The dog days of summer are on the horizon and just beyond that, past the barbecues, trips to the pool, and family vacations is the NFL season. But there is work to be done if you’re a fantasy player.
April’s NFL draft is in the rearview and that kicks off the 2025 fantasy campaign. Dynasty drafts are winding down, best ball season is in full effect. With the release of the Madden ‘26 cover this week, it’s time to lock-in for our redraft leagues.
You know, the neighborhood leagues; home leagues with friends from high school; the leagues with $50 buy-ins that we obsess over all fall, this is what we do it for. That starts with getting our player takes for the 2025 season in order.
And this brings us to Saquon Barkley, the most dominant player from the dominant, Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles. He was a fantasy nightmare for anyone who dared pass on him in the early picks last August. Even experts regularly let him slip to the bottom of the first round, skeptical that his skill set would be plug-and-play on a new team.
Now he’s the crown jewel of the NFL. But is he also the consensus No. 1 overall player?
When I’m thinking through my rankings there are a ton of factors in play. I listen to and read an obscene amount of analysis, so there is a flood of stats and analytical breakdowns bouncing around my brain. But at the end of the day, fantasy football should be fun and part of that fun is making gut calls and seeing how they play out. In the quest to figure out who we’re taking at the top of drafts this year, we put boots on the ground to ask the sickos in our lives for their inputs. Here’s what my group chat is saying.
That they jumped to chime-in on a random June afternoon tells you all you need to know about their level of commitment to fake football.
Is Saquon who you’re taking No. 1 overall? If not, who?
Chase bank
Brian: “Ja’Marr Chase…Elite QB throwing to him, but consistent regardless of who the QB is (as we saw in 2023), and the Bengals have a [poor] defense.”
Chance: “Any other answer is just simply incorrect. Easy. Ja’Marr Chase.”
JB: “I would take Chase, it’s about consistency for me. Even in his down year and with lesser QB play he still was a top performer. The offense is still intact and the workload should be the same.”
Greg Paul AKA “GP”: “I’m taking Chase any time any place I can get him.”
My take: Chase is about as safe as it gets. He’s either the best or second best receiver in the league with his college teammate Justin Jefferson. Chase won the triple crown last year, so there isn’t a ton of room to improve. The question to ask yourself is do you value safety with your first pick, or are you trying to predict the future? We’ve seen Chase finish at the WR1, but is it harder to climb the mountain or stay at the top?
The pragmatists
JJ: “Saquon.”
Justin: “100” (This emoji was left on the Facebook Messenger thread wherein JJ just rudely wrote “Saquon” and failed to elaborate. It’s fairly interpreted as corroborating JJ’s original point.
Marcus: “Barkley. Saquon should continue this output he had last year which even after the success, still feels like there’s more on the table for him. The offense always has the fear of [Eagles QB Jalen] Hurts taking output away from the backs, but Saquon demands his share and rewards the team for doing so.”
My take: Barkley is worthy of the 1.01, obviously. Getting away from the dreariness of New York reinvigorated the former second overall pick. He’s a workhorse. He’s an athletic marvel. The case against him is that he saw an unbelievable workload and good health in 2024. Even with sitting out Week 18, Barkley handled about 470 touches in the regular season and playoffs. Barkley brings a tremendous amount of safety to the table, just like Chase. Sure, Jalen Hurts will likely steal 10-plus rushing touchdowns and Barkley won’t be maximized as a receiver, but when you have the best o-line in the game and oodles of talent, why not double down? Plus, who else is hurdling NFL athletes backward after breaking multiple tackles on the same play?
The Jets fan who did not take this exercise seriously
Paul: “Justin Fields because I have nothing else to live for.”
The guy editing this story at this moment who supports the Cowboys, is a Zero RB truther, and has competed against Eddie in fantasy football for more than 29 years
Ramon: “CeeDee Lamb will waltz through coverages like a Vaudeville villain and break every game open now that defenses have to consider George Pickens. He becomes an even bigger security blanket for his quarterback, one Rayne Dakota Prescott. The pinball wizard is here, and no other receiver in the league will have better numbers than Lamb. The guys picking him in the top 3 last season were spot-on, it’s just that the entire team around the Cowboys was awful and injured. Big-time bounce-back on deck for what will be the NFL’s most dynamic 9-8 team.”
Our take: No.
The UT homer
Doug: “Assuming 1QB, I’d probably go Bijan [Robinson].”
Our take: Robinson has been a made man since he declared for the NFL draft. He’s been a star and nobody doubts that. It’s a testament to Robinson’s talent that he put up almost 1,900 total yards and 15 TDs in 2024 and it feels like we haven’t seen the best of him yet. That’s a career year that any running back would be thrilled to post. Robinson is the kind of player where it seems like an overall RB1 season is a matter of when, not if.
So who am I taking at 1.01? None of the above
Generally, I don’t like to take players to repeat as the top overall player in fantasy sports, especially at running back and receiver. It usually takes a career year for a player to post those kinds of seasons, and the chances of players posting consecutive career years is low. There’s a comfort in taking players we just saw produce big time numbers and thinking they’ll do it again. But I like to skate to where I think the puck is going, and right now I think we’re skating away from Barkley and Chase repeats. Throughout early best ball drafts I’ve taken a handful of players at 1.01. The pick that jazzes me up the most…Jamhyr Gibbs.
Haters will be quick to point out the loss of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and the presence of David Montgomery as thorns in Gibbs’ side. To that I say, embrace the future. Gibbs is one of the 2-3 most talented backs in the league, someone who can produce fantasy numbers on par with fantasy hall of famers like Christian McCaffrey, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Jamaal Charles. Last year Gibbs was a revelation. When Montgomery missed games late in the season, Gibbs ascended to new heights. Like Charles and Alvin Kamara before him, Gibbs has the skill, efficiency, and situation to be a top-5 fantasy player. And if Gibbs can take on an even bigger workload, there’s no one else I’d rather have on my teams.
