Coach: Liam Coen 7 PPG
QB: Joe Burrow 31 PPG
It was another lost season for Joe Burrow and the Bengals, who lost the pillar of the franchise in week 2 due to a grade 3 turf toe. He didn’t rejoin the team til Thanksgiving, and by then their season was about over. His injury-prone ways have been the rub for Burrow as he’s missed significant time in 3 of his 6 seasons. When he’s healthy, he’s going to throw over 4,300 yards and 35+ touchdowns, resulting in at least a top 5 QB finish. We know his skill set posts elite stats when he’s fit. Just cross your fingers and toes that he can get there to the end, and if not, have a good backup.
RB/WR/TE: Jonathan Taylor 30 PPG, Trey McBride 26 PPG, Ja’Marr Chase 23 PPG, Travis Kelce 16 PPG, Jake Ferguson 14 PPG 6th men: Greg Dulcich 11 PPG, Ryan Flournoy 9 PPG, Stefon Diggs N/A
Jonathan Taylor continues to showcase why he is one of the best runners in the NFL. Very quietly, he was in the MVP conversation to start the year and incredibly posted under 20 points twice all season. JT finished 3rd in rushing yards per game (93.24), 11th in receiving yards per game (22.24), 1st in total touchdowns per game (1.18), and 2nd in evaded tackles per game (6.53). It’s a complete package y’all. He’s lined up for another monster season, with no one behind him to siphon touches.
It hasn’t been horrible, but we finally got the season Trey McBride was capable of. Among TEs and WRs, McBride finished 3rd in receptions (7.41 and keep in mind they are 1.5 PPR), 9th in receiving yards (72.88), and FINALLY 6th in TDs per game (.65). This, of course, coincided with the injury and benching of Kyler Murray, who has since moved to the Great Lakes of Minnesota. Jacoby Brisset returns at QB, but there is another offensive playcaller, Mike LaFleur. As things stand, I think we’re set for another incredible season for McBride, as he’ll continue to be the focal point of this offense, and he finally got the respect he deserved in the red zone. He’s a top 10 RB/WR/TE.
Without Joe Burrow for the majority of the year, it was best case scenario for J’Marr Chase. So good, in fact, he still was a top 20 RB/WR/TE as the offense was functional with geriatric Joe Flacco at the helm. Chase was his usual top 3 WR self, finishing 1st in targets per game (11.56), 2nd in receptions per game (7.81), and 3rd in receiving yards per game (88.25). The TDs sat 21st at .50 per game, but 8 TDs isn’t an outlier to some other healthy Burrow seasons. Chase is locked into stud muffin status and has a shot at the overall #1 RB/WR/TE spot if everything breaks right.
Travis Kelce’s decrease in production again in 2025, but he was still startable despite missing 1,000 yards for the third straight year. Travis averaged 17 PPG, as his yardage and TDs both increased a touch. We did see the fewest targets (108) and receptions (72) since 2015, and I think we’ll continue to see this slowly trickle down as he gets older. Thankfully, there still is a lack of target competition, so Kelce is primed for another season full of opportunity. He gets the back-end starter treatment.
Jake Ferguson shot out of the gate with 5 out of the first 7 games, scoring over 22 points. Things cooled off dramatically from that point on, with only one week over 16 points the rest of the way. So what are we gonna get in 2026? Unfortunately, Fergs’ spike coincided with most of Lamb’s injury and was a bye-week filler type after his return. Unless an injury occurs, Ferguson should only be started in the event as a backup option or if Lamb/Pickens goes down.
PK: Chase McLaughlin 9 PPG
PN: Austin McNamara 10 PPG
DT: Jeffery Simmons 21 PPG, Leonard Williams 17 PPG
Despite missing 2 ½ games, Jeffery Simmons slayed the DT rankings, finishing as the DT1 by almost 60 points (347 to 288). He did so with an astounding 24.8, putting a career year on tape for his age 28-season. It was the first time he hit double-digit sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and tallied a quality 67 total stops. Simmons, like most interior DTs, has a high variance when it comes to actualizing sacks, and we’ve often seen talented DTs have high pressure ratios, only for it not to translate to IDP production. (Owners of Big Q and Jalen Carter can attest) While Simmons isn’t going to be anything but my DT1 heading into 2025, it should be noted that it may be difficult for him to hit 11 sacks again, if the other 6 seasons of his career are any indication. There has been talk of scaling back his snap count a bit in new HC Robert Salah’s scheme, keeping him fresh for critical pass rush downs.
While Leonard Williams was a frustrating fantasy player to trust early on in his career with the Jets, he’s stabilized into a consistent producer since being traded to the Seahawks back in 2023. Now 32, Big Leo is aging gracefully and has hit over 50 tackles for the 3rd consecutive year, along with 7 sacks on 29 pressures (3rd among DTs). He’s a safe bet again for top 5 DT production.
DE: Demarcus Lawrence 14 PPG, Carl Granderson 12 PPG
It was a bit of a rough start to Demarcus Lawrence’s career in Seattle, hitting over 10 points only once through week 5. From that point on, it was wheels up, notching 6 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and 2 TDs. DLaw has a prestigious pedigree, coming from the confines of Dallas, which asked him to lead their defense for the better part of a decade. Last season, he went ring chasing in Seattle and got the last laugh after Micah Parsons called him a clown for leaving Dallas. With a heavy rotation along the d-line and DLaw almost certainly not scoring twice again, he’s best served as a bye-week EDGE.
