Fantasy Football WR Fades for 2025

The 2025 NFL preseason is wrapping up and that means fantasy football draft season is underway. We finally made it people.

There are plenty of top options in your draft will be that immediately taken off the board, but some of them will not live up to expectations. Those top picks not producing the way you thought they would could put your season in jeopardy early and that especially rings true at running back. A number of factors can contribute towards them not performing up to snuff and that could derail your championship hopes quickly.

Below, I’ll give you four top wide receivers for you to fade ahead of your respective drafts. Considering that the average fantasy football league consists of 10-12 teams, I’ll define a “top” WR for this exercise as someone currently falling in the 1-30 range of ADP (average draft position) according to FantasyPros. We’ll use PPR rankings for further clarity. Let’s dive in, shall we?

McConkey is coming off a very impressive rookie campaign where he immediately established himself as a primary target for Justin Herbert. The second-round pick out of Georgia ended up reeling in 82 targets for 1,149 yards and seven touchdowns, finishing as the No. 19 fantasy wideout in PPR leagues with an average of 15.1 points per game. Not a bad debut for a first-year pass-catcher and he proved that he could basically do more with less. He finished fourth in the league in yards per routes run (2.71) despite having just a 24.2% target share.

Fantasy managers are understandably bullish on the Charger wideout heading into Year 2 and view him as a low-end WR1 option so far. I’d pump the brakes on that slightly. Keep in mind that this is still an attack architected by offensive coordinator Greg Roman, whose offenses have only finished above 28th in pass attempts once in his entire OC career. And with the arrivals of first-round rookie Omarion Hampton and veteran Najee Harris, you best believe the Chargers are going to run the dang ball. McConkey already had a lower target share than some of the other elite receivers around the league and he will now have to share even more of the wealth with Keenan Allen returning this offseason after a one-year stint in Chicago.

This isn’t to say that McConkey can’t be a vital piece of your starting lineups week in and week out. I just wouldn’t rush to make him your WR1 unless you absolutely had to make the choice in your draft.

The vibes during Dolphins training camp have been atrocious and they’re at the top of list of teams that could implode spectacularly as the 2025 season unfolds. Those bad vibes can be traced back to the very end of last year when Tyreek Hill appeared to pull himself out of their regular-season finale against the New York Jets and proceeded to state that he wanted out of the organization afterwards.

That frustration came on the heels of what was one of Hill’s least productive seasons of his career, catching 81 targets for 959 yards, and six touchdowns. While those would good numbers for most, it was a massive step back for the five-time All-Pro and broke a four-year streak of him finishing as a top-six wideout in fantasy football. He also experienced massive dips stats like target share, yards after catch, and yards per routes run. Fantasy managers were also disappointed as he entered the season with an ADP of No. 3 overall in PPR leagues and ended up as the 18th-ranked receiver.

At 31, “Cheetah” appears to be on the downswing of his career and is entering what could be a tumultuous season in Miami. Given the concussion history of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, there’s a good possibility that he could be catching passes from Zach Wilson or even rookie Quinn Ewers at some point in the year. Fantasy managers holding out hope that Hill can give them one more year as a strong WR1 candidate need to stay away.

Harrison’s highly anticipated rookie season last year ended up being a bit of a disappointment. And yet, fantasy managers are banking on him making the jump into fringe WR1/high-WR2 territory. The son of the Pro Football Hall of Famer hauled in 62 targets through 16 starts as a rookie in 2024, ultimately compiling 885 yards and eight touchdowns for the Cardinals.

In a vacuum, those are solid numbers and he finished as the No. 42 receiver in PPR leagues. But for the No. 4 overall pick coming off a dominant two-year stretch at Ohio State? Meh. It was underwhelming, especially compared to the seasons of fellow rookie wideouts like Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., and the aforementioned McConkey. FantasyPros’ Derek Brown laid out how Arizona’s game-planning was partially to blame for this, particularly his lack of horizontal breaking routes early on in the season.

Better chemistry with quarterback Kyler Murray does give hope that Harrison can make a jump in Year 2. But I’d take a wait-and-see approach with him and look elsewhere for my second wideout pick.

Moore was once again a central figure for the Bears offense in 2024, but for someone who led all receivers in total snaps, his numbers proved to be a bit underwhelming. The veteran ended up hauling in 98 targets for 966 yards and six touchdowns, a considerable dropoff from his career year the season prior. That was felt on the fantasy front as well as he went from the No. 6 wideout in PPR leagues with 286.5 total points in 2023 to the No. 16 wideout with 238.1 points in 2024.

His 9.9 yards per reception were a bit low for someone who mostly lined up on the outside last season, ranking 108th among pass-catchers who averaged at least 1.88 receptions per game. Teammates Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen notably had higher ypc averages as well better numbers in total EPA. He was effectively turned into possession receiver for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and his misuse was one of the many criticisms lobbed at former head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

Moore will be a part of a revamped offense in 2025 under the guidance of new head coach Ben Johnson, who earned the job after a successful stint as the OC of the Detroit Lions. On one hand, Johnson experimenting with concepts like lining Moore up in the backfield could be intriguing for fantasy managers considering him as a fringe WR1 option. On the other hand, the presence of other pass catchers Odunze, Luther Burden III, Cole Kmet, and Colston Loveland could decrease his fantasy value even further this season. I’d wait to see if he slides into the middle rounds of your draft.