

Ja’Marr Chase has most commonly been selected with the No. 1 overall draft pick in our Fantasy Football mock drafts and expert drafts this offseason to date, but what would he need to score to be considered “not a bust” with first overall draft capital? That’s the question Fantasy Football Today sought to answer in a recent episode with Adam Aizer, Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings. We’ll take a look into some of the stats that define what a bust is and then pinpoint some of the bust-proof players for the 2025 season that you should look to target in your 2025 Fantasy Football drafts.
Aizer did a little digging and found that the first round hasn’t been as “bust-proof” and safe as we’ve wanted it to be. Over the last five seasons, 20 PPR Fantasy points per game would have been good enough to be WR4, WR4, WR5, WR5, and WR3 on a per-game basis. Chase, for example, has averaged 18, 20.5, 16.4, and 23.7 PPR FPs per game in his four NFL seasons. Chase would not have met the criteria under the assumption that a player would need more than 20 Fantasy points per game to not be considered a bust at No. 1 overall in half of his NFL seasons. And yet, based on his 2024 season, he is most often selected No. 1 overall (similar to what we’ve seen with CeeDee Lamb and others in past Fantasy years).
Over the last two Fantasy seasons, these were our Round 1 busts:
2024: Christian McCaffrey, Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Breece Hall, AJ Brown, Jonathan Taylor, Garrett Wilson
2023: Justin Jefferson (injury), Chase, Austin Ekeler, Saquon Barkley (RB9 per game), Bijan Robinson, Stefon Diggs, Nick Chubb (injury), Davante Adams.
Not all of these players derailed your Fantasy season (Barkley in 2023, for example), but none of them proved to be worth drafting at their first-round capital.
As we move forward to the 2025 Fantasy season, these are some of the players Jamey, Dave, and Heath have identified as bust-proof:
Dave suggests Lamar Jackson as a quarterback who is bust-proof for 2025.
Here’s what Heath wrote up on Jackson in his 2025 player outlook: “Jackson was the No. 1 QB in Fantasy last year and arguably should have won his third MVP. Heading into 2025, we view him as one of a trio of QBs who are worthy to be selected as the first QB off the board, as early as No. 1 overall in Superflex and Round 3 in one-QB leagues. Expect his passing totals to regress in 2025 as he is coming off a season when he averaged 8.8 yards per pass attempt, a full yard better than his career average, and an 8.6% touchdown rate, more than two points higher than his career rate. But he was three Fantasy points per game better than any other QB last year, so he could regress and still be QB1 overall. Traditionally, Jackson is worth more in leagues that reward four points per pass touchdown, but that wasn’t the case last year when he led the NFL in passing touchdowns.”
Is Jonathan Taylor a bust-proof back for 2025? Dave believes so because he’s a running back who has a big grip on the workload, a similar scheme to 2024, and a likelihood of getting all of the touchdowns.
Here’s what Jamey wrote up about Taylor in his 2025 outlook: “Taylor should once again be considered a No. 1 Fantasy running back this season, and he should be drafted in Round 2 in all leagues. His value is higher in half and non-PPR leagues, but Taylor can still be highly productive in PPR, even with a lack of receptions. In 2024, Taylor had a career-low 18 receptions for 136 yards and one touchdown on 31 targets. But he was dominant on the ground with 1,431 yards and 11 touchdowns on 303 carries, and he closed the season on an impressive run with three games in a row with at least 25 PPR points, while averaging 30.8 PPR points per game over that stretch. We’ll see who starts at quarterback for the Colts between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones, but neither quarterback should dramatically alter the Fantasy value for Taylor. We’ll see if he shares touches with new backups in Khalil Herbert or rookie D.J. Giddens, but it’s hard to envision Taylor coming off the field much when healthy. He once again has top-10 upside in all leagues in 2025.”
*For more on this conversation, subscribe to listen to the Fantasy Football Today podcast here and wherever you get your podcasts.*
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