• Brian Thomas Jr. is in a position to succeed: New head coach Liam Coen spoke glowingly of Thomas, and his role in the new offense should increase his fantasy production.
• The running back draft class will shake up fantasy rankings: Many coaches and general managers commented at how deep the running back class is, which will cut into the playing time of some veteran backs.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
The NFL scouting combine is this week, and most of the league’s general managers and head coaches held interviews Tuesday.
Here are my five biggest fantasy football takeaways from what the team leaders said, as they could impact free agency and the draft.
1. Travis Hunter could play wide receiver, cornerback or both
Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan and Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry were asked about Colorado’s Travis Hunter. Those are the franchises with the first two draft picks — the first shots at taking Hunter. While our most recent mock draft had Hunter falling to the fifth pick, one from earlier this month had Hunter as the first overall pick.
While each of them started off talking about his uniqueness playing both sides in college, Callahan said “he probably starts at corner and then you find ways to interject him into the offense as he gets more comfortable, he plays more and more offensively, but corner is probably his starting point in my opinion.” In contrast, Berry said, “we would see him as a receiver primarily first.”
To this point, Hunter has not been included in any of my offensive fantasy football rankings for 2025, as the thought is that most teams would think like the Titans. Very few wide receivers are fantasy-relevant in a part-time role. Adam Thielen, Josh Downs and Khalil Shakir were the only three wide receivers in the top 40 in fantasy points per game who don’t consistently play on two and three-receiver sets, and none finished in the top 24. All three played 60-70% of their teams' offensive snaps when healthy.
If Hunter primarily plays cornerback, he’s likely playing at least 90% of his team’s defensive snaps. Even at 50% of the offensive snaps, it’s unlikely he’s worth rostering in redraft leagues outside of best ball. However, if the Browns or a team thinking like the Browns draft him, he could see a typical role on offense, a more minor role on defense, and potentially be very valuable in redraft.
We’ll better understand where Hunter will play once a team picks him. For anyone picking him in dynasty leagues before the NFL draft occurs, he will be the biggest high-risk, high-reward gamble.
2. Brian Thomas Jr. should play significant snaps from the slot
Jacksonville Jaguars new head coach, Liam Coen, was asked about rising star Brian Thomas Jr. He responded, “He’s so dynamic, being able to move him around where you saw him at LSU maybe not do those things.” He later added, “the ability for him to snap down and get in the slot,” and “our pass game will run through him.”
Thomas started his rookie season playing 21% of his snaps from the slot over the first five weeks to 30% after their bye week. Thomas had an 89.2 PFF receiving grade from the slot compared to 75.3 when lined up wide. He averaged 3.12 yards per route run from the slot compared to 2.19 out wide.
Coen has a history of great fantasy performances from the slot. Chris Godwin finished ninth in fantasy points per game last season, playing out of the slot in Coen’s offense. Similarly, Cooper Kupp led all fantasy wide receivers in fantasy points per game in 2022 when Coen was his offensive coordinator.
Coen mentioned Thomas’ ability to play inside twice within one question, which is an excellent sign for his fantasy production in 2025. He currently ranks 16th overall for 2025, but we can be more confident he will play a high rate in the slot, which could move him up the rankings.
3. The Chicago Bears could look elsewhere for a running back
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles was asked, “With the run game being so important to what he built in Detroit, do you have the personnel on the roster right now to mirror that or hopefully to get there, or how do you envision adding or adjusting at running back this year.”
Poles' response focused entirely on adding to the position group rather than mentioning the players on the roster. Last season, the Bears' starting running back, D’Andre Swift, spent one year with Ben Johnson as his offensive coordinator when both were playing for the Detroit Lions. That season, Swift was mostly a receiving back while setting career lows in rushing attempts and yards per game.
Swift would need to get traded for Chicago to gain significant cap space, but even if he is on the roster, it seems unlikely he will be the lead running back again in 2025.
4. Baltimore Ravens GM Eric DeCosta praises Mark Andrews
DeCosta said, “I love having him on the team. We’ll figure out all the roster machinations in the coming weeks, but nobody is a bigger Mark Andrews fan than me.” While everything he said about Andrews was positive, he stopped short of assuring everyone that Andrews would remain on the roster for the 2025 season.
Andrews was our fourth-highest-graded receiving tight end last season with an 84.6 grade. It is challenging to find an excellent receiving option at the position, and it would typically be out of the question that a team would trade a player of Andrews’ caliber.
However, Andrews seemingly peaked as a receiver in 2021 and will be 29 years old by the start of the season. Isaiah Likely had the eighth-highest receiving grade at 77.0 and has seen notable improvements each season. The Ravens could gain $11 million in cap space by cutting or trading Andrews, giving them more cap room to re-sign some of their upcoming free agents.
If the Ravens move on from Andrews, that could help Andrews and Likely's fantasy value. They finished 17th and 27th, respectively, in routes run, but fourth and 15th in yards per route run. A trade would allow both players to run more routes, leading both to be potential top-10 fantasy tight ends.
5. This is a deep running back draft class
A typical question in these interviews is what decesion-makers think of the draft class. While most mentioned how deep the defensive line was in the draft, or defense in general, several mentioned how deep the running back class was. This included teams with a clear need at running back, such as the Las Vegas Raiders, and teams that could seemingly be set at the position, such as the New York Jets.
Our draft analysts tend to agree. Seven running backs are ranked in the top 75, the most since 2018 when Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb were part of the draft class. Our big board and consensus big boards have 12 running backs ranked in the top 138, which is the number of picks in the first four rounds.
Every team with a clear need at running back will be able to add someone in this draft, but we’ll also see teams that we think are set at running back pick. We should expect some running backs who are expected to be selected in the first four rounds of fantasy drafts to lose significant value if their team prioritizes the running back position in the draft.
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