Don't call it a comeback — meet 2025's All-Renaissance fantasy football team, full of players ready to return to glory

You know them. We all have them. Those players that we'll "never draft again" in fantasy, because they "lost us the championship," "were a waste of a first-round pick" or "got injured when we needed them most." And in some cases, these phrases are fair enough.

I, for one, am not touching Christian Watson with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.

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However, every year, a few players bounce back from disappointing seasons to experience sweet, sweet redemption and work their way into a fantasy renaissance. In 2024, guys like Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones Sr. surged back into dominance with a change of scenery, while forgotten vets like Baker Mayfield and Jerry Jeudy posted career highs after years of disappointment.

So, who are those guys in 2025? May I present ... the 2025 All-Renaissance Team!

Quarterback

QB Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers

2024: QB17 — 3,889 pass yards, 25 pass TD, 11 INT / 83 rush yards, 1 rush TD (15 games)

After an excellent "debut" campaign as the Packers starter in 2023, Love dropped all the way from QB5 to QB17 last season. Why the dip? Six letters. V-O-L-U-M-E. After Green Bay threw the ball on 58% of plays in 2023 (14th in the NFL), they dropped to 49% in 2024 (30th) ... their lowest rate as a franchise since 1978. In five prior seasons under Matt LaFleur, Green Bay had never dropped below a 55% pass rate. And while we can attribute some of that to the acquisition of Jacobs, we also shouldn't expect them to rank 30th in the league again.

The beauty of regression from outlier results is that it works both ways.

Meanwhile, Love actually improved his yards per attempt and touchdown rate from '23 to '24, and also gained a first-round wide receiver in Matthew Golden this April. Just holding his 2024 efficiency metrics and returning to league-average volume would put Love back in the 4,000-yard, 30-TD, QB1 conversation. If he takes another step forward, clicks with Golden and recovers some of his rushing upside, the Love Renaissance could rocket him back into the top tier of fantasy quarterbacks this season.

Running Backs

RB1 Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers

2024: RB72 — 202 rush yards, 0 rush TD / 15 receptions, 146 rec yards, 0 rec TD (4 games)

Meet Kyle. (Kyle is a fictional character.)

After CMC broke fantasy football in 2019, Kyle drafted him first overall in 2020 ... and he played just three games all year. Unwilling to give up, Kyle drafted him again in 2021 ... and he missed another 10 games. Now frustrated, Kyle swore off CMC in 2022 ... and despite a midseason trade, McCaffrey played 17 games and finished as the RB2 overall.

Oof. The dangers of the "Do Not Draft List."

Then, after another RB1 overall finish in 2023, McCaffrey played just four games in 2024 amid poorly reported health issues, putting him back on many fantasy managers' blacklists.

I get it. The injuries have been frustrating, and "Achilles tendinitis" is a very scary phrase. But the best injury experts in this industry — people like ESPN's Stephania Bell and The Fantasy Footballers' Matthew Betz — are more bullish on CMC's proven resiliency than they are worried about the "injury-prone" label. And I'm with them. When he stays healthy, McCaffrey is the best running back in fantasy, and you're drafting to win your league, not to finish comfortably in sixth. Give him another shot.

RB2 Kenneth Walker III, Seattle Seahawks

2024: RB28 — 573 rush yards, 7 rush TD / 46 receptions, 299 rec yards, 1 rec TD (11 games)

Similar to McCaffrey, "K9" has garnered a reputation for missing games — 10 over three seasons, to be exact. Moreover, Walker also lost some touches to Zach Charbonnet when healthy last year, raising worries over a "committee" backfield in Seattle. The 24-year-old has yet to crack RB15 in points per game in any of his three seasons, and is currently going as the RB14 in Yahoo ADP.

Despite the seemingly bleak picture painted above, Walker is one of my favorite draft targets in 2025. In the 21 career games he's played at least 60% of the snaps, K9 has averaged 88 scrimmage yards and 15.4 fantasy points per game, with 18 touchdowns. Those are strong RB1 numbers. New Seattle OC Klint Kubiak comes from a strong lineage of throwing to backs, and both Dalvin Cook (283 in 2021) and Alvin Kamara (296 in 2024) saw massive RB1 workloads in Kubiak's two prior seasons as an OC. Walker will need to stay healthy — as does everyone in this game — but he could have his strongest season to date in the new Seattle system.

