5 Bold Fantasy Football Predictions Based on Latest NFL Training Camp Buzz

The 2025 NFL season and corresponding fantasy football campaign may still be a month out, but it’s never too early to start preparing for the long grind ahead.

With training camp ongoing, key fantasy information can be gleaned from these practice sessions. Identifying the frontrunners of a hotly-contested positional battle, seeing which players are garnering more first-team reps and sussing out the impact of injuries are just a few ways shrewd fantasy managers gain an advantage over their leaguemates come draft day.

Reading reports from beat writers and other insiders on the ground at training camp can also be invaluable. These experts are often sharing nuggets of intel that can’t be found elsewhere, giving a massive leg up to those willing to seek them out.

With that in mind, let’s highlight some of the latest training camp buzz and make some bold predictions for the 2025 fantasy football season based on it.

Fantasy points, rankings and ADP courtesy of FantasyPros.com using PPR data.

Arizona Cardinals Will Make a Run at League’s Best Rushing Offense

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The Arizona Cardinals’ passing attack led by Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. may command more attention, but the ground game will be the offense’s driving force in 2025.

Arizona remained in the playoff hunt last year despite an underwhelming passing offense, one that ranked a pedestrian No. 18 and only mustered 21 touchdowns through the air. The rushing attack was far stronger, finishing as the league’s No. 7 unit thanks to a herculean showing from James Conner.

The veteran back answered concerns about his age and history of injuries by putting up a career-high 1,094 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 236 totes. He was reliable as a pass-catcher as well, notching 414 yards and a score on 47 receptions.

Although Conner’s 253.8 fantasy points were good for an RB11 finish, he’s going to see less volume in 2025 as Arizona converts its backfield into a committee.

According to Darren Urban of the team’s official website, the Cardinals starting RB openly addressed the team’s plan to have him split time with second-year back Trey Benson and believes it will result in Arizona becoming a rushing powerhouse.

Conner said, "We've got to talk about it and understand what's expected. We want to be the best rushing team in football. We need that from (Benson). And the rest of the backs. We can't shy away from those conversations."

For his part, Benson has stated that his “confidence is through the roof” and will be leveraging his veteran counterpart as a “blueprint” for success on the heels a disappointing rookie campaign.

Conner’s dominant campaign limited Benson to a meager 47 fantasy points in 2024, but the third-round pick did flash with a pair of top-25 finishes in Weeks 9 and 10 and has the potential to regularly put those types of numbers up in 2025.

With teams like the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers showing squads can feature a pair of top-25 fantasy backs within the same offense, Arizona’s coaching staff has a blueprint of their own to follow this year.

Whether they can successfully execute that plan remains to be seen, but given Benson’s immense upside and Conner’s longstanding consistency, it should be worth rostering and deploying both backs in 2025.

Bucky Irving Will Become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Feature Back

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored one of the top steals in the 2024 draft when they selected Bucky Irving early on Day 3. Irving had a sensational rookie season, finishing as the RB13 with a hefty 244.4 fantasy points despite splitting time with incumbent starter Rachaad White and playing less than half of the team’s offensive snaps.

Irving’s impressive performance not only has him poised to open 2025 as Tampa’s starter ahead of White, but also potentially become the team’s feature running back as well.

Per ESPN’s Dan Graziano, Irving is “viewed by people in the building as special enough to warrant a high-volume RB1 role”. The reporter noted that Irving’s expanded role would also include more volume in the passing attack, an area that White saw the most usage in last season.

Irving generated the bulk of his overall production on the ground last year, rushing for a whopping 1,122 yards and eight touchdowns on 207 totes. He still tallied a respectable 47 receptions on 52 targets for 392 yards in the passing game, but White remained the more utilized third-down back and slightly outperformed Irving with his 51 catches for 393 yards on 57 looks. The veteran also notched six touchdowns through the air while his rookie counterpart failed to score on any of his catches.

Even with White rating as one of the NFL’s better receiving backs, he’s still trending towards a noticeable reduction in volume for the second consecutive year. His 56 percent snap share was already a 22 percent drop-off from the season prior, but it would be surprising if it remains above 50 percent after Irving’s breakout campaign.

Irving is a more complete back and has far more upside than White at this stage of their respective careers. While he may not become a true three-down back in the way the Philadelphia Eagles utilize Saquon Barkley or the Baltimore Ravens lean on Derrick Henry, he’s a safe bet to post a top-8 fantasy finish while assuming the lion’s share of Tampa’s backfield workload.

Cedric Tillman Will Shine as Cleveland’s No. 2 WR

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The Cleveland Browns have made some sweeping changes to their receiving corps this offseason, a series of moves that resulted in marquee trade acquisition Jerry Jeudy leading the unit and a slew of unproven pass-catchers vying to establish a spot in the pecking order behind him.

Cedric Tillman appears to have the inside track to emerging as the No. 2 wideout in Cleveland’s offense, a role that could be surprisingly fantasy relevant in 2025.

