Fantasy football is a cruel, cruel game. At its peak, there’s nothing like it. That moment when you best one of your friends, and send over that victory text right as the game goes final — it’s euphoric. However, there’s another side to the coin that may be more familiar to most (me). That pain of defeat — and the helplessness you feel as your roster inexplicably underperforms — some argue (me), is worse than childbirth.
As you wallow in defeat, you may even try to do a postmortem where you look back at the draft from the summer and try to piece together what picks went awry, and what you could’ve done instead to put together a more competitive team.
Or am I the only one who does that?
You can probably discern that the 2025 campaign has not boded well for yours truly. In my home league that features my longest and dearest friends, I’m dead last, already eliminated from the playoffs and destined for the last-place game later this season. My last championship came in 2014. Peyton Manning was my quarterback. Matt Forte was my RB1. And my buddies don’t let me forget it.
This year, there were a number of notable swings and misses at the draft on my part, most notably taking Chase Brown in the second round and one pick in front of … Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, it’s been that kind of season.
In that despair, however, it sparked a question: Who have been the biggest busts of the 2025 fantasy football season thus far? As managers gear up for the final weeks of the fantasy regular season, let’s dive into the top 10 busts of the year.
Before we do, however, I’d like to point out that we won’t be identifying players who have underperformed predominantly due to them having an injury. So, while the likes of Malik Nabers, Brock Bowers, Jayden Daniels and Omarion Hampton have all underperformed their draft value, we’ll keep them off this list because injuries were the main culprit.
With that out of the way, let’s dive in.
(Preseason rankings and Fantasy PPG are PPR scoring)
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: RB34
- Fantasy PPG: 1.1
There was plenty of hype surrounding Johnson, especially after landing with the Steelers in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. His skill set was said to be a perfect match with Pittsburgh’s offensive scheme, making him one of the more popular rookies to snatch up in the middle rounds.
If you were hoping Johnson would ascend to an RB2 or RB3, however, you were sorely mistaken. The Iowa product has played no more than 20.8% of the offensive snaps in a single game and has largely been a complete nonfactor, unable to sniff flex consideration.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: TE11
- Fantasy PPG: 6.5
Remember all that talk of Sean Payton finally finding his “Joker” in Engram? Yeah, that went out the window real fast. Engram was ranked as a TE1 in 12-team leagues entering the season, and the thought was that he had top five upside in a Payton-led offense that has seen tight ends flourish in the past.
Despite flashing a bit in the preseason, Engram has yet to get off the ground in Denver, eliminating him from starting consideration.
He’s only logged two games this season where he’s played at least 50% of the offensive snaps. Engam’s season-high for receiving yards in a game thus far is 42, and when you pair that with essentially no touchdown volume (one touchdown this season), he’s quickly dissolved into a fantasy afterthought.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: WR33
- Fantasy PPG: 9.1
Hunter is now out for the year due to an LCL injury, but the No. 2 overall pick was considered a fantasy bust long before that. He entered the league as a tantalizing prospect, but there were inherent concerns from a fantasy perspective due to his dual-threat ability. It was unclear how much receiver he’d play as opposed to cornerback, so this was a risky pick.
Despite that, however, Hunter was still being picked as a high-upside WR3 in most leagues. Those preseason fears were realized as the year progressed with Hunter struggling to find his footing as a receiver and making little fantasy impact. In a cruel twist, his most productive game as a receiver (eight catches for 101 yards and a touchdown) proved to be his final.
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- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: RB36
- Fantasy PPG: 7.8
Maybe the biggest preseason riser of them all was “Bill.” The Commanders’ rookie running back took training camp by storm and, when the club ended up trading Brian Robinson Jr. to the 49ers and essentially cleared a path for more touches for Croskey-Merritt, his draft stock boomed.
At the beginning of the season, it looked as if all that hype was warranted when he tallied 82 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries against the Giants in Week 1.
While Bill has popped a couple of times (particularly Week 5 against the Chargers when he totaled 111 yards rushing and two touchdowns), he’s largely been silent. In fact, Croskey-Merritt has since lost ground to Chris Rodriguez Jr. in the Commanders’ backfield.