Wide Receivers

WR1 DK Metcalf, Pittsburgh Steelers

2024: WR32 — 108 targets, 66 receptions, 992 rec yards, 5 rec TD (15 games)

After four straight seasons as a top-20 fantasy wideout, Metcalf finished 2024 with just 108 targets — fewest since his rookie season — and a career-low five touchdowns. Then he signed a four-year, $132 million contract with the Steelers, and, after a few months of nail-biting, Aaron Rodgers signed on to be his quarterback. So, what can we expect from the veteran duo (and camp suitemates) in 2025?

A whole lot. Over his last 10 healthy seasons, Aaron Rodgers' top receiver has seen an average of 138 targets, and six of those 10 saw at least 149 targets. If we remove 2022 — when his best receiver was Allen Lazard (97 targets) — and 2012 — when he evenly distributed the rock to a wealth of stars led by Randall Cobb (104 targets) — that average jumps to 147 targets. Needless to say, Metcalf is better than Lazard, and the rest of the 2025 Pittsburgh depth chart is a far cry from prime Jordy Nelson, James Jones and Greg Jennings.

Still not convinced? After the Jets acquired Davante Adams last year, Rodgers turned him into the WR5 down the stretch, while still supporting Garrett Wilson as the WR22 over that same span.

Metcalf isn't just headed for a 2025 renaissance ... he might have a career year and threaten for WR1 overall.

WR2 Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins

2024: WR46 — 83 targets, 58 receptions, 744 rec yards, 2 rec TD (15 games)

A quick glance at Waddle's 2024 numbers might lead you to believe he missed half the season. He did not. And while he was worse with Miami's backup QBs than with Tua Tagovailoa, Waddle's numbers with Tua were still well below expectation after three stellar seasons to start his young career. The entire Miami offense seemed askew, due in large part to the QB carousel. They finished in the bottom half of the league in both yards and points, after finishing first and second in those categories, respectively, in 2023.

But take a look at the short window of success they found from Weeks 10-14. They averaged 28 points per game and went 4-1 ... and Waddle caught fire in that stretch, averaging 78 yards per game and setting a full-season pace of 88 catches and 1,326 yards. That's the Waddle we expected ... and it's the Waddle he expects from himself in 2025. He and Tagovailoa are building chemistry in camp, and his coaches and teammates still have high expectations. I'm buying into those expectations (and Waddle's climbing ADP), and believe he can be a borderline WR1 again in 2025.

Tight End

TE Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys

2024: TE30 — 86 targets, 59 receptions, 494 rec yards, 0 rec TD (14 games)

After finishing as the surprise TE8 in 2023, lots of fantasy analysts — myself included — had Ferguson as a draft target in 2024. Unfortunately, he missed three games and was a major bust for most of the season, scoring zero touchdowns after logging five the year prior. But let's dig a little deeper. In the seven games Ferguson played after Dak Prescott's season ended, the tight end averaged just 3.0 catches and 22.9 yards per game. But in the seven games he played with Prescott at the start of the year, Ferguson averaged 5.4 catches and 47.7 yards. Over a full season, that would be 92 catches and 811 yards.

And while Ferguson still didn't score a single touchdown with Prescott in 2024, touchdowns are fluky. Prescott hit a career-low 3.8% TD rate last year, but if you take his prior career rate of 5.2% and apply it to Ferguson's 7.4 targets per game over the first half of 2024 ... you'd be looking at six to seven touchdowns. With Prescott back in 2025, and positive touchdown regression incoming, Ferguson should rebound right back into TE1 territory this season.

FLEX

WR Deebo Samuel Sr., Washington Commanders

2024: 81 targets, 51 receptions, 670 rec yards, 3 rec TD / 136 rush yards, 1 rush TD (15 games)

It felt only fitting to slot Deebo Samuel Sr. in as our All-Renaissance Flex, given his versatility on offense. Moreover, Samuel is truly the Lord of the Renaissance, as he somehow manages to do it every other year. Take a look at his fantasy production and finishes over the six seasons of his career:

I'd make a joke about Samuel being "due" in the upcoming "odd year," but I don't really need to. He's found his way into an excellent situation in Washington. If Terry McLaurin leaves the team, as he's requested, Samuel would likely be in line for a career high in targets — previously 121 in 2021, when he finished as the WR2 overall. If not, Samuel would still be the clear No. 2 in an excellent scheme for his skill set, designed by Kliff Kingsbury and captained by Jayden Daniels.

Daniels threw the sixth-most screen passes per game and posted the second-highest completion percentage on quick throws in the league last year. Additionally, Samuel could see quite a bit of work out of the backfield, where neither Brian Robinson Jr. nor 30-year-old Austin Ekeler commands bell-cow volume. With a Yahoo ADP of WR45, you don't need to invest much to take a shot on Samuels' (third) bounce-back campaign, and very few receivers in that range of drafts have his overall upside.