Fantasy Football 2025 Rankings Update: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Ricky Pearsall, And More
Fantasy

Fantasy Football 2025 Rankings Update: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Ricky Pearsall, And More

Ian Hartitz takes a hard look at his fantasy football rankings in mid-August, making updates to Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Ricky Pearsall, and more.

No meaningful professional football has been played in six long, cold months—but the league's constant flow of injuries, trades, and newfound preseason usage trends lead to constant ranking adjustments from us fantasy nerds.

This brings us to today's topic: My biggest ranking updates from the last week of news and preseason action.

You can find the whole Fantasy Life crew's updated rankings right here (code "Ian" for 20% off!), and make sure to check out Dwain McFarland's ever-excellent preseason utilization report for in-depth takeaways on that front.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

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Fantasy Football 2025 Rankings Updates

What is going on in this Commanders backfield?

The Jacory Croskey-Merritt hype train has been picking up steam throughout August, as the seventh-rounder seemingly puts together one electric practice performance after another.

And to be fair to the artist known as "Bill:" Very odd circumstances led to Croskey-Merritt sliding to the 7th round in the first place. Essentially, Jacory was ruled ineligible to play at Arizona after just one game last season because he redshirted at Alabama State, gave his number to someone else, and then the NCAA registered that number to him and didn't approve the original redshirt. Just very normal stuff from an organization that definitely isn't a useless bureaucracy or anything.

Anyway, the JCM flame was already pretty lit … and then Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz dropped some serious gasoline on the entire situation by reporting that the Commanders have been shopping Brian Robinson to teams around the NFL. Now, it's not a given that B-Rob will be traded, but the report comes shortly after The Athletic's Ben Standig gave a hot take that Robinson wouldn't be on the team's Week 1 roster.

And, oh yeah, then the Commanders literally mutually agreed with Robinson for him not to suit up in the Commanders' preseason game against the Bengals!

Nobody should have ever been confusing Robinson for an elite RB; it was his potential to (again) breeze past 200 touches while handling goal-line duties inside the league's reigning fifth-ranked scoring offense that was so appetizing in the first place. Something close to this could still be on the table, but at this point there's enough smoke to believe that staying in Washington will lead to a *three*-back committee—something that makes B-Rob far less appealing in fantasy leagues of all shapes and sizes.

Ultimately, it'd probably be best for everyone involved at this point if Robinson is indeed traded (Dallas? Chicago?) or simply cut. This would allow JCM to likely see 12-15 touches as the team's de facto lead early-down back (although I wouldn't completely count out Chris Rodriguez from making things annoying), while Austin Ekeler's role probably won't change all that much either way.

Bottom line: Ekeler is my second-most drafted RB of the offseason thanks to his FLEX-standalone value alongside upside for more should he be thrust into more of a featured role due to an injury (or now a trade). He's now my top RB in Washington, while Robinson becomes far more of an RB4 dart. JCM is certainly on the rise and worthy of late-round consideration—but let's not pretend like he'll be someone you feel great about starting in fantasy land early this season should this depth chart remain the same.

It sure looks like the 49ers have a clear-cut No. 1 WR…

Pearsall AKA Slick Rick, AKA Ricky Bullets didn't manage to get too much going during his first professional season until posting quality 8-141-1 and 6-69-1 receiving lines against the Lions and Cardinals in the final two games. A summer hamstring injury helped suppress too much Year 2 hype … until last weekend.

Catching three of four targets for 42 yards in *one* drive was cool and all, but it was the chemistry between Pearsall and Brock Purdy that was especially great to see.

Clearly a healthy Pearsall is capable of earning targets at a high level from a QB who ranks … FIRST in NFL history in career yards per attempt and passer rating. Now, Purdy has certainly benefited from playing in one of the league's more QB-friendly systems during his short career, but the 49ers' $265-million man deserves credit for largely maintaining high-end efficiency in 2024 despite dealing with largely catastrophic injuries all over the offense.

This brings us to present-day drafts, which feature Pearsall lagging behind in the ADP department on home sites (ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper) relative to bigger-money formats (RT Sports, FFPC). This is usually a good sign that we're looking at a value worth investing in.

