The 2025 fantasy football season is officially in the books. Congratulations to all of my fellow champions out there. Before you all check out for the next few months and set sights on the 2026 season, let’s look back and hand out some fantasy awards for the season that just ended.
Fantasy MVP: Christian McCaffrey, RB, San Francisco 49ers
Never doubt Christian McCaffrey. The only reason to expect anything other than an overall RB1 performance from the greatest fantasy running back since LaDainian Tomlinson.
McCaffrey averaged 25.3 fantasy points per game, a full 3.0 PPG ahead of the overall RB2. The lowest McCaffrey has ever finished in a healthy season is overall RB2. He is inevitable. And he was available in the second half of the first round.
Honorable Mention:Â Puka Nacua, WR, Los Angeles Rams
Playoffs MVP: Derrick Henry, RB, Baltimore Ravens
Score one for the boomers! Derrick Henry, mere weeks before his 32nd birthday, absolutely carried fantasy managers to championships. The Ravens RB1 posted 22.8 points in the semi-final and 45.6 points in the championship. Simply put, if you had Henry in Week 17, you won.
Old? Yes. Busted? Not even a little bit. All Hail His Grace The King.
Honorable Mention:Â Puka Nacua, WR, Los Angeles Rams
Breakout: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR, Seattle Seahawks
The third round was a minefield in 2025 fantasy drafts. Whether due to injury, underperformance, or both, it was very hard to avoid stepping on one. But amidst the dangers lurked a gold mine: Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
The third-year receiver was the biggest breakout of the season. Typically ranked as a high WR2, JSN averaged 21.6 fantasy points per game, elite WR1 numbers. The only WR better than Nacua was Nacua, and he was a first-round pick.
Honorable Mention:Â George Pickens, WR, Dallas Cowboys
Bust: Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings
In one of my home leagues, I remember how ecstatic I was that, somehow, I got Justin Jefferson at No. 8 overall. Sure, there were some concerns with Sam Darnold leaving and JJ McCarthy replacing him. But we had those same concerns last year when it was Darnold as the unknown after Kirk Cousins’ departure, and Jefferson was his usual elite self.
Jefferson has had success with the likes of Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall, and Josh Dobbs. He was QB proof…or so we thought.
Instead, Jefferson averaged 11.1 PPG, making him the single worst pick you could’ve made in the first round. In reality, it was even worse than that, as Jefferson reached 11.1 PPG in five games with Carson Wentz. Without Wentz, Jefferson averaged 9.2 PPG — an unmitigated disaster.
Honorable Mentions:Â Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars; Ladd McConkey, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
Sleeper: Javonte Williams, RB, Dallas Cowboys
Usually, the sleeper of the year is a young or lesser-known player. This year, we got a dusty old veteran.
Javonte Williams was left for dead after he couldn’t quite get back to his pre-injury self in Denver. The Cowboys signed him to what was basically a minimum contract, while the fantasy community got all excited over Day 3 rookie Jaydon Blue.
Williams got the first crack at lead back duties and never let go. He averaged 15.2 PPG, posting high RB2-level numbers. Not bad for an afterthought late-round pick.
Honorable Mention:Â Wan’Dale Robinson, WR, New York Giants
Waiver Wire Pickup Of The Year: Michael Wilson, WR, Arizona Cardinals
The legend of Michael Wilson will be talked about for years to come. Older fantasy managers still remember the historic Billy Volek-to-Drew Bennett connection from 2004. For three weeks, Bennett was the greatest wide receiver in fantasy history. Go look up his Week 13-15 game log from that season and thank me later.
This year, Wilson played that role with a similar journeyman backup in Jacoby Brissett, throwing him the ball. Wilson posted games of 33.5, 21.8, and 37.2 fantasy points in Weeks 11, 12, and 14. To get that level of production from a waiver wire pickup that truly wasn’t drafted anywhere matters a lot.
Honorable Mention:Â Rico Dowdle, RB, Carolina Panthers
You Fooled Me Again Award: Garrett Wilson, WR, New York Jets
As former president George W. Bush famously said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…you can’t get fooled again.” Did you draft Garrett Wilson? If so, you were fooled again.
I was hard-fading Wilson this season. He was on my do-not-draft list. I wanted no part of him. Yet, I wound up with him in three leagues because he was so cheap. I knew why he was so cheap, but I fell for it anyway. I thought, “We know he’s talented. Maybe this time it will work out.” Of course not.
In modern fantasy football, we very often have to pay for breakouts in advance. That’s understandable and not entirely unreasonable. But with Wilson, how many times?
This is now the third consecutive year where Wilson’s ADP was significantly higher than his previous production would suggest it should be. For three straight years, we paid for a breakout in advance that we never got. Maybe it was okay to do it after one year. Maybe two. But three? Shame on me, for sure.
