By Will French
For the fantasy players out there, this year has had its ups and downs. Many injuries and complications have forced us to change our rosters many times. I mean, Phillip Rivers came out of retirement to play again after five years, it has been very crazy. Also for this list, I will not be including players who have been out for the majority of the season.
Let’s begin with the busts of the season. Many star players have performed very disappointingly.
To start off the list, we have Justin Jefferson, a wide receiver from the Minnesota Vikings. Ever since he entered the league, he has been a huge threat to play against in Fantasy Football. He has had a career low in receiving yards, which accumulated to 1048 yards, and only having two touchdowns. It may seem like a decent year, but not close to what you should get from a first or second round pick. According to ESPN, Justin Jefferson was the fourth overall pick on average. Big bust.
Another bust of the year is Brian Thomas Jr, the wide receiver from the Jacksonville Jaguars. His second year in the league has been disappointing. His rookie year, the hype was through the roof. He finished as a top 10 fantasy receiver, had strong route running abilities, and had long yardage plays. In his second season (This season), he halved his receptions and yards, tied second for most drops, and the shifting offense pushed him out of the spotlight he was once in. Many fantasy managers have been surprised by his very fast downfall, but hopefully next season he will be back.
Now for our bangs, our golden picks, our steals of the draft, we will be using underrated players. We all know that Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Allen, etc. are all great fantasy players, but we want to find the players who are great late round pick options.
Now let’s not delay. Our first bang of the year is Chris Olave, a wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints. In previous seasons, he has had problems with concussions, so he was a liability for fantasy managers.
This season, I drafted him on my own team in the ninth round, and espn awarded him steal of the draft for my team. This season, he had a career high in receptions, touchdowns, and yards, with 100 receptions, 1,163 yards, and 10 touchdowns, being a very reliable player. His 2025 stats have blown previous years out of the water.
For the last bang, we have Travis Etienne Jr., a running back from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Once again, a very late round steal. In the 11th round I drafted him to my team, and he has produced good point value since week one. Having only seven rushing touchdowns, he also had six receiving touchdowns. He rushed for 1,107 yards, and 292 receiving. He produced many points this season, and was a very solid back to have on your team.
Both of these bangs will have a big role to fill next year, and I do recommend that you pick them up earlier than they normally have been this season. For the two busts, I would say that next year they still can be reliable players, especially Justin Jefferson. He has been one of the all time greats for fantasy previously, and I doubt this will be a common theme for him to be bad.
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