Hello, fantasy football enthusiasts (and fellow sickos) and welcome to the maiden voyage of this dynasty stock watch column. Throughout the NFL season, we’ll be tracking some of the preeminent weekly risers in dynasty fantasy football formats here on DraftKings Network.
Seasoned dynasty veterans won’t need any introduction, but for those new to the format, here’s a quick “Dynasty 101” crash course. Rather than traditional redraft formats, dynasty managers keep their team year-over-year with the only roster movement coming through adds, drops, and trades throughout the season. Since it mirrors real-life sports leagues for the most part which find themselves looking to contend for championships long into the future, players carry different levels of value than in traditional fantasy football leagues and we generally want to avoid making any brash decisions based on a one-week sample.
With that said, there’s plenty to learn from the opening slate of the 2025 campaign. Without further ado, let’s jump in with the first dynasty stock watch of the new season.
Top dynasty risers after Week 1
Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens (WR25)
There’s no better place to start with this week’s column than with the Sunday Night Football thriller between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills. While the Ravens choked away a 15-point lead and coughed up the game against an AFC rival, wideout Zay Flowers put forth a career-best effort with seven receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown. The performance marked the highest yardage tally of his career going into year three, and he garnered an astounding target share of 47.4% with nine of Lamar Jackson’s 19 total targets heading Flowers’ way. Week 1 marked the 11th game of nine or more targets for the 24-year-old, and he rattled off a handful of explosive plays with receptions of 20, 23, 36 and 39 yards.
Flowers rose six spots to WR25 in KeepTradeCut’s wide receiver rankings. While he could serve as an ideal sell-high candidate after an outing of 28.10 fantasy points, the Boston College product remains a very reliable WR3 or FLEX option for contenders and brings a high ceiling when he reaches the end zone. As one of the primary targets in an offense quarterbacked by a multi-time MVP, there’s still tons to like about Flowers’ profile. Personally, I’m holding onto the third-year player in hopes that this high usage continues. It certainly could, especially when considering how little the Ravens actually threw the ball in this contest.
Keon Coleman, Buffalo Bills (WR35)
When the Bills drafted Keon Coleman with the first pick of the second round in the 2024 NFL Draft, many fantasy managers projected him as a future alpha receiver for Josh Allen. After a disappointing rookie campaign, the 22-year-old just posted the best performance of his young career with eight receptions for 112 yards and a touchdown during that same Sunday Night Football contest. With 25.20 fantasy points in PPR formats, he put forth a very startable effort, though you may be hard-pressed to find someone with the Florida State product in their lineup.
Here’s the good — Coleman saw 11 targets on the night, a 24.4% share of total looks from Allen. He set new career-highs in both targets and receptions, and his 112 yards were the second-best mark of his career as well. He did well settling in underneath, particularly on curl routes, and he also earned a crucial look on a goal-line fade (ew) on a much-needed two-point conversion. The receiver also played 88% of snaps, up from his average of 73% as a rookie. However, the bad is that his touchdown came on a tip drill and he didn’t seem to be the intended target, and his separation score of -0.049 ranked 88th of 105 wideouts. Now, the eye test doesn’t totally match the latter stat, so take it with a grain of salt. Overall, it was an encouraging Week 1 for Coleman, who jumped from the dynasty WR42 to WR35 since Sunday night.
Before projecting him as a new clear-cut alpha in the Bills’ offense, keep in mind that Allen loves to spread the ball around. That’s by design, and the target share may not look the same moving forward. Wait and see before swinging a big trade.
Kayshon Boutte, New England Patriots (WR84)
One of the top risers this week is none other than Kayshon Boutte, who picked up right where he left off from last season’s hot streak to end the year. In Week 1 against the Raiders, Boutte saw eight targets — tied for the team lead — and hauled in six of those for a team-high 103 yards. His 16.3 PPR points were a respectable mark, and while he didn’t do much after the catch, Boutte had multiple receptions of 20+ yards and clearly seems like he’s earning the trust of quarterback Drake Maye.
This is a guy who ended 2024 on a high note with performances of 20.5 and 24.7 fantasy points in two of his last three games with receiving lines of 5-95-1 and 7-117-1 in those contests. After his Week 1 performance, the uptick in production seems like less of a fluke and more of a trend as Boutte asserts himself in the passing game. Will he turn into a clear-cut WR1? It’s hard to tell, but the signs are encouraging and he arguably flashed first-round talent at LSU before sliding all the way to the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. After rising five spots from WR93 to WR88, he could show further signs of growth.
