It's time — meet 2025's All-Breakout fantasy football team, full of players ready to be unleashed
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So who are these diamonds-in-the-rough for 2025? May I present: The 2025 All-Breakout Team.
(Note: I'm not considering rookies for this article, only veterans with previously established expectations.)
QuarterbackHighest Finish: QB20 in 2024
After beating out Bo Nix (too good last year), Drake Maye (too chalk) and even Trevor Lawrence (great pick, but you can read my 2025 surprises piece for that), former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young is 2025's All-Breakout quarterback.
Young struggled mightily over the first 27 appearances of his young career, averaging just 173 passing yards per game and throwing 19 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. However, after a year under Dave Canales, we started to see his potential upside at the end of last season. Over his last three contests, Young jumped up to 204 passing YPG and threw seven TDs with zero interceptions, while also rushing for 100 yards and three touchdowns! His 26.8 fantasy points per game over that stretch were a glimpse of what Carolina traded up to get at the top of the 2023 draft.
Now entering Year 2 under Canales, Young has a borderline top-10 offensive line, a couple of intriguing sophomore wideouts in Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker, and eighth overall pick Tetairoa McMillan, widely considered the best receiver in this class. Young and McMillan already look sharp in camp and in preseason action, catching the attention of the fantasy community in early August:
Young is the QB27 in ADP, so he's completely free in 1QB leagues and a relatively cheap backup even in 2QB leagues. Tuck him onto your bench or flag him for the waiver wire, and don't be surprised if he's a legitimate QB1 in fantasy in a matter of weeks.
Running BacksHighest Finish: RB16 in 2024
I wanted to put D'Andre Swift here, but like Lawrence, he already made my 2025 surprises column. In his stead, the RB1 slot goes to Isiah Pacheco. While Pacheco did have an RB2 finish in 2023, he missed three games that season and has never cracked the top 12 (or 1,000 yards rushing) in his three-year career. Fortunately, the recipe for Pacheco's breakout isn't complicated. Through his last eight games of 2023 — including Kansas City's Super Bowl run — and the first two of 2024 (before he fractured his fibula), Pacheco averaged 16.6 fantasy points per game. That mark would have been good for RB6 last year. Over that span, his 17-game pace was 1,640 scrimmage yards and 15 touchdowns.
Unfortunately, Pacheco rushed back from surgery last year and was never fully healthy for the rest of the season, derailing his breakout and leaving a poor taste in fantasy managers' mouths. Now, he's being drafted as the RB23 down in the sixth round. Even with Pacheco's injury, the Chiefs indexed heavily towards the run last year — 41% rush rate and 26.5 attempts per game were both their highest in the Patrick Mahomes era. With Pacheco back to full strength atop an uninspiring depth chart, he should be a focal point of the offense and could finally break the fantasy RB1 ceiling in 2025.Highest Finish: RB32 in 2024
Tank Bigsby's name cropped up in the ADP Risers' honorable mentions section this week, but he's still down at RB35, one spot ahead of teammate Travis Etienne Jr. Perhaps outside of Dallas, Jacksonville's backfield is the murkiest of the 2025 offseason, with Bigsby, Etienne and rookie Bhayshul Tuten (RB49) all drawing consideration. One week of preseason usage might suggest Etienne sits atop the depth chart — he saw all the first-team reps against Pittsburgh — but reporting out of camp has more heavily favored Bigsby as the early-down lead of a Duval committee.
Ultimately, it looks like Liam Coen & Co. are willing to let the best back earn the job — or potentially to ride the hot hand. If we're looking at last season, both those approaches favor Bigsby. He outcarried, outgained and outscored Etienne (seven touchdowns to two), while posting elite numbers in yards after contact and avoided tackle rate. In Coen's more creative (and likely more efficient) offense, I see Bigsby as the Bucky Irving to Etienne's Rachaad White (and Tuten's Sean Tucker). Irving broke out to be the fantasy RB14 last year ... if Bigsby does indeed earn a similar workload, he has a very similar ceiling.
Wide ReceiversHighest Finish: WR29 in 2024
It's only Year 2 for Marvin Harrison Jr., but considering his "generational" prospect profile, that's already "late" for his fantasy breakout. Unfortunately, MHJ's rookie season was marred by questionable usage — 71% of his targets came outside the numbers, second-highest in the league behind George Pickens — and a severe lack of chemistry with Kyler Murray — his 53% catch rate was abysmal. Despite all that, Harrison demanded a monster 43% team air yards share, averaged 14.3 yards per reception and scored eight touchdowns ... numbers that put him in conversations with Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Green and others of their ilk.
