The 2025 NFL head coach hiring cycle is complete, and now it’s time to speculate who could be some sleepers for that team with a new head coach! Seven different teams have new head coaches, and this list will be in alphabetical order by team breaking down which players could break out under the new coaching regime.
2025 Fantasy Football Sleepers Following NFL Head Coaching Hires
Rome Odunze (WR, Chicago Bears)
Well, the Bears got the most popular hire in this head coaching cycle with former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Their 2024 first overall pick Caleb Williams came to mind as a sleeper, as did running back D’Andre Swift and tight end Cole Kmet.
However, I decided to choose the Bears’ other first-round draft pick, Rome Odunze. If you look at the wide receiver room, you have to remember that he was behind veteran Keenan Allen, who is set to become a free agent unless they come to terms. Odunze had a decent rookie season despite all the setbacks with coaching and being behind Allen and D.J. Moore. He ended up with 54 receptions on 101 targets, 734 yards and three touchdowns, finishing as WR49 in Points Per Reception (PPR) leagues.
While I’m not exactly comparing Odunze to Lions’ WR Jameson Williams, I can easily see Johnson’s scheme when considering the two. Odunze had the most Yards Per Reception (YPR) of any Chicago wide receivers, averaging 13.6 YPR this season, and Williams had the most YPR for any receiver with 70+ targets. Ironically, and albeit under different circumstances, it took a season for Williams to get any traction in the NFL. With Ben Johnson’s coaching prowess, Odunze has a solid chance to improve in his sophomore season.
Jake Ferguson (TE, Dallas Cowboys)
Look at any coaching hire grades and you’ll easily see that former offensive coordinator turned head coach of the Dallas Cowboys Brian Schottenheimer is the “F-Hire.” I’m a Cowboys fan and even I agree with it. Then again, the hope is starting to spark. The team is also bringing in a lot of outside hires, something they usually don’t do.
This offseason will be huge for the Cowboys and one of the big holes they’ll need to address, whether in free agency or through the draft, is who will be the RB1. Rico Dowdle was their clear backfield leader, but he will be a free agent alongside WR2 Brandin Cooks. When thinking about who could take another step forward under Schottenheimer, it left me with the decision of Dak Prescott or Jake Ferguson, because CeeDee Lamb is too much of a star to be on this list. It was a disappointing season for Ferguson last year, with 59 receptions on 86 targets, 494 receiving yards and no touchdowns. That was a huge disappointment, but look at the stats closely and it’s a night-and-day difference.
Prescott got hurt late in the Week 9 game against the Falcons and was ruled out for the season. Ferguson and Prescott have established good chemistry and it shows. In Weeks 1-9, the tight end averaged 5.4 receptions on 7.4 targets, 47.7 yards and 10.2 fantasy points. When Prescott didn’t play, his averages dipped to an abysmal three receptions on 4.8 targets, 22.8 yards and 5.2 fantasy points. Ferguson is a decent Top-10 tight end when he has Prescott at the helm, and the stats show that. In the 2023 season, Ferguson was TE9 and in Weeks 3-9 (Ferguson was injured in Week 1 and missed Week 2), Ferguson was TE10. While Schottenheimer may not fix the Cowboys as a whole, he can hopefully boost Ferguson and make him a sleeper TE target.
Tank Bigsby (RB, Jacksonville Jaguars)
Shad Khan wanted former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen for head coach from the get-go and they got him. That being said, they had to fire former general manager Trent Baalke to get him and as of this writing, we don’t know the new general manager of the Jaguars.
This one was an easy choice for me. There were multiple bright spots on the 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but none bigger than rookie RB Bucky Irving. With Coen’s move to the Jaguars, I can easily see Tank Bigsby doing exactly what Irving did last year. When Irving was drafted, he was expected to be behind Rachaad White, who was struggling. As the season went by, it pretty clearly became Bucky Irving’s job and White was none other than a placeholder for the starting RB job.
When you look at the Jacksonville Jaguars RB room, is it not just screaming the same exact thing to you? Travis Etienne did edge out Bigsby finishing RB35 compared to Bigsby’s RB36 finish. But there’s so many similarities between the two situations. In Tampa Bay, Irving had better rushing stats compared to White, whereas White had better stats on the receiving side. Looking at Jacksonville, Bigsby had 208 more rushing yards and five more rushing touchdowns than Etienne, but 200 fewer receiving yards than Etienne. All they have to do is recreate the magic of what Irving did with Coen, and it’s a huge season for the former Auburn Tiger.
Malachi Corley (WR, New York Jets)
Some things just never change, like how the New York Jets are hiring another head coach in the offseason. This will be the fifth different head coach for the Jets since 2009. This time, they hope former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn snaps that streak.
With defensive personnel turning into head coaches, it’s harder to evaluate who they might elevate on the offensive side of the ball. Luckily, we know that the new Jets offensive coordinator is Tanner Engstrand, who was the Lions’ passing game coordinator.
With this offense, I dwindled it down to two players. Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall are too big of stars to be on this list, and they’re already confirming that Aaron Rodgers will not be a Jet next season. With that news, I’m sensing a high probability that wide receivers Davante Adams and Allen Lazard are also out, even though their contracts don’t expire until 2026. That trio has just proven that they will stick together through thick and thin.