Zach Charbonnet, Seattle Seahawks (RB23)
The Seahawks backfield is one fantasy managers should want a piece of this season, especially after the team hired Klint Kubiak as offensive coordinator and spent a first-round pick on an offensive lineman. However, the presence of both Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet meant fantasy managers would have to decipher a split backfield to try and find the lead runner. After Walker dealt with an injury throughout camp and the new staff sung praises of Charbonnet throughout the preseason, perhaps the answer hid in plain sight all along.
In Week 1, Charbs actually took over and out-snapped Walker 30 to 21 on the day. More importantly, Charbonnet saw four more snaps than his counterpart on third downs, six more snaps in the two minute drill, and took all three goal-line snaps. The 24-year-old earned 10.7 fantasy points in PPR formats with 47 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, though he didn’t see any work in the receiving game. Meanwhile, Walker saw less success with just 20 yards on 10 carries along with three catches for four yards on his three targets.
Did either back look fantastic? Not exactly, but the snap share for Charbonnet provides reason to believe he may be in the process of taking over as the starter. Yes, Walker may have still been limited slightly by his foot injury, but if he really does lose his job, Charbs will certainly rise higher than his current ranking of RB23 in dynasty rankings.
Travis Etienne Jr., Jacksonville Jaguars (RB22)
In similar fashion to the above case of the Seahawks’ backfield, dynasty fantasy players also spent the offseason fighting their own civil war over the outlook for Jaguars running backs. Week 1 would tell all — Travis Etienne emerged as a clear winner among the trio with an outstanding game to open the season and dash the hopes of Tank Bigsby and Bhayshul Tuten truthers, if only for the moment.
Etienne entered the week as the dynasty RB39. After a monstrous 143 rushing yards on 16 carries as well as three receptions, the former Clemson standout jumped 18 spots to RB21. The leap comes as a result of multiple factors since he tallied 18.6 PPR points; out-carried the next closest runner by 11 attempts; rattled off four explosive plays of 10+ yards (including a 71-yard scamper); and Bigsby was traded away to the Eagles the next day. While the fourth-round pick Tuten still looms and will now mix in with more than the three carries he saw in Week 1, Etienne maintains a firm grasp on this backfield for the immediate future and brings significant upside with Liam Coen calling plays.
Harold Fannin Jr., Cleveland Browns (TE9)
The tight end landscape used to be a barren landscape with few consistent contributors. Now, the young guns like Trey McBride, Brock Bowers and Tyler Warren are taking over, and Harold Fannin Jr. seems like a name who could eventually join them. Could this statement be a classic Week 1 overreaction? Absolutely, but Fannin set the single-season receptions and receiving yards records for an FBS tight end at Bowling Green last year with 117 catches for 1,555 yards, plus 10 touchdowns. He obviously brought talent to the table and probably should’ve gone higher than the third round where the Browns selected him.
Fannin initially went in the third round of dynasty rookie drafts but saw his ADP bump into the second by the time Week 1 approached. After earning hype from coaches and resting with the starters during the preseason slate, the writing was on the wall for a real role in the regular season. Fannin was still out-snapped by incumbent starter David Njoku, but he still played 72% of snaps with a team-high nine targets in his pro debut. The rookie caught seven of those for 63 yards to make an immediate impact, and it’s evident the team will look to get him involved plenty this year. Fannin jumped from the dynasty TE21 to TE10 after his 13.6-point debut, so yesterday’s price isn’t today’s.
Justin Fields, New York Jets (QB23)
Particularly in 2QB or superflex formats, a locked-in starting quarterback obviously sees their fantasy football value somewhat insulated. Justin Fields sat at QB24 in dynasty rankings prior to Week 1, but his first outing under center for the New York Jets turned heads as he exploded for 29.5 fantasy points. The 26-year-old posted an efficient 16-for-22 passing line (a 72.7% completion rate!) with 218 yards and a touchdown through the air while running the ball 12 times for 48 yards and two more scores. The Jets ultimately lost to the Steelers, but Fields showed his former team what could’ve been in a full-time starting role had they not let him walk.
Fields saw his fantasy value crater in a backup role with Pittsburgh last season, but he rebounded slightly in rankings once he signed a multi-year deal with New York. After showing chemistry with Garrett Wilson just as he did at Ohio State and logging a QB2 finish on the week, perhaps dynasty managers treated him too harshly in hindsight. Whether Fields maintains this efficiency remains to be seen, but he might just provide QB1 value if he can keep playing at even 75% of this level moving forward.
