Kendall Valenzuela covers the latest NFL news impacting fantasy football in 2025, including the tush push, Tony Pollard's workload, and a bounceback QB.

It may be Memorial Day Weekend, but the NFL does not take a holiday when it comes to making news. This week we're talking about how the tush push surviving will impact Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, among others, talk of a Titans RB workload split, and a bounceback QB in Jacksonville.

Push on, Philadelphia Eagles

The biggest piece of news and honestly one of the biggest sources of drama over the past few months has been the tush push. On Wednesday, NFL owners voted against a proposal that would have banned what in Philly is lovingly called the “Brotherly Shove,” but it came pretty close.

In order for the tush push to have been banned there needed to be a majority vote in-favor, which required 24 votes. Instead, 10 teams voted against the proposal, allowing the tush push to live on. This ended a months-long go at trying to bring down one of the Eagles' most-utilized plays—the first formal push to ban the play happened all the way back in February when the Packers submitted a proposal to the NFL’s competition committee.

Just to put into perspective how effective Philadelphia has been with this play—According to TruMedia, the Eagles have run their quarterback 122 times in 1-yard-to-go situations since 2022. In that span they have scored 30 touchdowns and gained 75 first downs.

This is a win not only for Philadelphia, but for Jalen Hurts fantasy managers as well. A ban on the tush push would have lowered his rushing touchdown projections, but he's still on track now for a stellar 2025 season. In the Fantasy Life projections, Hurts is projected for 149 rush attempts (most by any quarterback), 645 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns, which coupled with his passing projections is good for a QB3 finish behind only Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. 

Saquon Barkley is still going to be THAT guy, too, but a tush push would have helped his case for a little more rushing touchdowns. He's projected for 303 rush attempts, 1,440 rushing yards, and 10 touchdowns on the ground for the upcoming season. If any player could be the one to finish as the overall RB1 for the second consecutive year, my money would be on Barkley.

The REAL question is how many tush pushes will we see on the Eagles' Monday Night Football game against the Packers in November? Should we just bet a Hurts 2+ touchdown game now or wait for later?

Tony Pollard taking a "lighter" workload

Not that we were all going out of our way to draft Tony Pollard, but last season he did give us an RB22 finish. An ankle injury sidelined Pollard for a few games last year, which opened the door for Tyjae Spears and it looks like the workload for Pollard will be even lighter starting in September. Here's what Titans head coach Brian Callahan told the team website …

“He was battling the second half of the year quite a bit. I think in a perfect world, it's a healthier division of labor … I think we can do a better job of managing that load so they (Pollard and Spears) both play a little more evenly and allows us to maybe have a spot for a third back between Julius (Chestnut) and Kalel (Mullings), some heavier-style back and runner. So hopefully that division of labor gets a little more evenly distributed so he doesn't have to take the brunt of it.”

Pollard set career highs with 260 carries and 1,079 yards along with 5 touchdowns in 2024. Listen, if a coach is telling us maybe it'll be a three-way split then we know that's a red flag for fantasy football. Let's see what the next few months brings for the Titans backfield.

Bounceback quarterback in Jacksonville?

OTAs are close to starting and that means we are a week closer to "best shape of his life" tweets, my personal favorite time of the year! This is also a good time to check in on what coaches and players are saying about the 2025 season and an even better time to follow the breadcrumbs they give us. 

The one thing we always want to try and find during fantasy drafts are the value quarterbacks. Oh, you missed out on the elite guys? Let's aim for a quarterback who could vastly perform his ADP. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it all just comes down to how much risk you're willing to take, but the payoff can be phenomenal. 

Could Trevor Lawrence be that quarterback for us this season? Let's be honest, Lawrence has been a disappointment since being drafted into the league, but could this be the year things change? 

Trevor Lawrence points per game rank by year:

  • 2024 - QB24
  • 2023 - QB17
  • 2022 - QB12

Yeah, that's not great, but Lawrence is only going to be 26 years old in October and already has two seasons with 4,000+ passing yards to his name. He also has a new head coach and weapons around him. Plus, Liam Coen's system could be exactly what Lawrence needed … Here's what he said after the first organized team activity:

"There are a lot of things I like about it … It is definitely unlike any system that I have learned before, so it has been cool to learn, pick the coaches’ brains, and try to get it down as fast as possible.”

The 2024 Buccaneers ranked third in passing yards per game, and Baker Mayfield's yards per pass attempt rose from 7.5 to 8.0 all with Coen. What's wrong with looking at Lawrence as a solid buy-low quarterback? He's currently ranked as Fantasy Life's QB17. What's one more shot? It's just our mental health on the line!