Fantasy Football Sleepers 2025: Breakout Candidates Playing in New Schemes

Welcome back to RotoWire's annual series on fantasy football sleepers, where we're kicking things off with a survey of breakout candidates for 2025, dividing players into three main groups. First, we looked at second-year pros, including Drake Maye, Tyrone Tracy, Keon Coleman and Theo Johnson. Then we covered the third-year pros, highlighted by Bryce Young, Zach Charbonnet and Jordan Addison. 

Now, last but not least, it's time to look at players who might be a little older but have a chance to break out thanks to playing in a new scheme and/or under new coaches. For some, like Trevor Lawrence, the change came to them via the annual cycle of coaching firings and hirings. For others, like George Pickens, the opportunity to play in a new system required changing teams.

Remember that this initial series of three articles is intended as a broad survey of viable breakout candidates, not necessarily as a "draft these guys" list. As the season approaches, we'll have another series of articles that hone in on a smaller group, highlighting the NFL fantasy football sleepers that have a chance to really crush their ADPs.

You might notice some players missing below because they were listed in one of the two previous articles, namely second-year pros Drake Maye, Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. All three seem likely to benefit from improved coaching staffs (relative to the messes they dealt with last year) but will be omitted below because the aforementioned Year 2 Breakouts article already discussed them.

Quarterback

• QB Trevor Lawrence (Round 11 ADP)

This is a make-or-break year for Lawrence, after his Murphy's Law season in 2024. Travis Hunter and Dyami Brown replace Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis, with Liam Coen running the show after overseeing 41 TD passes from Baker Mayfield last season. Mayfield averaged a career-high 7.9 yards per attempt even though his aDOT dropped to 7.0, which was a yard and a half lower than the year before. 

That's of special interest to Lawrence, who had his best season in 2022 with a career-low 7.4 aDOT and struggled in 2024 with a career-high 9.3 aDOT. Throwing downfield is generally a good thing, but not when done out of necessity because the offense can't create easy completions or open up lanes for running backs. Coen's fantastic work with the Bucs last year suggests he's capable of installing a balanced, efficient attack, although he won't have a top offensive line to help him this time.

How do these players stack up against the rest of the NFL? Visit our fantasy football rankings for a list of the top players for the remainder of the season.

Running Backs

• RB Kenneth Walker (R4)

Hampered by a slew of lower-body injuries and poor blocking, Walker dropped from 4.6 yards per carry as a rookie (2022) to 4.1 YPC in 2023 and 3.7 YPC in 2024. The scheme last year did him no favors either, although it was good for cheap PPR points as Walker's nine TDs and career-high 46 receptions (in just 11 games) kept his fantasy value afloat with just 13.9 carries for 52.1 yards per game. Fellow second-round pick Zach Charbonnet filled in capably when called upon, scoring six TDs in the six games Walker missed, which might theoretically set the table for Charbonnet to take on more work in 2025 even when Walker is healthy.

On the other hand, new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak won't be running the spread, three-wide-heavy scheme that Ryan Grubb brought to Seattle last year. Kubiak is from the Shanahan coaching tree, second generation, with the usual West Coast terminology and outside-zone running game that all the other Shanahans, Kubiaks and assorted disciples deploy. Walker's acceleration and elusiveness should play better than Charbonnet's power and passing-down skills in this system. My concern is that the Seahawks still won't block well, or that Walker won't stay healthy. 

• RB D'Andre Swift (R6)

After starting his career as an explosive-but-oft-injured player, Swift has settled in as more of a reliable, unexciting type — good enough to start but not necessarily good enough that you're happy about it. Fortunately, he plays a position where that type of player can score a lot of fantasy points in the right situation, which Swift may have stumbled into when the Bears hired Ben Johnson and completely remade their interior offensive line.

Many assumed another back would be the one to benefit from Johnson's system, but the Bears didn't sign anyone and didn't draft an RB until the seventh round (Kyle Monangai). While not impressive in terms of size or speed, Swift is good enough as both a runner and pass catcher to stay on the field in all situations, which could lead to big numbers if Chicago's offense is vastly improved and he's taking most of the backfield snaps. Just beware of a late RB addition to the roster... or Caleb Williams being a bust and dragging the whole operation down.

• RB Travis Etienne (R9)

It wasn't just Bucky Irving that thrived in Tampa Bay last year. Rachaad White averaged 4.3 yards per carry, up from 3.7 and 3.6 YPC in his previous two seasons, while Sean Tucker went for 6.2 YPC on 50 carries. The Bucs were fourth in rushing yards and third in YPC, one year after ranking dead last in both categories under Dave Canales (who subsequently got hired by Carolina as a head coach). Irving and an improved offensive line were a big part of that, but so was Liam Coen, who took over for Canales after bouncing between the Rams and the University of Kentucky for six years. 

