4 Breakout Players to Target in 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts

Hitting on a breakout player in fantasy football can give you a massive leg up in your league -- just ask those who drafted Jayden Daniels, Brock Bowers or Bucky Irving a year ago.

Who has the potential to be a breakout player in 2025?

Let's take a look at four players who have a chance to significantly out-produce their average draft position (ADP) this season.

All ADP references come from FantasyPros' half-PPR ADP.

Fantasy Football Breakout Picks for 2025

Tyler Warren, TE, Colts

There was a time when rookie tight ends weren't big fantasy contributors. Given what Sam LaPorta and Brock Bowers did as rookies, it seems like we're in a new age of TEs.

Tyler Warren could be next in line.

After a huge final season at Penn State where he generated 1,233 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns, Warren was taken 12th overall by the Indianapolis Colts. While the Colts' QB situation obviously isn't ideal, Daniel Jones winning the job is probably a positive for Warren's outlook. Plus, the Colts -- despite some quality pass-catchers -- are lacking a true go-to weapon in the passing game. Warren can fill that role.

The upside is there for Warren to be a high-end TE1 producer right away, and with an ADP of 99th overall (TE10), he is a great mid-round tight end to target if you pass on the position's elite early in your draft.

Ricky Pearsall, WR, 49ers

Ricky Pearsall is someone we've covered a lot this offseason, and he's my favorite fantasy football breakout candidate.

Pearsall is a 2024 first-round pick who missed a good chunk of his rookie campaign due to injury. Late in the season, he started emerging as a quality receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, totaling 24.7 and 15.9 half-PPR points in Week 17 and Week 18, respectively.

The 49ers' WR depth chart has cleared out at the moment as Deebo Samuel is no longer there while Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings are currently injured. Aiyuk is possibly targeting Week 6 as a return from last season's serious knee injury, and Jennings is dealing with a calf ailment in addition to being unhappy with his contract, which has resulted in him doing very little this preseason.

There's an opportunity for Pearsall to open Week 1 as San Fran's top wideout, and although Aiyuk will certainly command targets once he returns, it's not a lock Aiyuk hits the ground running.

With an ADP of WR36, Pearsall is one of the better late-round receivers to target.

Marvin Mims, WR, Broncos

The arrow is pointing up on Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos' offense, and I want in.

I'm particularly intrigued by third-year wideout Marvin Mims. Nix targeted Mims pretty frequently last year when Mims was on the field, with Mims recording a 29.5% target rate, the seventh-best target rate among all receivers, per PlayerProfiler.

The issue for Mims was that he wasn't on the field a lot for most of the season, but his role grew as the year progressed as three of Mims' five highest single-game snap rates of the regular season occurred over the final three weeks. Then, in the postseason, Mims played 69% of the snaps in Denver's Wild Card game -- by far his highest snap rate of 2025.

Mims' upward trajectory continued this preseason. In Denver's final preseason game, Mims played all 19 of Nix's snaps. Although he received only one total target across 22 routes run in the preseason this year, the increased snap rate is a big positive.

All in all, Mims is pretty easy to like at his ADP of WR57.

J.J. McCarthy, QB, Vikings

After missing all of 2024 due to injury, J.J. McCarthy is walking into a nice situation in 2025.

The Minnesota Vikings liked McCarthy enough in the 2024 draft to pick him 10th overall, and they doubled down on him this offseason by letting Sam Darnold walk after Darnold had a superb season a year ago.

Darnold's 2024 should make us pretty optimistic about McCarthy's chances of succeeding in Kevin O'Connell's offense as Darnold finished as the QB9. McCarthy has a good group of weapons around him, including two capable pass-catching running backs in Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones. He also adds a little juice as a runner, finishing his college career with an average of 15.8 rushing yards per game.

McCarthy rated out as a better draft prospect than you might assume given Michigan's run-heavy ways, with our Jim Sannes ranking McCarthy as the QB2 in a stacked 2024 class.

In two-QB formats, McCarthy is an excellent QB2 option who has the upside to produce QB1 (top-12) numbers. In one-QB leagues, McCarthy enters the year as a streaming play who could be picked up and started as soon as Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.