The top choice: Brock Bowers
Bowers was often taken in the 10th or 11th rounds of fantasy football drafts last summer. His talent level was never a question. He was one of the top college prospects at the position over the past three seasons at Georgia. But many people, including myself, wondered what Bowers’ upside would be if the Raiders’ poor QB room and second-year TE Michael Mayer had a promising rookie season. Not only that, but Bowers also competed with Davante Adams, an elite target earner and a strong number two receiver in Jakobi Meyers.
But everything seemed to fall into place for Bowers early on. Mayer subsequently missed two months of the season due to a personal matter. Adams played just three games for the Raiders this year before injuring his hamstring and later being traded to the Jets. This gave Bowers more ability to produce, and that’s exactly what he did. Since Adams and Mayer went down in Week 3, Bowers has averaged 73 yards receiving on 9.8 targets per game. He leads all TEs in targets and fantasy points during this stretch.
Bowers currently holds the record for most receptions by a rookie with 108 entering Week 18. He is just nine catches short of setting the all-time TE reception record. The Raiders TE is the top 2024 fantasy pick and will likely be a second-round selection in the 2025 drafts.
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The winner of the waiver wire league: Bucky Irving
Irving was undrafted in most fantasy leagues this year. His average draft position entering the summer draft was the 16th round. To start the season, Irving was on most of the Yahoo waiver wires. But this didn’t last long, as in Week 1, the Bucs rookie produced 76 yards on just 11 touches. He beat Rachaad White on fewer touches to start the year and this became a consistent trend throughout the season. Tampa had a bye in Week 11, and from that point on Irving became the winner of the waiver wire league.
Over his last five completed games since his bye week, Irving has averaged 22.4 fantasy points on 21 touches per game. What makes this even more impressive is that Irving has been dealing with a hip and back injury for the majority of these five games. He finishes the fantasy season rankings in the top 10 in yards per touch, broken tackle rate and explosive run rate (10+ yard runs) according to Player Profiler. He has 1,429 yards in Week 18 despite playing just 44% of the Bucs snaps this season. Irving should be a second-round pick next summer, but if he advances to Round 3, he will be one of my top targets in the 2025 fantasy football drafts.
The Worst Choice: Marvin Harrison Jr.
Harrison Jr. was considered a can’t miss prospect by many scouts this season. He had the family name, two years of production at an elite university in the state of Ohio, and his film was great. The Cardinals selecting Harrison with the fourth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft gave him the final pieces of the puzzle to become an early-round fantasy pick, a solid QB with little target competition. This pushed his fantasy ADP into the second round in most leagues. You want and expect consistent play with occasional monster weeks from your early round draft picks, but Harrison has rarely delivered in 2024.
He finished the fantasy season as the WR43 in points per game, behind the likes of Khalil Shakir, Adam Thielen and Xavier Worthy. Harrison had just two weeks of top-12 WR production in 16 games and failed to top 10 fantasy points in 56% of his games. He was far from a consistent fantasy option.
Harrison’s lack of success was mainly due to a combination of poor play and frustrating play-calling. He was often deployed as a vertical downfield receiver this season, which limits his full abilities as a great route runner and leads to more boom-or-bust performances. This led to 33% of his targets being uncatchable according to Player Profiler. Harrison is still just a rookie; he still has plenty of time to improve, but he certainly hasn’t helped your fantasy teams if you drafted him this season.
The gem of the late round: Chuba Hubbard
Hubbard was taken in the 11th or 12th round of most fantasy drafts this summer and was left for dead by most of the fantasy community because the Panthers drafted a second-round rookie in Jonathon Brooks. Brooks was coming off a strong junior season at Texas, but he was also recovering from an ACL tear in November 2023 that delayed the start of his NFL career.
Brooks was placed on the PUP list before the season started and this opened the door for Hubbard to start the first four games of the year. During this time, he averaged 95 yards per game and finished as a top-10 weekly RB twice. Hubbard was playing at a high level, and right at the same time, Brooks’ timeline to return was consistently pushed back. He didn’t want to play a game until week 12, and shortly afterward he tore his ACL again in week 14.
Brooks’ inability to see the field turned Hubbard into a late-round gem. He finished the fantasy season with seven top-10 finishes at the position and averaged more points per game than Breece Hall, Kenneth Walker III and Aaron Jones Sr. Hubbard earned a contract extension during the season due to his strong play. Expect him to get started much sooner next season with what could be an improved offense.
The 2025 late-round QB target: Drake Maye
There seems to be one quarterback every season who advances into the later rounds and completely breaks out in fantasy football. Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts are great examples of late-round winning QBs from previous seasons. This year we got another one in Jayden Daniels. Daniels ended the summer as a ninth-round fantasy pick. He was a rookie with an elite college profile and had the rare combination of a big arm and top-tier rushing skills. The 2023 Heisman winner took his college success to the NFL as a rookie, finishing the fantasy season with 3,530 passing yards, 864 rushing yards and 31 total touchdowns; he was QB4 overall in fantasy as a rookie.
I’m not sure we’ll see this kind of production in a late QB entering 2025, but if anyone has a chance to do it, it’s Drake Maye. Maye was perhaps in the worst situation for a QB to succeed this year. His offensive line was poor, his surrounding talent was among the worst in the league and his playmaking was inconsistent. Despite this, Maye finished as a weekly top-12 option in five of his twelve starts, finishing outside the top 20 just three times. Maye rushed for over 400 meters in twelve games and showed his Mobile advantage among the league’s best belongs in this position.
Entering 2025, the Patriots will have an early draft pick and the most cap space of any team with which to attack free agency. Expect Maye to go in Round 10 (or later) next year. In an improved situation, he seems like the best late-round QB to target in 2025.