‘And Just When The World Needed Him Most, He Vanished’ Award: Jahmyr Gibbs, RB, Detroit Lions
Jahmyr Gibbs is your annual reminder that fantasy football is a weekly game. Four running backs averaged over 21 PPG this season, and Gibbs was one of them. He didn’t break fantasy, but he was very much elite and displayed legendary upside. He also had a scarily low floor that surfaced at the worst possible time.
Gibbs posted games of 26.9, 36.8, 38.2, 55.4, and 37.0 fantasy points this season. Those are matchup-winning performances from one player. He also had four games in the single digits. Unfortunately, two of those games came in Weeks 15 and 17, exactly when fantasy managers needed him the most.
Thanks For Nothing Award: Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers
This almost went to Joe Mixon, but it was pretty apparent by early August that he wasn’t playing football at all this season. While we know Brandon Aiyuk was going to miss at least half the year, the prevailing belief was that he would come back at some point.
Aiyuk was probably healthy enough to play by the second half of the season, but a falling out between him and the 49ers derailed any hope of that happening.
The 49ers are headed to the postseason. Aiyuk is certainly capable of contributing. But his time with the team is over. This resulted in fantasy managers who stashed Aiyuk getting absolutely nothing from him all season.
Benjamin Button Award: Emeka Egbuka, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The thesis behind drafting rookies (which I did a lot of this year and will do a lot of again next year) is that their production is backloaded. We may have to wait a few weeks, and the overall body of work won’t be great, but they are very often league-winners. Emeka Egbuka’s rookie season was the reverse.
From Weeks 1-5, Egbuka burst out of the gate, averaging 20.5 PPG. While that was obviously not sustainable, surely, a talented first-round rookie wide receiver wouldn’t somehow go from elite WR1 to completely droppable by the middle of the season…right? Right! Wrong!
Since Week 6, Egbuka has averaged 8.3 PPG. He has just two games with double-digit fantasy points, one of which was just barely getting there with 10.4. His snap share and routes run have declined during the weeks when we typically see rookie usage increase. It is one of the most baffling and difficult-to-understand rookie seasons in NFL history.
Too Little, Too Late Award: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, RB, Washington Commanders
After the Commanders traded away Brian Robinson Jr., fantasy managers hyped Jacory Croskey-Merritt to the moon. He was going as early as the seventh or eighth round by early September.
Things started well with the rookie posting 14.2, 10.1, and 27.0 fantasy points in three of his first five. After that Week 5 breakout, he looked poised to take over the Commanders’ backfield, and he got every opportunity to do so.
Unfortunately, JCM floundered, failing to exceed 5.8 fantasy points in each of his next eight games, ultimately losing the RB1 job to Chris Rodriguez.
Then, as fate would have it, Rodriguez wound up missing two of the final three games of the fantasy season, thrusting Croskey-Merritt back into the RB1 role. He delivered with games of 15.6, 8.5, and 22.5 in the fantasy playoffs.
JCM definitely helped some fantasy managers, as he was likely dropped by whoever drafted him. But if you drafted him, it was most definitely too little too late.
Remember This? Award: Tre Tucker, WR, Las Vegas Raiders
Tre Tucker scored 156.3 fantasy points during the 2025 fantasy season. That’s 9.7 PPG — nothing to write home about. Years from now, Tucker will probably be an afterthought. The type of player someone randomly brings up when naming “guys” and their friends says, “Oh yeah. I remember him.” Because we will never forget the 40.9 fantasy points he posted out of nowhere in Week 3.
The Raiders WR produced 26.2% of his season total fantasy points in that single game. Since then, he was worth putting in lineups maybe two or three times, depending on your threshold for Flex-worthy production. But we will always have that Week 3 game where no one started him.
You Are Who We Thought You Were Award: Jerry Jeudy, WR, Cleveland Browns
How did Jerry Jeudy average 14.2 PPG in 2024? Was it a delayed breakout from a former first-round WR? Or was he purely the product of Jameis Winston? It turns out, Jeudy is exactly who we thought he was.
Without Winston, Jeudy went right back to being the overrated, overhyped, and underperforming overdrafted player he always was, averaging a career-worst 7.1 PPG. He won’t be fantasy relevant ever again.
Put Da Team On Da Back Award: Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots; Brock Purdy, QB, San Francisco 49ers
This list was dominated by running backs and wide receivers. It didn’t feel right not to find a way to get a quarterback involved.
In Week 17, Drake Maye absolutely carried fantasy managers to championships with a career-best five-touchdown performance. Maye posted 32.44 fantasy points in what was the 10th-highest output by a QB all season.
Maye is the primary winner of this award because fantasy managers had been starting him all season as an elite QB1. Brock Purdy wasn’t started by as many, but he should’ve been based on his recent games.
Purdy delivered in Week 17 on Sunday night, accounting for five touchdowns as well as (three passing, two rushing). His 36.92 fantasy points marked the sixth-best total all season.
Amazingly, we got two of the top 10 single-week QB performances all season in Week 17. Maye and Purdy lapped the field with the overall QB3 in the week Jaxson Dart’s 25.08 points.