6. Chase Brown, RB, Bengals
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: RB9
- Fantasy PPG: 13.5
The Bengals have one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL, averaging just 81.4 yards per game on the ground (tied for second-fewest). Naturally, that has contributed to Brown not nearly being as big a factor as managers hoped when he was routinely selected in the second or third rounds this summer as a top 10 back.
Part of that falls on the shoulders of Brown himself, but the situation around him is also suboptimal.
The offensive line has struggled to perform at an adequate level both in the run blocking department and the pass-blocking department. On top of that, Joe Burrow going down with turf toe in Week 2 put a severe dent in the fantasy value of every Cincinnati skill player.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: WR22
- Fantasy PPG: 8.6
Worthy was eyed as a high-end WR2 during drafts, and we’ve yet to see even decent WR3 play from the Chiefs wideout. He got hurt in the opener against Los Angeles and was sidelined for the next two weeks before making his return in Week 4.
There, it looked as if he may get back on track with 83 yards receiving on five catches (eight targets) along with 38 yards rushing against Baltimore. However, that was his most fantasy-relevant outing of his season to this point, logging no higher than 53 scrimmage yards in a game since.
With Rashee Rice back from his suspension, it puts Worthy down the pecking order when Patrick Mahomes drops back to pass.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: RB15
- Fantasy PPG: 11.1
You need to have Walker on your team to understand the mental torture it is to start him every week. When watching the Seahawks, he’s clearly their most explosive back. Nevertheless, the majority of the time that his club gets into the red area and on the doorstep of the end zone, he’s on the sideline.
Instead of Walker, Zach Charbonnetis the constant in the backfield, snatching key scoring opportunities for fantasy managers. While Walker has been solid at times, he’s not nearly putting up the production that managers hoped for when they took him as a top 15 back, strong RB2 or back-end RB1.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: RB18
- Fantasy PPG: 9.7
If you went heavy at the receiver and tight end spots over the first couple of rounds, Kamara was a popular fallback to lead your zero-RB/hero-RB strategy. He was drafted as a top 20 back, and folks pointed to the heavy workload he was slated to receive within New Orleans’ offense under first-year coach Kellen Moore. That hasn’t materialized exactly the way managers had hoped.
While Kamara leads the Saints in touches (159), it hasn’t been efficient. He’s averaging just 4 yards per touch and, just as important, has been pretty much a nonfactor in the touchdown department. With 10 games under his belt, Kamara has registered just one total touchdown, which has contributed to him averaging fewer than 10 fantasy points per game this season.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: WR10
- Fantasy PPG: 11.3
When your first- or second-round pick is on a livestream telling managers, “If you got me on fantasy (football) man, get rid of me,” you know things have gone off the rails. Brown’s lack of usage in the Eagles’ offense has been a storyline that stretches beyond fantasy football and bleeds into conversations not only about Philly’s Super Bowl repeat chances but whether or not the wideout is long for the franchise. Because of his displeasure with the offense, Brown was the subject of trade rumors, but no deal came to fruition.
That was likely to the chagrin of those who have Brown in fantasy, as he’s been hit or miss (more miss) throughout the year. Brown has just two games this season where he’s topped 100 yards receiving while there are six games where he’s been held to under 50 yards. He’s been a little more serviceable in PPR leagues with his 7.2 targets per game (4.2 receptions), but this is hardly the production managers were hoping for as a bona fide WR1 this summer.
- CBS Sports’ expert consensus preseason ranking: WR7
- Fantasy PPG: 10.7
Thomas entered the season as CBS Sports’ No. 13-ranked fantasy player overall. That put him firmly in the first- and second-round discussion after a breakout rookie season for the LSU product. He was expected to further his breakout and rival among the best receivers in all of fantasy.
Boy, does that feel like a long time ago.
Given where managers were selecting Thomas and the expectations of him anchoring their teams, he’s the biggest bust of the bunch, barely even averaging double-digit fantasy points per week. While he’s missed the past two games due to an ankle injury, he wasn’t lighting things up before that and has regressed in essentially every category.
|
Receiving yards per game |
75.4 |
52.5 |
|
Receiving touchdowns |
10 |
1 |
| 100-yard receiving games | 4 | 0 |
Unless you nailed every pick after Thomas, this selection likely cratered your season.
