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Fantasy Football: 10 players who underperformed in 2025 and could use a reboot, fresh start

By Matt Harmon
May 19, 2026 7 Min Read
Comments Off on Fantasy Football: 10 players who underperformed in 2025 and could use a reboot, fresh start

It’s difficult to predict how players will perform season-to-season in the NFL. One year, you’re on top of the football world. The next, you’re down in the dumps, an afterthought in fantasy football. Yahoo analyst Matt Harmon takes you through 10 players who underperformed relative to expectations in 2025 and could use a reboot for this upcoming season.

Lamar Jackson was a consensus top quarterback in drafts last season but finished outside the top-15 at the position in points per game. Even when he was on the field, he wasn't the same hyper-productive player. He had some of his least effective games in November of last year. 

Jackson will play this season under a new coaching staff that includes offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. The 29-year-old will be a primary play-caller for the first time in his career but was the offensive coordinator under Ben Johnson last season. We should all expect the structure of Baltimore’s attack to resemble that of Chicago’s in 2025. That’s a solid change for Jackson at this stage of his career and fits some of the players in place. I still have questions about some of the non-Zay Flowers pass catchers, Jackson’s own current athleticism level as he enters his 30s in January and the ceiling of the offensive line. That may be enough to keep me from making Jackson a priority target as the QB2 overall in ADP, but I’m still open to a bounce-back season from the Ravens passer. 

Much like Jackson, most but not all of Jayden Daniels’ slip in 2025 can be chalked up to injuries. Daniels only played in seven games and left two early. He only cleared 20 points in two contests, however, and was not as hyper-efficient as he was as a rookie. The Commanders' offense was severely limited by their wide receiver personnel beyond Terry McLaurin, who was also injured for much of the season.

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Daniels will get a fresh start with David Blough taking the controls from Kliff Kingsbury and set to install more pro-style concepts in the passing game. Daniels can play from under center and execute a passing game that works the intermediate middle of the field. I expect him to make this transition well and like some of the ancillary pieces like Antonio Williams and Chig Okonkwo, the team added to complement a hopefully healthy McLaurin. Daniels is one of my favorite quarterback targets this season, especially if he goes in the 60s. 

We’ve all spent many hours discussing, diagnosing and debating what went wrong in the Eagles passing attack last year and seemingly forgot that the running game took a step back. Saquon Barkley was a regression candidate no matter what but he was still drafted as a consensus early Round 1 selection despite that risk. He finished as the RB14 in both points per game and overall. 

The touchdowns and explosive plays flowed like water in 2024 but dried up this past season. The hope is that a new offensive system under Sean Mannion can fix several woes but the team will go at it without legendary offensive line coach and run game coordinator Jeff Stoutland, for the first time in over a decade. I don’t have a strong feeling on Barkley’s 2026 outlook but he does feel like an underdiscussed character with so much fixation on the on-field dip and off-field drama surrounding the passing game in Philadelphia.

The 2025 season was somewhere between bizarre and a nightmare for Bucky Irving. He dealt with injuries and setbacks that kept him off the field for a long stretch but even when he was available, he wasn’t a productive player. Out of 55 running backs who had 100-plus opportunities last season, Irving ranked 52nd in rushing success rate and 55th in EPA per rush. When he returned from injury, he saw his passing-down work cut for Rachaad White and goal-line work cut for Sean Tucker. 

Frankly, I don’t have a strong take on whether Irving gets the reboot he needs in 2026. I believe he’s a talented back who flashed strong rushing chops as a rookie and the Bucs offensive line should play better and also have better health this season. However, Kenneth Gainwell could continue to eat away at Irving’s receiving work and Tucker was brought back as a restricted free agent. Irving could just come into camp and clearly establish himself as the lead back in the committee but there will be some split here and it appears he’s still rehabbing the shoulder injury that cost him time last year. He’s a boom-or-bust RB2 pick coming into the summer. 

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What was once one of the best running back duos in the NFL slowly morphed into more of a one-man show in Detroit as David Montgomery was pushed aside for Jahmyr Gibbs. From Week 11 on, Gibbs had a 71% share of the running back touches to 29% for Montgomery and they even split work evenly inside the five-yard line. 