Harrison's detractors would argue that "little has changed" in Arizona, and that's somewhat fair — HC Jonathan Gannon and OC Drew Petzing still run the team, Kyler Murray is still inconsistent and prone to error and Arizona still has a middling offensive line. But this is a bet on the player. Transcendent talent usually wins in the NFL and every talent evaluator in the league would tell you Harrison has it. It's why he was this regime's choice at fourth overall just 14 months ago. Oh, and he added 10+ pounds of muscle this offseason to make himself that much more dangerous.
Doubt Harrison if you wish, but a 2025 breakout could put him as high as the WR1 overall.Highest Finish: WR38 in 2024
It could be argued that Ricky Pearsall of the 49ers is the real frontrunner here, but after going with a rookie at WR1, it felt right to diversify. (*Ahem* See the FLEX position below.)
The next man up? Bills receiver Khalil Shakir. After two years of relative obscurity behind Stefon Diggs, Shakir emerged for 76 catches and 821 yards on 100 targets last year. You could argue it was a mini-breakout, but it only resulted in a WR38 finish. However, he clearly earned Josh Allen's increasing trust through the course of the season, logging 13 straight games with 6+ targets from Week 7 through the AFC Championship. The only guys to record a longer streak last year were Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, Davante Adams, Malik Nabers and Garrett Wilson.
Along with his consistent volume in the Buffalo offense, Shakir's career catch rate sits at 75.8% while his yards per reception clock in at 12.7. Is that good? Well, here's a yards per reception leaderboard of the four wideouts in the recorded history of targets to post a catch rate above 75% on at least 100 career targets.Player
Catch Pct.
Yards/Reception
Khalil Shakir
75.8
12.7
Rashee Rice
78.6
11.9
Michael Thomas
76.0
11.6
Amon-Ra St. Brown
75.4
11.3
Uh, yeah. That's good. In 2024, Shakir's 2.15 yards per route run and 25% target per route run rate were both excellent, and indicative of a receiver likely to break out for more volume in the future. He's the top target in an elite offense with an elite quarterback. Sign me up, as he's expected to be fully ready for Week 1 after suffering a high-ankle sprain in training camp.
Tight End
TE Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars
Highest Finish: TE31 in 2024
I won't lie, this was a tough one. I considered T.J. Hockenson and Evan Engram, but both have been too elite before. I almost broke the rookie rule for Tyler Warren or Colston Loveland, but I abide by the law (that I made up). I contemplated recycling the ADP Riser blurb on Jake Ferguson ... or even nominating Kyle Pitts Sr.
But in the end, the 2025 All-Breakout tight end is none other than Brenton Strange — the second Jaguars player to make the team (shoutout Liam Coen).
Last year, Strange played eight games for the Jaguars without Evan Engram. He saw at least four targets in five of those contests, topped 60 receiving yards in three of them, and even logged a game with 12 targets, 11 catches and 73 yards in Week 15. Now entering his third season — prime breakout territory for his position — Strange is the top tight end on the depth chart and arguably the No. 3 option for Trevor Lawrence, behind Brian Thomas Jr. and rookie Travis Hunter.
He's a former second-round pick with solid athleticism and run-after-catch ability, and Cade Otton — arguably a lesser prospect — saw a fringe-TE1 year-three breakout in Liam Coen's offense last year. Strange is all but free at TE24 cost in the double-digit rounds, and could break into that every-week starter territory we touched on at the top.
FLEX
WR Ricky Pearsall, San Francisco 49ers
Highest Finish: WR81 in 2024
That's right, I got Ricky Pearsall onto the team after all! The former Florida Gator was the 31st overall pick of last year's draft before suffering a gunshot wound just before the season and missing the first six games in recovery. Pearsall was eased back in at the end of October, and while he logged a four-catch, 73-yard performance with a touchdown in Week 10, he all but disappeared again until the last two games of the season.
Then, in Week 17, the rookie blazed into prominence with an eight-catch, 141-yard, 1-TD day against the Lions, and followed it up with 69 yards and another score in Week 18. Strong finishes to rookie WR seasons are cause for excitement, and Pearsall's no exception.
Suddenly, heading into 2025, he might be the WR1 for Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. Deebo Samuel Sr. is gone, Brandon Aiyuk is recovering from a multi-ligament knee injury (and will be through most of the 2025 season) and Jauan Jennings is currently mired in turmoil both physical (calf) and financial (contract dispute). Even if the Jennings cloud clears and Aiyuk returns by midseason, Pearsall might top the pecking order just on talent and investment alone. He's the WR43 in Yahoo ADP and 85th overall among "FLEX" players, but could be a breakout WR3 (or better) early in the year.
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