Mike Tomlin: Steelers defense is capable of historic things
No Steelers team ever allowed more rushing yards in a postseason game, so it hasn't been that long since the Steelers defense made history. Head coach Mike Tomlin said on WDVE this week that he thinks this year's group is capable of making more, but he meant it in a positive way.
The Steelers have added veterans Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, and Juan Thornhill to the secondary since the end of the season and Derrick Harmon, Jack Sawyer, and Yahya Black joined the front seven in the draft. Adding them to the likes of T.J. Watt, Joey Porter Jr., and Alex Highsmith led wide receiver DK Metcalf to call it the best defense he's ever seen. Thornhill made the same comment on WDVE and Tomlin was asked for his response to those claims.
'We feel really good about the prospects of this group. We do," Tomlin said. "We've got to write that story. We've got enough talent, we've got enough schematics to do big, big things. When I say big things, I'm talking about historic things.'
One big piece of the defensive puzzle in Pittsburgh is defensive lineman Cam Heyward, but he's been limited this summer as he looks for an adjustment to his contract after being named an All-Pro last season. A drop in production at that spot because Heyward is missing or not fully prepared for the season would limit the defense's ability to write the story Tomlin hopes to read come the end of the year.
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It's time — meet 2025's All-Breakout fantasy football team, full of players ready to be unleashed
There are a few different ways to win fantasy football championships, but one of the most tried and true is identifying and drafting breakouts. Very few teams that drafted Baker Mayfield, James Cook and Drake London at their preseason prices last year fell short of the goal. Finding a superstar in the middle rounds, or an every-week starter at the end of drafts, is an advantage worth pursuing year in and year out. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] 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 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 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 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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Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders sidelined with oblique injury, unlikely to play against Eagles
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cleveland rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders remained sidelined from practice Thursday with an oblique injury and it was unlikely he would play in the Browns' preseason game against the Eagles. Sanders sustained the injury during drills ahead of practice Wednesday. Sanders and the Browns were in Philadelphia for a pair of joint practices ahead of Saturday's preseason game. The Browns said Sanders is day to day. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said ahead of Thursday's practice that Sanders would be out 'for a little bit' and the team wanted to be smart with his health because the former Colorado standout is 'a thrower.' 'If you're a right guard, you can kind of play though that,' Stefanski said. 'When it's a quarterback, you kind of need that muscle to throw.' Sanders wasn't completely ruled out for Saturday's game. Stefanski said backup Joe Flacco won't play against the Eagles. Tyler "Snoop" Huntley and Dillon Gabriel could get the bulk of playing time. Kenny Pickett is limited with a hamstring injury. Sanders completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards with two first-half touchdown passes to Kaden Davis in his NFL preseason debut in a win over Carolina on Friday night. The Browns took Sanders in the fifth round of the NFL draft. He wasn't selected until the 144th overall pick, a stunning fall for one of the most recognizable players in the draft class. Sanders finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy balloting last season for Colorado and threw for a school-record 4,134 yards last season. 'Injuries stink for all these guys,' Stefanski said. 'They don't want to miss a rep for any reason. There's a way to continue to prepare to continue to get better even when you're not getting those reps because of injury.' ___ AP NFL:
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Fantasy Football TE Draft Strategy: Focus on the players who cosplay as wide receivers
I love going to gaming conventions. I know. Shocker, right? The guy with an engineering background who writes about fantasy football likes video games. And, yes, seeing new ways to get my sons into RPGs or real-time strategy adventures will always pique my interest. But I'm there for the cosplay. You can tell who's into bringing their favorite characters to life by their costume. Anything with LEDs, moving parts, or a frame-altering structure stands out. Or, said differently, we know what matters when we see it. The same is true for the tight end position. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Our draft strategies around TEs focus on the guys who cosplay as receivers. The traits to prioritize are hard to miss. But only so many make a true difference each season. However, by knowing what to target throughout the draft, you can address the position without impacting your roster. Taking a TE in the Early Rounds Pros: Weekly upside at a onesie position Cons: Potential for weaker starters at WR or RB On the one hand, taking an early-round TE makes in-season roster decisions a breeze. You're only concern is their bye week. Plus, with how often they get the ball, you'll see their highlights plastered across social media. Players like Brock Bowers are receivers with a TE designation. They're the cheat code at the position. Luckily, like most good cosplayers, they're easy to spot. 