass-catcher has drawn more than 100 targets. Matt LaFleur is an excellent head coach, but he loves to platoon players and spread things around. On Godwin, we have to wonder if some of Tampa Bay\u2019s younger talents \u2014 specifically rookie Emeka Egbuka \u2014 will carve out significant roles while the veteran is healing up. And there\u2019s also the natural regression case for QB Baker Mayfield, as discussed above.<\/p>\n

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TE Evan Engram, Broncos (ADP: 87.1)<\/p>\n

Some respected pundits in the industry disagree with me on Engram, and I get it. Anytime a name player joins a Sean Payton offense, the ears perk up. But Engram\u2019s last four seasons have been defined by a lack of explosiveness (a modest 8.9 yards per catch), and he\u2019s never been dynamic in the red zone \u2014 only 19 of his last 619 targets have gone for touchdowns, and he hasn\u2019t made it past four spikes since 2017. Maybe Bo Nix and Payton can give Engram something of a bump with the better offensive infrastructure, but I\u2019m going to keep expectations modest as Engram enters his age-31 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo’s fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points!…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6507,1842,4127,925,10318,5305,487,8761,699,5430,702,2826,7,41,10319,7191,1674,492,763,14706,493,4827,4076,32,216,6851,700,6,15,428,1875,1088,894,13221,3452,1089,56485],"class_list":{"0":"post-295489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2025-nfl-season","9":"tag-baker-mayfield","10":"tag-bijan-robinson","11":"tag-bo-nix","12":"tag-braelon-allen","13":"tag-brandon-aiyuk","14":"tag-breece-hall","15":"tag-cam-akers","16":"tag-chris-godwin","17":"tag-davante-adams","18":"tag-emeka-egbuka","19":"tag-evan-engram","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-green-bay","22":"tag-isaiah-davis","23":"tag-jahan-dotson","24":"tag-jahmyr-gibbs","25":"tag-jalen-hurts","26":"tag-jayden-reed","27":"tag-jaylen-waddle","28":"tag-justin-fields","29":"tag-kyler-murray","30":"tag-kyren-williams","31":"tag-matthew-stafford","32":"tag-miami","33":"tag-michael-mayer","34":"tag-mike-evans","35":"tag-nfl","36":"tag-nfl-draft","37":"tag-packers","38":"tag-players","39":"tag-puka-nacua","40":"tag-saquon-barkley","41":"tag-tristan-wirfs","42":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","43":"tag-tyreek-hill","44":"tag-yahoo-adp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}