Tillman could pile up fantasy metrics with Jeudy and tight end David Njoku commanding attention from defenders and a pair of high-upside rookie backs in Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson helping to keep the opposition honest. Regardless of who wins the starting job from Cleveland’s four hope quarterback contenders, all will be able to benefit from the dynamic playmaker finding soft spots in zone coverage and beating his man-to-man mark.

Tillman has flashed immense talent since entering the league as a third-round pick in 2023, but injuries and disfunction in Cleveland’s offense have prevented him from flourishing.

There’s little question that Tillman possesses the skills to be a fantasy asset. During a four-game stretch between Weeks 7-11 last year, the receiver averaged 75.5 yards and 0.8 touchdowns on 10 targets (ranking No. 8 at the position with an average of 17.3 fantasy points per game) while working as one of Cleveland’s primary targets.

Tillman expressed frustration with being 11 appearances and having his breakout campaign prematurely ended by a concussion. Per Ernesto Cova of BrownsNation.com, the wideout said, “[Last year] was frustrating, but over with last year, looking forward to this year…I’m taking it one day at a time and just trying to be the best player I can be.”

While Tillman exited practice last week with a lower leg issue, he avoided serious injury and remains on track to meet what NFL insider Jordan Schultz described as the “big plans” Cleveland has for the 25-year-old this season.

Jacksonville Jaguars Running Backs Won’t Be Fantasy-Relevant in 2025

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The Jacksonville Jaguars may have made one of the flashiest coaching hires of the offseason, but even Liam Coen won’t be able to save this flailing backfield.

According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, Jacksonville is planning to keep four backs on the roster this season. The volume of participants makes for a nightmare situation for fantasy managers to untangle, one that should be avoided at all costs during their drafts.

Jacksonville’s platoon has been led by Travis Etienne for the last three seasons, but the entrenched starter is coming off a highly concerning campaign.

Despite appearing in 15 games, the Clemson product dealt with nagging injuries that limited him to career-worst marks of 558 yards and two touchdowns on 150 carries. Etienne’s passing game impact diminished as well, dipping from high-water marks of 58 receptions for 476 yards and a touchdown the season prior down to a 39/254/0 line last year.

Tank Bigsby, Etienne’s backup for the last two seasons, failed to capitalize on an opportunity to ascend the depth chart.

Although Bigsby did improve upon his lowly stat line of 132 yards and two touchdowns on 50 carries as a rookie, the 2023 third-rounder only garnered 168 totes and converted them into 766 yards and seven scores. Factoring in a non-existent passing game role (54 yards on seven receptions), Bigsby managed to tally a meager 129 fantasy points—good for a pedestrian RB36 finish, 1.2 points below Etienne’s RB35 total.

Neither veteran is in position to shine in 2025, especially with waters muddied by the new regime’s decision to select two running backs in this year’s draft.

As of now, it doesn’t appear that either Bhayshul Tuten (a fourth-round pick) or LeQuint Allen (a seventh-rounder) is ready to usurp these incumbent talents.

Tuten is a big play threat but struggled with turnovers in college and concerningly started his pro career by putting his first practice touch on the ground. Allen is an underwhelming prospect who doesn’t have a promising outlook, although he does possess versatility and pass-protection skills that could see him garner some touches on Sundays.

While Coen could opt to ride the hot hand and certain backs could put up some strong weeks here and there, there will be a glaring lack of consistency that will make starting any of the aforementioned players a high-risk, low-reward move.

Kyle Pitts Will Bounce Back This Season

Kyle Pitts has been one of the most disappointing fantasy players of the last three seasons. That could change in 2025 now that the Atlanta Falcons seem to finally have a competent quarterback under center.

Pitts opened his career as well as one could expect from a tight end prospect undertaking the infamously difficult college-to-pros transition. He chased Mike Ditka’s longstanding rookie receiving record for the position—one that Brock Bowers finally broke in 2024—and finished as the TE6.

Pitts massively underwhelmed in the three seasons that followed his breakout rookie campaign. While he was being drafted as the TE8 or better in each of those years, he failed to finish within the top-12 in any of them. He’s now fallen to the TE18 spot, a fair placement given his average of just 50 catches for 634.5 yards and 3.5 touchdowns over the last two years despite being healthy for all 34 games.

As poorly as Pitts has fared, it’s worth noting that his lone successful season coincided with star quarterback Matt Ryan’s final campaign in Atlanta. A revolving door of subpar signal-callers certainly hasn’t helped the tight end’s quest to get back to a Pro Bowl level, an issue that the Falcons seem to have finally ironed out thanks to their first-round selection of Michael Penix Jr. in last year’s draft.

According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the Falcons are expecting the Penix-Pitts battery to blossom in 2025. Graziano noted that the pair have built their chemistry away from the stadium by golfing together and will now try to translate that rapport into on-field production.

If Pitts can stay healthy—a foot injury was hindering the TE earlier in the offseason—he’s primed to play a major role in Atlanta’s offense. He’s a great bet to outperform his modest ADP and has the upside to be a top-eight option with weekly startability if Penix continues to develop following the promising debut he made late last season.