Do you smell that? It’s football. It feels like every year, we blink in February and bam, it’s the end of July and training camps are starting up. It’s a beautiful thing really. Most teams and players began opening camps this week and we’ve been getting a flurry of news so far. With that comes the impact that news has on fantasy football and how we approach drafts during August leading up to Week 1.
Below is a recap of all the top news stories from this week and how it impacts fantasy football.
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Kyle Pitts’ hype is back again like a bad horror villain
Are we really going to fall for this again? What’s the saying? “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, can’t get fooled again.” No, that’s the George W. Bush quote that’s in J. Cole’s “No Role Modelz” track.
Anyway, Atlanta Falcons’ second-year QB Michael Penix Jr. started off his presser at camp on Thursday by saying, “See, we got KP (Pitts) the ball. There’s gonna be a lot of that.”
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Here we go again. We’ve heard this before.
The fourth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Pitts burst on the scene as a freak athlete and touted prospect, going for 1,026 receiving yards and a TD as a rookie. That’s when the hype train really ramped up. Since then, we’ve been waiting for Pitts to make due on his potential. He played just 10 games in his second NFL season and only had 356 yards and two TDs. In the past two seasons, he’s finished as the TE13 and TE14 in fantasy football.
Is the elusive fifth-year breakout coming? Temper your expectations because we’ve seen this before. However, there’s some reason to believe Pitts could have an OK season. Penix showed some promise late last season and could take a big step forward in 2025. Aside from Drake London and Bijan Robinson, Darnell Mooney is the only competition for Pitts in terms of targets. Pitts had 90 and 74 targets, respectively, in the past two seasons. He just wasn’t very good at converting those targets.
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I’m not saying go wild and reach for Pitts as your TE1. But he’s ranked TE20 in Yahoo’s consensus rankings going into August. As long as Pitts can stay healthy and the passing game gets going, there’s no reason he can’t be a decent target as a backup TE on your bench or a bye-week starter. It won’t take a massive jump from what he did last season for Pitts to enter the top-12 TE realm this season.
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Terry McLaurin holding out
Washington Commanders WR Terry McLaurin has decided not to report and is holding out to begin training camp. Here’s a quick snippet from Commanders GM Adam Peters on the situation:
“Just like with all of our players, we’re expecting everybody to be here today,” Peters said of McLaurin. “Without a doubt, I think everybody in this building values Terry very much. … In terms of where we’re at, we’ve had conversations recently, and we’ll look to have some more conversations. And we’re gonna do everything we can in order to get a deal done.”
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler also believes that McLaurin is seeking a deal that would pay him $30 million per season and the two sides aren’t close. McLaurin is certainly deserving of a sizable contract as one of the more consistent wideouts in the NFL. He’s coming off a fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season with 1,096 and a career-high 13 TDs. McLaurin was far and away rookie QB Jayden Daniels’ favorite target all of 2024. It seems foolish not to want to bring back your young QB’s top receiver but the NFL is a business.
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We’ve still got a ways to go until Week 1 on Sunday, Sept. 7 when the Commanders open the season vs. the New York Giants. So again, it would be surprising to see the two sides not resolve this and hammer out a deal. Washington did bring in veteran WR Deebo Samuel Sr. via trade from the 49ers this offseason. But behind McLaurin and Deebo, there are a lot of question marks as to who would be catching passes.
Because of the TDs, McLaurin finished as the WR6 last season in fantasy. This season, McLaurin ranks 17th among wideouts in Yahoo’s consensus rankings. His ADP on Yahoo right now is also 35.5, which puts him at around the end of the third round/beginning of the fourth round in 12-team leagues. The TD regression and presence of Deebo is baked into McLaurin’s draft stock going into this season. Monitor the situation, but there’s no need to be worried as of now.
A lot of question marks surrounding 49ers’ WR room
49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk, coming off a torn ACL/MCL suffered last season, will start 2025 on the PUP list. Ricky Pearsall is dealing with a hamstring injury but should be back at practice soon. Breakout WR Jauan Jennings wants a new deal and could request a trade given his leverage, though he is at camp. And there’s always question marks surrounding RB Christian McCaffrey’s health. So things are a bit chaotic when it comes to San Francisco’s receiver room. So much so that Quintez Cephus and Equanimeous St. Brown have been brought in to compete at camp.