Carl Granderson appeared to be on the up and up in 2023 after his 77-tackle, 8-sack season. It has not gone well since, as he’s been prone to disappearing acts, particularly in the sack department. After week 4, it took til week 18 for him to notch another sack. The former UDFA from Wyoming has done well to carve out a quality role for the Saints, but I fear they may scale back his role in favor of Tyree Wilson. I don’t see him progressing much past his 11 PPG in 2025, regardless, and he is best left for bye-week starts.
LB: Demario Davis 17 PPG, CJ Allen 16 PPG, Drake Thomas 15 PPG (Teddye Buchanan 13 PPG, Jacob Rodriguez 13 PPG)
Demario Davis is simply one of those ageless relics of civilization, one that’ll still be posting 150+ tackle seasons after the next asteroid impact. Since 2013, he’s been an impactful IDP contributor and has returned back to the Jets, where he got his career started. Thank goodness he did, cause they need all the help they can get. Demario, can you become a player coach? I think they may need to move on from Aaron Glenn after he does another silly dance on the sidelines during a loss. Slated to play every snap, he’s back to being a top 25 LBer again. His tackle inefficiency hasn’t been great in recent years in New Orleans, but big plays and his ample opportunity have kept him afloat. That should be the same in NYC.
It was one of the best drafts in recent memory for the inside linebacker position, seeing a beautiful 7 taken within the first two rounds. The 6th of which was Georgia’s CJ Allen, who is slated in perhaps the best position for instant IDP success. Gone or unproven are most of the incumbents, and Allen is widely considered the most talented of the bunch. In college, Allen posted modest tackle and big play numbers with 76 and 88 tackles in 14 and 13 games, respectively. On the big play side, he provided 3.5 sacks, an INT, and 2 FFs through both starting seasons. There is potential here for a top 16 season right out of the gate, but I’d prefer to have him as my 3rd or 4th linebacker in an ideal IDP lineup build.
Every year, we get some fun surprises, one of which was the emergence of Drake Thomas. The 3rd year UDFA out of NC State overtook Tyrice Knight for the 2nd LBer spot for the Seahawks, eventually becoming a mostly part-time player starting in week 6. From that point on, it was a high-variance journey, posting 4 weeks over 20 points and 4 under 10. The Seahawks committed to him this offseason as well, as he inked a 2-year $8 million deal. (hardly guaranteed start money, tho) My money is on Thomas being a part-time player again, seeing around 80% of the snaps. He’ll have some boom weeks and should be trusted in tackle-heavy matchups.
CB: Cooper DeJean 15 PPG, Mansoor Delane 11 PPG
We’ve got one of those special cornerbacks for IDP here, folks. Cooper DeJean, like Kenny Moore before him, provided the IDP goodness of playing the slot in nickel (80% of the time in Fangio’s defense), while kicking outside on base downs. In 2026, that’s primed to have even better usage, as he’ll be a safety for approx. 20% of his snaps. That should help insulate against potential regression in his numbers, as he had a stellar season by IDP CB standards. He posted 15 PPG and finished as the CB2. I am very hesitant to even predict a repeat of a season like this for any corner, but his extremely rare usage keeps me optimistic he can consistently appear near the top of the rankings. He tallied 93 tackles, 1 FF, 2 INTs, and 16 PDs. It’s very possible offenses begin to gameplan to avoid him more.
Mansoor Delane was selected 9th overall by the Kansas City Chiefs to directly replace Trent McDuffie as their #1 corner. Mansoor was a talented prospect out of LSU and is going to be thrown into the fire right away for the Chiefs and should be a startable asset as a boundary rookie corner. McDuffie, even after he transitioned to the outside spot, still posted startable CB2 numbers.
S: Chamarri Conner 15 PPG, Coby Bryant 12 PPG (Amani Hooker 12 PPG, Jevon Holland 11 PPG, Geno Stone 10 PPG)
Chamarri Conner transitioned to one of modern defenses’ hybrid positions in 2025, after spending the past year and a half as the Chiefs’ slot corner. He provided an excellent 15 PPG campaign, finishing as the S6 in total points. He was tackle-heavy, with 117 stops, 2 FFs, 1 INT, and 2 sacks. That’s exactly what you’d hope for from someone who spends the vast majority of his time in the box, often in slot corner, linebacker, and strong safety positions. Nothing has changed for his opportunity, and he should again be a stud muffin for IDP purposes.
Coby Bryant slowly made a name for himself in Seattle, culminating in a Super Bowl ring. He signed with the Bears during the offseason, a lucrative 3-year, $40 million deal, one that points to extensive usage as a starting free safety. Bryant hasn’t been much of a fantasy factor posting S3 numbers as their deep man in Seattle, that is likely to be the case again for Chicago, but he’s not an unstartable prospect as he gets started in a new environment. For now, he’s getting a fringe top 32 projection until we know more about his alignments.
Off: Kansas City Chiefs 12 PPG
PPG: 343
W-L: 13-4
X-Factor: Shoring up the back-end of the roster.
It’s a story of studs and scrubs for Brad, who went to work in the offseason to bring in a litany of stars. The top end of the team is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the league. JT, Chase, and McBride are going to pile up the points as 3 surefire 400-point producers. There are obviously some weaknesses here, and if some EDGE help can be brought in, Brad will certainly be looking at his 11th straight playoff berth and potentially a 2nd Super Bowl.