Not surprisingly, Montgomery was traded in the offseason and will get a fresh start in Houston, a team that desperately needs stability at running back. The Texans have ranked 31st in rushing success rate since C.J. Stroud joined the team in 2023. Even if Montgomery can just help them move the ball more efficiently, he will be a good addition. His fantasy upside is a bit more in question at this stage of his career, but he landed in a good spot to prove what he has left. 

Obviously, things didn’t go Justin Jefferson’s way in 2025, as the Vikings dealt with some of the worst play behind center offered up league-wide last season. He was a consensus Round 1 fantasy pick and finished as the WR37 in points per game. Even if there are a handful of plays Jefferson wants back due to some random drops, the quarterback play made it an impossible slog.   

Kyler Murray has his limitations but he still represents a considerable upgrade to what the Vikings dealt with last season. Jefferson is an elite separator who can win outside the numbers, where Murray is at his best and is a strong ball-winner in tight coverage. I think you can comfortably expect Jefferson to get the reboot he needs. 

Ladd McConkey certainly had a disappointing second season from a production standpoint. After being one of the best rookies in 2024, he finished 2025 as the WR38 in points per game. He had strong stretches last season but started slow in a crowded receiver room and ultimately sputtered to the finish line when the entire offense fell apart amid cluster injuries to the offensive line.

McConkey and the entire Chargers offense will get an infusion of positivity, both from a scheme change with Mike McDaniel coming over as offensive coordinator and what should be better health along the offensive line. The Chargers signed two in-line tight ends this offseason and a fullback, signaling they will go away from some of the spread concepts we saw last year in favor of heavier sets. That typically pushes targets toward the top receiver on the team, as we saw with Jaxon Smith-Njigba this past season. McConkey has a really high ceiling this year and is an obvious rebound candidate. 

Personally, it was obvious to me back in 2024 that the trio of Marvin Harrison Jr., quarterback Kyler Murray and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, while all solid to good at their jobs individually, just weren’t a fit with each other for a variety of reasons. Now, all three will get a chance to prove themselves, holding the same positions but no longer tethered to each other. 

That includes Harrison back in Arizona, who will get a fresh start under new play-calling head coach, Mike LaFleur. Harrison profiles well as someone who can move across the formation and not just be stuck at the X-receiver spot in this system. We never got to see Harrison healthy for an extended stretch with Jacoby Brissett under center last year, as he suffered a concussion and then a heel injury that ultimately ended his season. Harrison has some warts he needs to work out of his game on his own but this situation suits him better, even if the quarterback position remains a question mark, at best. 

DJ Moore will get a reboot this year by moving to Buffalo and reuniting with Joe Brady. It’s desperately needed. Moore ranked 64th out of 68 qualifying receivers in targets per route run (15.3%) in 2025. That fell just below Xavier Legette and Tre Tucker. 

Moore just wasn’t a fit in Ben Johnson’s offense and often played the role of the vertical clearout option who occasionally made a big play downfield. Watching him in isolation, I don’t think he played quite to the level of his Carolina days but is a good bit better than those numbers suggest. How he fits into Brady’s offense from an alignment perspective will go a long way to deciding how big a reboot this is. There’s no doubt the available target share is there and his skill set is sorely needed in this receiver room. The size of his impact will ultimately be determined by how much gas Moore has left in the tank. 

There’s just no getting around the fact that not only did Brian Thomas Jr. have a letdown second season, but by the end of the year, the Jaguars had largely relegated him to a vertical, X-receiver-only role in the offense. It’s not the worst use in the world for Thomas but it won’t help him garner layup targets that will be efficient for fantasy. 

I fully believe that, as an individual talent, Thomas can play much better than he did in 2025 with better health and a better feel for the offense. However, if he ends up back in a sacrificial X-receiver role, that won’t be the full reboot he needs to approach his rookie year production. Given how crowded this Jaguars offense is, I’m not sure that’s even realistic.

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Matt Harmon

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