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Pearsall (WR39, 117.2 ADP) and Jennings (WR40, 108 ADP) should start the season at WR pending these injury/contract situations. So, based on their rankings and ADP, there appears to be some value to be had. We know Aiyuk will be back at some point but in what capacity? Jennings was great last season with 77 catches on 113 targets for 975 yards and six TDs. He finished as the WR27, just shy of a WR2 in 12-team leagues. Pearsall showed some flashes and had 14 catches on 18 targets for 210 yards and two TDs in the final two games of his rookie season. Targeting each late in drafts at their current draft-price tag feels advantageous. CMC is healthy but for how long? And we know how players can perform in a Kyle Shanahan offense.
Justin Fields gives us an injury scare
The New York Jets feel cursed at times. That’s likely how a lot of members of the organization and fans felt when Fields left practice on Thursday due to a toe injury. It turned out to be a dislocated toe and Fields was considered day-to-day. Now, early Friday, we saw Fields out on the practice field running around, looking completely fine:
So it seems a crisis has been averted. For now.
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Fields was brought in this offseason to run the Jets’ new offense under first-year head coach Aaron Glenn and OC Tanner Engstrand, coming over from the Lions. Expectations are pretty high for Fields and he’s become a trendy sleeper candidate at QB for fantasy football. He’ll enter 2025 as a top-10 QB in terms of Yahoo’s consensus rankings at ninth at the position. That could change over the course of camp and preseason. But we know the upside Fields brings with his ability to run and extend the play. So we’ll want to monitor this situation leading up to Week 1. If you’re looking to draft Fields, maybe consider an insurance policy by taking another capable QB.
How will Colts’ QB battle shake out?
The competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson Sr. for the starting QB job in Indy is going to be one of the more polarizing stories out of camp. Everyone seems to believe that Jones has the fast-track to being QB1. That was after it was revealed Richardson was dealing with a shoulder injury this spring. Well, Richardson is healthy entering camp but will need to prove himself (again) to earn the role of starter (again).
Jones got the early reps as the QB1 to start camp this week. We all know what Richardson can do with his legs but he’ll need to prove he can be a capable pocket passer in order to win over head coach Shane Steichen and the rest of the offensive staff. Jones isn’t the best passer in the world but should be a clear upgrade over Richardson and some of the starters Indy has used the past few seasons (Joe Flacco, Gardner Minshew, old Matt Ryan). Jones was also coming from a dysfunctional situation with the New York Giants, and even then, he was able to find some success in 2022, finishing as the QB7 in fantasy.
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This competition is so polarizing for fantasy because it will have a big impact on how we approach the Colts’ skill position players. If Jones wins the job (like many believe will be the case), then we can feel good about targeting WRs Michael Pittman Jr. (WR48 rank) and Josh Downs (WR43) as values. Alec Pierce (WR71) feels like more of a stretch pending an injury. Rookie TE Tyler Warren (TE16) would be a good sleeper target if you’re waiting on the position.
If Richardson is the starting QB, all bets are off. It would be difficult to trust the Colts’ receivers and, really, RB Jonathan Taylor (RB7) would be the only player we’d feel comfortable drafting agressivley. We know Taylor will handle the bulk of the carries but even he has injury concerns.
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Now that you think about it, the entire situation in Indianapolis feels pretty volatile. Keep an eye on this QB comp going into your draft but fading may be the way to go.
Tyreek Hill-Tua Tagovailoa mending relationship
We all remember the offseason saga where WR Tyreek Hill said “I’m out” as a declaration he wanted out of Miami. Hill wasn’t traded this offseason and he and QB Tua Tagovailoa are at training camp working on their relationship. Tua said “It’s a work in progress” and that Hill is “working on himself.” It may take some time for the two to get back on the same page; Samantha James did say, “Forgiveness is more than saying sorry.”
We’ll see if the two can rekindle some of the chemistry that led to that 2023 season, when Hill led the NFL in receiving yards with a career-high 1,799 and 13 TDs (also NFL-leading). Tagovailoa would lead the NFL in passing yards (4,626) that season and finish as the QB10 overall in fantasy. Tua has been through A LOT with concussion issues since then so it’s unclear if he’ll ever be able to push the ball downfield for Hill like that again. Hill had his worst NFL season since he was a rookie in 2024, finishing with 959 yards and six TDs, barely inside the top-20 among wideouts. Hill enters 2025 as the WR18 in Yahoo’s consensus rankings and even that might be generous.
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If any more drama comes out of Dolphins’ training camp, this situation could blow up very quickly. A trade might be the best thing for both sides in the end but we’ll see what develops. If Tua and Hill can get on the same page and Hill continues to fall down draft boards, it could create a better situation for fantasy managers. Jaylen Waddle (WR29 rank, 84.9 ADP) may be a better option given his draft-price tag.