 

 

Bottom line: Jauan Jennings (calf) and Brandon Aiyuk (knee, PUP) should be back in action before too long, and guess what: I'm happy to buy them at cost as well! Still, Pearsall's home league ADP is far too cheap for someone who has a realistic chance of leading one of the game's most consistently awesome passing offenses in targets. The rising second-year talent is a must draft over at ESPN in particular.

Will the real RB2 in Miami please stand up?

The injury gods are some real cruel SOB's sometimes: De'Von Achane is dealing with a lower-body soft tissue injury that will keep him out between "days and weeks," according to head coach Mike McDaniel. Now, McDaniel added that Achane's Week 1 status "isn't in jeopardy," but we can at least all agree that this isn't exactly ideal.

Enter: Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon. Now, Wright has been the clear-cut No. 2 RB in the preseason in terms of his usage with the first-team offense, which remains far more important than actual performance when projecting ahead to the regular season.

That said, Wright has been struggling to get much going with his opportunities. Note that the Dolphins' o-line didn't give him much (read: any) help on his infamous stuffed goal-line opportunities in Week 1 of the preseason, but last Saturday's four rushes for three yards (and a fumble) didn't exactly help matters while Mr. Ollie Gordon continues to impress.

Seriously: Gordon has managed to average over three times as many yards per carry as Wright (4.6 vs. 1.5) with their respective rush attempts this preseason while also cranking out far more yard after contact per attempt (4.1 vs. 1.5). We simply haven't seen Wright make much out of his opportunities to date.

Wright is my most-drafted RB of the offseason. As much as I would love to sit here and say that preseason production is stupid and meaningless, I can't help but notice the flashes that Gordon is putting on tape. The rookie sixth-rounder looks good out there, and while Day 3 talents typically don't amount to all that much in fantasy land, Gordon's 2023 campaign at Oklahoma State did have him sitting favorably in many folks' way-too-early 2025 draft rankings this time last year.

Bottom line: Wright's affordable price tag continues to leave him behind fantasy's clear-cut handcuff tier of options—I'm not suddenly fading the man because of roughly 10 not-so-great reps. That said, Achane's injury and the lack of any level of good steam from Wright makes it awfully difficult to ignore Gordon, who I am now additionally mixing in that LATE-round RB mix.

Was it something Breece Hall said?

So on the one hand, Breece Hall is still absolutely expected to lead the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets, backfield. This has been reflected in the team's first-team preseason usage. Hall has also flashed an explosive pass-catching profile during his short career, while the Jets' newfound investment in the offensive line and dual-threat QB adds credence to the idea that this run game should experience more efficiency on the ground this year.

On the other hand, it's been tough to ignore Braelon Allen's training camp hype, especially with it translating to plenty of preseason usage. Isaiah Davis was also eating into Hall's pass-down work during his first week of preseason action. And for all the aforementioned good things that could be going on with the team's run-game efficiency, this Justin Fields-led offense also isn't exactly expected to light up the scoreboard this year.

Now, no RB being priced outside as a mid-tier RB2 is completely clear of warts, but then again, is this sort of profile really the sort of archetype that we should be prioritizing in Round 3 and 4 of fantasy drafts? I already had Hall behind rookies Omarion Hampton and TreVeyon Henderson, but is his talent profile really THAT good to go ahead of guys expected to see potentially far more touches like Alvin Kamara and James Conner?

Bottom line: I struggle to see a true upside scenario for Allen. Even if Hall gets hurt or traded, the same low-scoring offense problems persist, while Davis would be expected to handle the majority of pass-down duties. Still, his involvement has been notable enough to bump up into the RB4 tier and more importantly depress my desire to use a top-50 pick on Hall.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. JacoryCroskey-Merritt
    RBWASWAS
    PPG
    7.73
    Proj
    8.09
  2. Ricky Pearsall
    RickyPearsallQ
    WRSFSF
    PPG
    8.46
  3. Jaylen Wright
    JaylenWright
    RBMIAMIA
    PPG
    2.50
  4. Breece Hall
    BreeceHall
    RBNYJNYJ
    PPG
    13.28
    Proj
    12.31