2025 Fantasy Football Regular Season Awards

Monday marked the end of the Fantasy Football regular season, which means no more Fantasy Football until 2026 for about half of the fantasy managers out there. It was another season filled with injuries, drama, and packed with the highest highs and the lowest lows. Even though there are still three weeks left in the fantasy season, with so many managers eliminated and thousands more on the cusp this weekend, it felt like the right time to hand out some season-long awards. I'll be going through some traditional categories, as well as a few more subjective ones I've come up with. All Average Draft Position (ADP) stats will be taken from an average of all the major platforms, and scoring details will be based on full points per reception (PPR) scoring.

Fantasy MVP: Christian McCaffrey

Another year has passed, and one thing remains clear: when he is 100% healthy, Christian McCaffrey is the best player in fantasy football. He's on pace for his fifth season as a top-two position player in points per game and his third as the overall number one. If you only counted McCaffrey's points as a receiver, he would be the WR7 in total points. Add 849 yards and eight touchdowns of rushing production, and you get a player who was built for fantasy.

Jonathan Taylor was neck and neck with McCaffrey for much of the season, with far less receiving volume, but has tailed off in recent weeks. Taylor also does not have a particularly strong outlook for the playoffs, with the Colts facing Seattle, San Francisco, and Jacksonville, and there's a chance their starting quarterback for those games is someone who is quite literally old enough to be my father. McCaffrey has also only had one game with fewer than 10 fantasy points, and remarkably, only three below 20, whereas Taylor has two games below 10 and six below 20.

Honorable Mentions: Jonathan Taylor, Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Steal of the Draft: George Pickens

For most of the season, it seemed like Pickens' teammate Javonte Williams would occupy this spot after he got off to a flying start. Through five weeks, Williams was the RB3 in points despite being the RB36 in ADP, being a 9th or 10th round pick in most leagues. Despite slowing down, Williams has still been one of the steals of the draft, but as the season progressed, Pickens' production has been too stellar to ignore. Pickens was going off the board as the WR29 and is currently the overall WR3.

If there were a redraft for just the playoffs, Pickens would likely go at the start of the second round. He benefited from Ceedee Lamb's absence, having two weeks of over 30 fantasy points while he was out, but even after Lamb's return, Pickens has been spectacular. He's third in the NFL in receiving yards, trailing only Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua, and is tied for third in receiving touchdowns with eight. He's finally showing off the potential that so many thought he had, being part of an explosive offense, and it's led to fantasy fireworks.

Honorable Mentions: Javonte Williams, Quinshon Judkins

Fantasy Bust of the Season: Brian Thomas Jr.

As someone who drafted Brian Thomas Jr. last season, when he was one of the best picks in the later rounds, and was excited to redraft him this year, this entry pains me. However, the fact of the matter is that Brian Thomas Jr. isn't just the bust of the season; he's one of the biggest fantasy busts of the past 10 years. He was going in the early second round of drafts, yet he's the WR46(!) in both points per game and total points. Some of the names ahead of him include Kayshon Boutte, Alec Pierce, Tre Tucker, and Troy Franklin, who were all waiver wire pickups in most leagues.

There's another issue with Thomas, which is also the case with many early-round busts, and that is the fear of benching him. When Thomas wasn't producing during the first two weeks, naturally, you think to yourself, the usage is there, the talent is there, he'll surely turn it around, right? He eventually had one good game in Week 6, right when you were about to give up on him, so you probably proceeded to keep him in your lineup until he suffered an ankle injury in Week 9. He returns from his injury, and the Jaguars trade for Jakobi Meyers, who has now usurped him as Trevor Lawrence's WR1. It's been an incredibly frustrating experience for Thomas Jr. and his fantasy managers, and he's now borderline unstartable. In a vacuum, Steelers rookie RB Kaleb Johnson would actually be the biggest bust. He was going in the 6th round of drafts and has scored less than 10 fantasy points in total, but at least with Johnson, it was clear after Week 1 that he wasn't startable, so he wasn't causing the same harm to lineups as Thomas Jr.

Dishonorable Mentions: Kaleb Johnson, Justin Jefferson, Saquon Barkley

Most Fun Player to Hold: De'Von Achane

This category is highly subjective, and you could make the case for someone like McCaffrey or Taylor being more fun to own because they score more points. However, I am giving this category to Achane for one reason: consistency. He's the only non-quarterback to have not scored less than 10 fantasy points in a game this season; in fact, he's only gone below 15 once, even though he's left multiple games with injuries.

Achane has scored 11 out of the 29 offensive touchdowns the Dolphins have scored this season, so anytime you saw that the Dolphins had scored, there was better than a one in three chance that it was Achane. On top of having an incredibly high floor due to his receiving volume, Achane is one of the most exciting players in the league to watch. He leads the league with 12 rushes of 20+ yards and is a threat to score from anywhere on the field, making him a dream to own for fantasy managers.

Honorable Mentions: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jahmyr Gibbs

Most Frustrating Player to Hold: Justin Jefferson

Brian Thomas Jr. has a strong case to win this category as well, but I would be remiss nto ot mention the struggles of Justin Jefferson owners. Many people had suspicions about J.J. McCarthy, but Jefferson has produced with every quarterback he's ever played with, which led to him being a mid-first-round pick in most drafts. Jefferson got off to a solid if unspectacular start, scoring more than 10 but less than 20 fantasy points in four of his first five weeks before the Vikings' bye week.

It's all gone downhill since then; however, he hasn't cleared 80 receiving yards in a game since his bye week, and has only scored two touchdowns all season. The most frustrating part is that, for the most part, it's not his fault. McCarthy and Max Brosmer have been floating passes over his head and missing him wide open in the end zone; he only has a 59.6% catchable target rate. Jefferson also faces a similar issue to Thomas Jr.: Are you really going to bench Justin Jefferson? Most people probably did not, but it would have been a wise decision. In the past five weeks, he hasn't scored more than 11.1 fantasy points in any game. Jefferson owners likely won't have to make any more start/sit decisions, because if you spent a first-round pick on him, it's improbable that you're in the playoffs.

Dishonorable Mentions: Brian Thomas Jr., A.J. Brown, Ashton Jeanty

Waiver Wire Pickup of the Season: Michael Wilson

Admittedly, I'm projecting a bit here, as Michael Wilson has done nothing of note for all but three weeks of the season. That being said, his impact while Marvin Harrison Jr. has been sidelined cannot be understated. In the three games Harrison Jr. has missed, Wilson has had over 100 receiving yards and 15 targets. He's been the overall WR1 in two of those weeks. Harrison Jr. also looks set to miss more time, and should he miss the entirety of the fantasy playoffs, Wilson will be a league winner.

It is inexplicable as to how a player who has done so little in his NFL career turns into such a statistical machine the moment the team's already underperforming WR1 doesn't play. I think it is primarily down to circumstance. The Cardinals are not a good football team, meaning they are constantly trailing and forced to throw the ball a lot. When Harrison Jr. is out, have no true weapons out of Trey McBride, and it's turned Wilson into a target hog. Outside of Wilson and a few other names, it's not been a great year for the waiver wire, and there are a few reasons for that. Most importantly, people are far more informed about fantasy now than ever before. There's so much fantasy content that is free and easy to access, meaning that the players that used to be "hidden gems" are now more well-known. People also play in deeper leagues, meaning fewer players are available on waivers than in the past. Even with those factors, I don't think a single soul saw this level of production from Wilson coming, making him the waiver wire add of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Rico Dowdle, Woody Marks, Christian Watson

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