Coen now takes over as the head coach and playcaller in Jacksonville, where Etienne is set up for a make-or-break season in the final year of his rookie contract. He's been held back by injuries, poor blocking and bad coaching since the Jaguars made him a first-round pick in 2021, but there have also been flashes of his speed and talent, especially in 2022 (5.1 YPC, 1,331 total yards) and 2023 (12 TDs, 1,484 total yards). He's healthy for the start of training camp and apparently has been active as a pass catcher in the early practices, making his case for the starting job ahead of fourth-round pick Bhayshul Tuten and third-year pro Tank Bigsby. Just make sure to keep a close eye on the situation, considering Bigsby and Tuten are capable of spoiling things for ETN.

• RB Jordan Mason (R9)

Mason kind of broke out last year, averaging 22.8 carries for 111.8 yards over the first four weeks (three TDs), but he dropped to 12.3 carries per game over the next three weeks (zero TDs) before Christian McCaffrey returned to the starting job. McCaffrey and Mason then suffered season-ending injuries in the same Week 13 contest, leaving Mason at 5.2 YPC across 153 rush attempts, but with just three TDs and 10 catches in his seven-plus games as the lead back. Minnesota traded a late-round pick for Mason — after the Niners gave him a second-round RFA tender — and then signed him to a two-year, $10 million contract ($7.22 million guaranteed) to replace the tender. 

Aaron Jones is back in Minnesota, also on a two-year contract ($13.5 million guaranteed), but he's 30 years old and better at dancing around defenders than smashing through them. Mason figures to give the offense a power element behind an improved offensive line, with upside to handle huge workloads if Jones misses time. Mason may never be much of a receiving threat, but he has the size, toughness and football IQ to excel as a blocker, which could keep him on the field for some of the passing-down situations that yield check-down targets and change-of-pace carries. 

He's also looking at a manageable scheme transition, going from Kyle Shanahan to a Shanahan-tree coach who uses familiar West Coast terminology and outside-zone concepts. Mason averaged 5.9 YPC on outside zone carries last year, making him a threat for more than just short-yardage and power stuff in Minnesota. The biggest problem is that Jones' elusiveness and well-rounded skillset figure to keep him in a sizable role (though probably not as big as last year's) so long as his health holds up, which makes Mason's breakout path feel injury-dependent.

Wide Receivers

• WR Garrett Wilson (R3)

Swapping out Aaron Rodgers for Justin Fields (and maybe some Tyrod Taylor) means fewer pass attempts to go around after New York threw the fourth most last year. But Wilson can make up for it, at least partially, by capturing a larger share of the available targets now that Davante Adams is gone (and "replaced" by Josh Reynolds). The hope is that Fields and Breece Hall lead a strong rushing attack under new OC Tanner Engstrand, which would give defenses something else to worry about and help Wilson improve his lackluster efficiency numbers (career 6.9 YPT).

The formula worked in 2023 for D.J. Moore, who had career highs for yards and TDs in a Bears offense that ranked 27th in pass attempts with Fields starting 13 games. The Jets offense will look a lot different from what Engstrand was part of in Detroit the past few years, but he'll likely do some of the same things with Wilson that the Lions do with Amon-Ra St. Brown, taking advantage of Wilson's inside/outside versatility and ability to earn extra yards after the catch.

• WR George Pickens (R5)

It was never going to happen for Pickens in Pittsburgh, where the combination of poor QB play and a run-first playcaller left him frustrated more often than not. He'll now have to adjust to not being his team's top receiver, although the No. 2 job in Dallas may end up coming with more targets than the No. 1 gig in Pittsburgh did. The Cowboys have mediocre complementary pass catchers behind Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, and they again took a discount approach to their backfield in the offseason. It remains to be seen how Brian Schottenheimer changes the offense after being promoted from coordinator to head coach, but the personnel hints at upside for Lamb and Pickens to combine for around half the targets in a high-volume passing attack. 

• WR DeMario Douglas (R15)

Douglas was my favorite dark-horse breakout candidate at this time last year, but Year 2 ultimately didn't look much different from his rookie season. He did next to nothing with Jacoby Brissett under center, and was then up-and-down with Drake Maye (after posting 6-92-1 in Maye's first start). The Patriots now have 31-year-old Stefon Diggs and third-round pick Kyle Williams added to their WR room, but Douglas seems locked in as the slot receiver for what should be an improved offense under Josh McDaniels. There's also reason for optimism when looking at the track record of slot receivers under McDaniels, although Maye and Douglas obviously are a far cry from Tom Brady and Wes Welker.

• WR Dyami Brown (R17)

Brown is a sneaky candidate to run the second-most routes in what could be the NFL's most improved offense. Travis Hunter is far more talented, but Brown might be the No. 2 receiver in terms of snap/route volume, and in an offense where the TE room (led by Brenton Strange) projects for a modest target share. The favorable situation, along with a one-year, $10 million contract, give Brown a chance to pick up where he left off in January with 229 receiving yards in three playoff games. He did very little before that in four years for Washington, but that was with limited playing time and poor QB play — fewer than 30 snaps in 53 of 63 regular-season games. If Hunter is a part-time WR because he's also playing defense, Brown is left with only Parker Washington as competition for a role that could yield 30-plus routes and 5-7 targets per game.

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