The 2025 NFL season is only about 20 days into training camp, and no actual football games have been played at the time this piece is written. But that does not mean the steady stream of news, highlights, coachspeak, and injuries isn’t coming at fantasy football managers at full force. Even with the regular season still five weeks away, training camp news can have huge impacts on where we draft certain players.
Already, various injuries, depth chart battles, and off-field issues are impacting where certain players are taken in 2025 fantasy football drafts. Preseason action is right around the corner and should give another jolt of news into the draft preparation as well. There is a lot that can happen between now and when the season kicks off on September 4.
NFL Training Camp Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers
This regular piece will look at players who are rising or falling in consensus ADP based on recent news out of team camps. FantasyPros is here to help you sort through the noise to determine what is actionable and what is not as we roll towards the 2025 NFL season and fantasy football drafts.
Training Camp Risers
Omarion Hampton (RB – LAC)
Looking at the situation that rookie Omarion Hampton is walking into, it’s hard not to see why he is flying up draft boards as we approach August. Mike Williams retired. Quentin Johnston drops everything and is inconsistent. The Los Angeles Chargers have two tight ends who are close to being eligible for AARP. Their offseason running back addition nearly blew out his eye with 4th of July fireworks. Opposite Ladd McConkey and Tre’ Harris, who else will really challenge Omarion Hampton for touches?
Hampton was a beast at the University of North Carolina, rushing for more than 1,500 yards in back-to-back seasons, and scoring 33 total touchdowns in 2023-2024. In addition, Hampton can play the role of passing-down back. He caught 67 balls for almost 600 yards in that same timeframe, and saw an 11% target share in 2024.
Hampton just turned 22 years old and was over the 90th percentile in speed score and burst score at the NFL Combine. With first-round draft capital as the wind at his back, Hampton looks poised to take over as the primary rusher in Los Angeles and never look back.
Emeka Egbuka (WR – TB)
Rookies often see the largest variance in their ADP throughout their first offseason because we don’t know exactly what their role will be, or what coaches are thinking about them in camp. In the case of Emeka Egbuka, he comes into an excellent offensive environment in Tampa Bay, but also to a wide receiver room that includes Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Jalen McMillan. Add in one of the best young running backs in football in Bucky Irving, and there is a lot of competition for just one football.
However, the latest news on Chris Godwin is causing Egbuka’s arrow to point up. Chris Godwin, who destroyed his ankle in an injury last season, apparently had a second, undisclosed procedure on his foot this offseason and is not ready to suit up in camp. There is hope he will be ready for Week 1, but it’s speculation right now.
Meanwhile, it appears Godwin has taken Egbuka under his wing and is showing him how to be a pro in these first few weeks of camp. The Buccanneers didn’t spend the 19th overall pick on a player who isn’t going to see the field, and this Godwin uncertainty means Egbuka may get a lot of snaps in the early part of the season.
Mark Andrews (TE – BAL)
Mark Andrews had a wild 2024, starting with two goose eggs to open the season and then finishing with a flourish, including 11 touchdowns over the final 13 weeks of the season. However, Isaiah Likely was still set to remain the thorn in his side heading into 2025. That might have changed now that Likely has broken a bone in his foot and will miss all of training camp.
How and when Likely is deployed after recovering from this injury remains to be seen. In the meantime, Lamar Jackson and Co. get valuable reps with his favorite red zone target. Andrews was third among tight ends with nine deep targets and eighth with 15 red zone targets in 2024.
Andrews is currently going off the board as the TE7 in drafts. With some training camp buzz, there is a decent chance he passes Travis Kelce and is the TE6 before the dust settles on draft season.
Training Camp Fallers
Quinshon Judkins (RB – CLE)
It’s not always injuries or position battles that can affect a player’s standing as training camp rolls along. In the case of Quinshon Judkins, there are a variety of incidents that are causing his draft stock to drop like a rock. First would be the domestic violence incident he is accused of. While that legal situation plays out, Judkins is not with the team.
He is also not with the team because he remains unsigned as of the end of July. The Cleveland Browns don’t seem to be in any rush to sign Judkins after this latest allegation, and may wait and see how it plays out to determine how the contract negotiations go.
When your owner is saying things like he is “cautiously optimistic” that Judkins will ever PLAY for the Browns, that is a damning indictment. We have been and will be seeing Jerome Ford and rookie Dylan Sampson rise up draft boards in the weeks to come. In what has become a truly dysfunctional franchise, this latest Judkins saga is just more of the same for the Browns.
Puka Nacua (WR – LAR) and Davante Adams (WR – LAR)
The other two players on the Fallers list this week are looking at wild movement down draft boards, but sometimes incremental changes can make big differences as well. Such is the case with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. Matthew Stafford is dealing with yet another back ailment and is looking unlikely to participate in much of training camp.
The team is confident that Stafford will be out there against the Houston Texans in Week 1, but what if his 37-year-old back can’t hold up this time? It would then be the Jimmie Garoppolo show, which is certainly a downgrade. So, this means when you are deciding between players like CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Puka Nacua at the back end of the first round, these types of things matter.
Puka Nacua and Davante Adams don’t need massive ADP changes, and they don’t need to be removed from draft consideration by any means. Still, there are some caution flags here that drafters should consider when they are making the tough decisions in these top two or three tiers of wide receivers.
Joe Mixon (RB – HOU)
We will end this early training camp report with an easy one. Joe Mixon has an injured right foot, which is the same foot he injured twice in the last year. This will make the third time he has had problems with this same foot, and also may mark the moment when the 29-year-old falls out of favor with the fantasy football community completely.
Mixon is no guarantee at this point to be ready for Week 1, and it is likely he misses all of training camp for Houston. In his place, some combination of Nick Chubb (30 years old, and coming off multiple injuries), rookie Woody Marks, and dusty Dameon Pierce will break up the running back reps for the Texans. I can’t say I recommend any of this group with confidence. Although Woody Marks is an explosive, pass-catching back whom the Texans traded a third-round pick in 2026 to move up and get.
Joe Mixon has fallen more than a round in almost all fantasy sites, both redraft and Best Ball. He is outside the top 70 on Underdog and has fallen outside the top 20 running backs on ESPN, Sleeper, and other fantasy sites. The main winners of this injury might just be the Texans’ passing attack. With new offensive coordinator Nick Caley replacing the ineffective Bobby Slowik, C.J. Stroud, Nico Collins, and the stud rookie wide receivers might be involved early and often in the Texans’ offensive game plans.