'Athletic' is the common descriptor. But after looking at the last five seasons of data, I'll call them 'opportunistic.' Avg. Target Share (for Top-3 TEs): 21.7% Targets per Route Run: 23.6% Yards per Route Run: 1.97 Since 2020, only four TEs to cap the fantasy season with a top-3 finish have had a target share under 20.0%. Unsurprisingly, their volume and efficiency metrics align with most of our favorite receivers. Bowers and CeeDee Lamb generated almost the same amount of yards after the catch on a per-reception basis (5.3 and 5.4). Trey McBride (8.7) saw more targets per game than Amon-Ra St. Brown (8.1). And George Kittle ranked fourth amongst receivers and TEs in red-zone TDs. All three would've had top-20 seasons in PPR leagues if they had a 'WR' next to their name. However, if you want one of them this year, you'll have to pay up. I talked about being cognizant of opportunity cost last week as I went over my QB draft strategy. Essentially, we're giving up a shot at a starting RB or WR to fill a onesie spot. And our chances of hitting on a productive player diminish each round. But if the data doesn't sway you, let's play a game of Either/Or. Either Brock Bowers or one of Drake London/Bucky Irving Either Trey McBride or one of Ladd McConkey/Chase Brown Either George Kittle or one of Tee Higgins/James Cook By Yahoo's ADP, the early-round TEs will force you to choose between them and a weekly staple at either core position. But there's a workaround. Contextualizing each player's potential workload allows you to find one or multiple options later with a similar range of outcomes. Instead of Chase Brown, draft Kenneth Walker (for rushing volume) and James Conner (with pass-catching upside). As a result, you can escape the first six rounds with a high-end TE along with a viable nucleus of WRs and RBs. [Subscribe to Yahoo Fantasy Plus and unlock Instant Mock Drafts today] Mark Andrews, Ravens Drafting a Mid-Round TE Pros: Enables a strong starting roster with minor depth Cons: Weekly projections will favor holding your TE despite weak production I went to PAX East once dressed as a Black Mesa scientist (shoutout to my nerds who know the reference). All I needed was a lab coat with the logo on it. I looked sharp, even got some comments. But I wasn't anything compared to the guy with a full-on Transformers costume. Like my attempt at cosplay, mid-round TEs are the next best thing to the elite options. They play the part well, but they've got at least one glaring issue keeping them out of the early rounds. Last year's TE10 is a perfect example. First off, I wasn't a Motorhead fan before today. I get it now. Anyway, Tucker Kraft exploded onto the scene as the value TE to draft. His pre-draft testing signaled he could be a menace on the field. And the South Dakota State product delivered. Kraft's absurd average of 9.3 yards after the catch per reception is the second-most of any TE over the last 10 years. The only problem is his situation. Target Share: 15.1%, 13th (out of 27 qualifying TEs, min. 50.0% route rate) Targets per Route Run: 16.1%, 21st Yards per Route Run: 1.63, 6th Kraft is part of an offense featuring multiple WRs, sitting around the league average in pass rate over expectation. Simply put, the pie is small, and so is his slice of it. But you can find warts on his peers. Zach Ertz saw the seventh-most targets of any TE, but (famously) has trouble generating more yards past the catch. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith keep Dallas Goedert's ceiling in check. Kyle Pitts ... never mind. However, the silver lining is their usage in the red zone. Zach Ertz: 26 (RZ targets), T-3rd (out of 27 qualifying TEs, min. 50.0% route rate) Jonnu Smith: 25, 5th Hunter Henry: 23, T-7th Kyle Pitts: 17, T-11th Tucker Kraft: 17, T-11th Falling into the end zone (with the ball) is what gives a mid-round TE fantasy relevance. For the tight ends in the back half of 2024's top 12, touchdowns alone accounted for 18.8% of their scores. David Njoku's five scores allowed him to sneak into the TE11 spot after nearly matching career lows in receiving efficiency. Cole Kmet finding the paint seven times in '22 propelled him to TE8 despite only having 544 receiving yards on the season. In either case, identifying TEs that are still a part of the passing game when their team is in scoring position offers not only a weekly floor, but access to a ceiling with top-12 upside each week. Jake Ferguson, Cowboys; Tyler Warren, Colts; Chig Okonkwo, Titans Gambling at TE in the Late Rounds Pros: Supports a (mostly) full roster build with starters and depth Cons: Week-to-week variability at TE will require constant matchup evaluation Consider late-round TEs as matchup-based starters. Every Tuesday night (or whichever night is before your waivers process), you'll need to look at the defense your starter will face in the coming days. From there, it's either keep him or stream another in a better environment. However, instead of putting in claims based on vibes, I've got some math to guide you. Target Share: 0.62 (r-squared) TPRR: 0.34 Route Rate: 0.27 (Team-Level) Yards per Drive: 0.18 (Team-Level) EPA per Play: 0.12 (Team-Level) Pass Rate Over Expectation: 0.11 I ran a study using five years of data to examine the correlation between each metric and fantasy points. The closer to 1.0, the stronger the connection. Intuitively, more targets get you more points. Surprisingly, their team situation isn't much of a factor. However, most (read all) of the TEs with secure target shares are off the board. So, let's drop down to another stat worth valuing. Routes signal intent by a play-caller to have a receiver involved in a play concept. Afterward, it's on the player to get the ball thrown their way. But it won't happen with them on the sideline. Accordingly, we have to do some detective work to see which TEs will even be on the field. Practice reports can help in this regard. Yes, the Jets' offense is a work in progress at best. However, Mason Taylor profiles as an athletic outlet for Justin Fields on a team featuring 30-year-old Josh Reynolds and Tyler Johnson, who signed a $1.3M contract in free agency. In other words, Taylor's potential to see the field should be high. We'll need to see his rapport with Fields to assess his value over the season, but starting with his participation within the offense should be our first clue. Theo Johnson, Giants; Ja'Tavion Sanders, Panthers
