Fantasy Football NFL Training Camp Roundup: Rashee Rice suspension, Adam Thielen trade and more Ben ZweimanAugust 29, 2025 at 10:10 PM If your fantasy football league waited this long to draft, good for you.
- - Fantasy Football NFL Training Camp Roundup: Rashee Rice suspension, Adam Thielen trade and more
Ben ZweimanAugust 29, 2025 at 10:10 PM
If your fantasy football league waited this long to draft, good for you. That means you were able to gather all (well, most) of the relevant news prior to your draft to make sound decisions. What we're getting at here is you didn't overdraft Chiefs WR Rashee Rice, who is now suspended for the first six games of the 2025 regular season.
We've talked a lot about the Rice news but it was the biggest story coming out of camp this week on the eve of Week 1. Initially, he was expected to be banned sometime mid-season after a Sept. 30 arbitration hearing. Instead, Rice took a shorter suspension and won't be back until Week 7 against the Raiders.
As a result, you should be honing in on TE Travis Kelce and WR Xavier Worthy as the main options for Patrick Mahomes through the first third or so of the schedule. Worthy's ADP on Yahoo continues to climb (59.3 over the past seven days). Kelce has remained mostly stagnant at around the fifth round in 12-team leagues. Rice is down to a seventh-round pick in 12-team formats and could continue to fall. He isn't a bad stash play if you feel good about your WR depth.
Also, don't sleep on Hollywood Brown as a late-round sleeper. He's coming in as the WR65 on Yahoo. My galaxy-brain play is going back to the JuJu Smith-Schuster well; he's going undrafted in virtually all leagues. Back in 2022 with Kansas City, JuJu was sneakily a top-30 WR.
Let's get into all the latest news from this week with some fantasy analysis.
Fantasy Football NFL Training Camp RoundupVikings bring back Thielen
The Minnesota Vikings didn't feel great about their WR depth going into 2025, so they struck a deal to add a familiar face in veteran Adam Thielen. He spent his first nine NFL seasons in Minnesota before going to the Carolina Panthers. Thielen, 35, appears to still have plenty left in the tank. Back in 2023, he was a fantasy PPR league-winner, finishing as a surprise top-20 WR with 103 catches for 1,014 yards and four TDs.
With Jordan Addison suspended for the first three games, Thielen should line up next to Justin Jefferson as the starter at WR. Behind those two, the Vikings really only have Jalen Nailor and rookie Tai Felton, both of whom are dealing with injuries. Minnesota will likely lean heavily into the running game to ease J.J. McCarthy into his first year as a starting QB. In Minnesota, Thielen isn't a bad early-season bench warmer. He could have some appeal as a flex if he sees a big target share.
The Panthers feel comfortable going young at WR going into 2025. Tetairoa McMillan figures to be the No. 1 option with Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker as the other wideouts. Legette and Coker appear to be going overlooked in drafts. Neither is being drafted much on Yahoo at the moment. One — or both — could be appealing early-season waiver wire adds.
Rattler beats out Shough for Saints' starting QB job
Nobody is too excited for the New Orleans Saints this season (well, other than their fans). But it was one of the few QB competitions that went down to the wire in Week 3 of preseason. Spencer Rattler ultimately won the job over rookie Tyler Shough. Rattler started with the first-team offense in the preseason finale vs. the Broncos and was awarded the job earlier this week. But don't think that Rattler isn't in danger of losing the job if he struggles at some point this season.
Rattler was pretty bad last season. He played in seven games, completing under 60% of his passes and a 70.4 QB rating. He looked OK enough in preseason, and played well enough to beat out a rookie second-round pick. So it continues to be tough to trust any Saints skill position player not named Alvin Kamara going into the regular season. Sure, Chris Olave could see plenty of targets. And Rashid Shaheed showed promise before injury last season. But we need to see if Rattler can actually run this offense effectively. Fortunately, both Olave and Shaheed are going pretty late in drafts. So if Olave or Shaheed is your WR4/5, there's upside there if Rattler (or Shough) ends up surprising us.
Injury updates for Dolphins
The Dolphins offense has been going through it this training camp. We did get some good news on WR Tyreek Hill, who was back at practice in a limited capacity on Thursday and appears to be on track for Week 1. Hill has been slowly falling in drafts and is down to 39.7 ADP over the past seven days. Based off what we're hearing out of drafts, Hill is falling even further than the third or fourth round in some instances.
With De'Von Achane and Jaylen Wright still sidelined, rookie Ollie Gordon II is the only healthy running back for Miami at the moment. We know head coach Mike McDaniel has been preaching Achane will be fine for Week 1. Wright had a "small procedure on his lower leg that could keep him sidelined for the first month of the regular season. Even if Achane is healthy, the calf injury could flare up and you'd think Gordon gets some change-of-pace work anyway. Yahoo analyst Ray Garvin is in on Gordon as a sleeper.
Not to worry about Nabers' back
It seems every week we're talking about New York Giants WR Malik Nabers in some capacity pertaining to an injury. His toe, his shoulder; now his back is the concern. But Nabers told reporters this week that there's no reason to worry about this one. He has barely practiced this month and didn't appear in any preseason games, yet the second-year wideout isn't concerned at all going into this season.
For someone who has dealt with multiple injuries and hasn't played much real football during training camp and preseason, no one seems too concerned about Nabers' fantasy stock for 2025. He's a fringe first-round pick who has the potential to lead the NFL in receptions now that the Giants have real QB play with Russell Wilson. We're almost to Week 1 so we'll see if all these injuries rear their ugly head or if Nabers balls out.
49ers GM: 'Not going' to trade Jennings
San Francisco 49ers WR Jauan Jennings isn't happy about his contract situation and has been holding out while also dealing with a calf injury during camp and preseason. So it's unclear — even if Jennings is recovered from his calf injury — if he'll be out there for Week 1. Though GM John Lynch doesn't seem concerned and has stated that the two sides have moved on from the contract dispute.
So if Jennings can shake off the calf injury and get out there for Week 1, he has a shot to be an absolute steal in fantasy drafts. Right now, his ADP over the last seven days is at 106.4 on Yahoo. That makes him around an eighth- or ninth-round pick. We know Brandon Aiyuk isn't returning any time soon and the only other wide receiver is second-year wideout Ricky Pearsall, who has been getting a lot of hype. Of course, there's also TE George Kittle, who figures to be the top option for Brock Purdy. But behind them, it's a whole lot of junk. So don't feel the need to skip over Jennings if he falls in your draft.
Source: "AOL Sports"
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