This left me with either Braelon Allen or Malachi Corley and I kept thinking, if both Adams are Lazard are gone, Corley is going to have to take a step up. Then, it clicked; Corley was nicknamed the “YAC King” coming out of Western Kentucky. This former Hilltopper averaged 9.2 Yards After Catch (YAC) per reception in his 2022-2023 collegiate seasons. Engstrand and the Lions also had a WR2 behind a star WR1 who averaged 8.6 YAC/catch in Jameson Williams. That mark was the third-highest for any receiver this season, and the most for any with 55+ targets. I don’t want to sound like a repeating Jets fan, but if they can just get a good quarterback, Corley might quietly excel in this offense.
Drake Maye (QB, New England Patriots)
The Patriots fired Jerod Mayo after one disappointing season and hired Mike Vrabel, who formerly played for the Patriots as a linebacker from 2001-2008. Even though Vrabel is a more defensive-minded head coach, we can still use his stints as a Titans head coach from 2018-2023 to help find our candidate.
With that in mind, I could have selected any of the position players here. But as *NSYNC once said, “It’s gonna be Maye.” Since there are potential sleepers all over the board, why not choose the quarterback Drake Maye, who certainly qualifies as one and played pretty well last season? Although he didn’t get his first start until Week 6 last year, from then through Week 17, Maye finished as a solid QB14, with some weekly performances landing right outside the top ten.
To best predict the 2025 Patriots, I want to focus specifically on the 2020-2021 seasons with Vrabel. A certain quarterback named Ryan Tannehill stayed healthy and put up solid numbers those seasons, finishing as QB7 in 2020 and QB12 in 2021. In those two seasons, Tannehill averaged 3,776.5 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, 10.5 interceptions, 268 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. What did Maye put up in a shortened rookie season? He had 2,276 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 421 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. While I’m hoping Maye plays better than Tannehill, the outlook bodes well for him to end the season as a QB1 in fantasy football!
Sincere McCormick (RB, Las Vegas Raiders)
The whole Raiders coaching staff was overhauled in the offseason; they now have John Spytek as the new general manager and Pete Carroll as their head coach, and they topped it off with Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator.
For the Raiders’ sleeper, it was really between Jakobi Meyers and Sincere McCormick, but I decided to choose the former UTSA Roadrunner running back. The Raiders had four different backs played a key role last year. Alexander Mattison and Zamir White spent most of the season disappointing or injured. The veteran Ameer Abdullah popped up and was great in the receiving game, but McCormick was the one who impressed me the most in the two games he played before suffering an injury.
In those two games, he put up 65 scrimmage yards on 38% of the snaps against the Chiefs and followed it up with 89 scrimmage yards on 61% of their snaps facing the Buccaneers. Impressively, he was the only Raiders running back to have multiple 61+ rushing-yard games last season and that was in those two games!
Looking ahead, Mattison and Abdullah are both free agents, and I would not be shocked if the Raiders drafted a running back or grabbed one from free agency. While that does not help McCormick, I still have trust in him. After all, Caroll had experience coaching the Seahawks with Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet and they both still did well. Looking at Chip Kelly, he had Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson at Ohio State this past year and both rushed for over 1,000+ yards. Even if they bring in another running back to spice it up, there’s no stopping my breakout hopes for McCormick.
Chris Olave (WR, New Orleans Saints)
The New Orleans Saints were the last one to hire a head coach, and that was because they had to wait it out to snag former Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. In the last six seasons, Moore also served as offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys from 2019-2022 and the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023.
This was an easy choice for me, and I am not looking at anyone but Chris Olave. In his six seasons as OC, the most targeted wide receiver in a Moore-led offense has not finished outside the top 20 for the wide receiver group. They’ve all caught 67+ receptions, 1,075+ yards and six-plus touchdowns, and the average of those performances came to an astonishing 88.6 receptions, 1,181 yards and seven touchdowns. That would total 249.1 fantasy points for the season, and that player would have finished as the WR11 for the 2024 season. Olave’s highest finish in a season was WR16 in 2023.
The big uncertainty, however, is quarterback play; Moore will have to deal with arguably the worst quarterback that he’s dealt with as a coach on an NFL team. In those previous years, he had Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts. Now, he’s dealing with Derek Carr, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener. However, we’ve been shocked before! Look at the 2024 season, where Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee both looked pretty good backing up Hurts when he was down. Plus, who could forget the Saints’ hot start in Weeks 1-2 last year? If you combine those, it could be a surprising season in New Orleans and Olave stands to benefit the most.
RELATED: 2025 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Two Rounds
Thanks for reading my “2025 Fantasy Football Sleepers Following NFL Head Coaching Hires.” If you’re looking for more fantasy content like this or need help with the last-minute fantasy football start/sit decisions for your roster, you can find me on Facebook at “Fantasy Sports Start or Sit’Em Questions,” Twitter/X @FSSOSEQ or on BlueSky!
*Photo Credit: Vincent Carchietta – USA TODAY Sports*
