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Fantasy Football: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the value offense of last year — which team…

The 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers proved to be an excellent example of a value offense in fantasy football. The 2023 version of the team featured a potent offense under the guidance of then-OC Dave Canales, finishing an unexpected 12th in EPA per play and reviving Baker Mayfield’s career. With Canales gone to the head coaching gig in Carolina, there was some skepticism about the 2024 Bucs offense with Liam Coen taking over.

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Coen shockingly proved an upgrade on Canales’ strong foundation and the Bucs finished last year as a top-five offense by any advanced measure. However, just about every player from their offense could be had at a depressed ADP. League-winning rookie back Bucky Irving was the RB53 in ADP last summer as a barely draftable option, Chris Godwin way outkicked his summer position when healthy and Mayfield finished as a top-10 passer. The list goes on.

Here, we’ll look at five teams that could similarly provide value to fantasy drafters based on a change in circumstances from the previous season. To qualify, they can’t have any players going inside the top 10 of their position in early consensus ADP (Mike Evans was the highest-drafted Buccaneers player at WR16 last season).

Editor's Note: We are using consensus ADP in order to encompass the scope of early completed drafts.

Chicago Bears

An obvious candidate for a leap this season after the hiring of Ben Johnson to replace a coaching staff that was very much out of sync last season, the Bears' offense should be much improved. The degree to which Johnson will make a difference is up for debate and the play of Caleb Williams will largely determine his success, but there’s little doubt in my mind that this offense will not be a bottom-10 unit this year. The players are too good and Johnson has too bright a schematic mind for a full bottoming out.

While everyone acknowledges that Chicago is once again at the center of offseason hype, you aren’t required to pay much at the ADP table to get some fantasy exposure in drafts. The highest-drafted Bears player at the moment is DJ Moore, with a WR21, 40th overall consensus ADP. The next two don’t come until the 70s with Rome Odunze at WR70 and D’Andre Swift at RB25.

Odunze is someone I plan on drafting a lot because I loved his prospect film, he played better in isolation as a rookie than credited and is now getting a whole new set of circumstances in Year 2. Rookies like Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland are appealing late-round targets if they can get healthy for training camp. I have plenty of faith in Johnson to right the ship for a long-stagnant Bears offense.

Carolina Panthers

The aforementioned Canales took over as the Panthers' play-calling head coach and, after an early-season benching, played a big role in getting Bryce Young back to playing confident football. On the season, the Panthers were a bottom-10 offense but from Week 10 on, they ranked 12th in EPA per play and 13th in points per game.

Early ADP has not baked in the possibility of the Panthers playing at that level over the course of 2025. The earliest drafted Panthers player is Chuba Hubbard at RB18, 47th overall. That’s shy of his RB12 finish from last year. The Panthers added depth to the rotation in Rico Dowdle and Trevor Etienne, but neither is set to unseat Hubbard, fresh off signing a multi-year contract from 2024.

Rookie Tetairoa McMillan is the next highest-drafted Carolina player, selected 55th overall and ranked as WR25. McMillan has the skills to step in as a Day 1 starting X-receiver and will allow other players in the room to slot into more comfortable roles.

Not only is McMillan firmly in my draft plans at WR36, but I don’t mind making bets on the complementary options like Xavier Legette, Adam Thielen and my favorite deep sleeper, Jalen Coker.

As for the distributor himself, Young currently carries a QB24 ADP. He’ll outkick that if he plays at the level he did down the stretch of 2024. There’s upside now that more talent has been added to the skill-position groups.

Tennessee Titans

If you squint, you could see the 2025 Titans following the same path as the 2024 Commanders, who finished as a top-five offense in points per game.

The Commanders had a veteran receiver in Terry McLaurin as the No. 1 target, who had run into some deployment and quarterback troubles over the course of his career. Calvin Ridley might not be at McLaurin’s level but he was productive on a bad offense last year and remains a strong route runner. The Commanders had a solid running back duo that offered some weeks for gamers last year. Tony Pollard played well last season and Tyjae Spears has some juice, as well. Washington’s offensive line played well above expectations last season and the Titans added to their front-five this year to avoid disaster.

To complete the analogy, we need rookie QB Cam Ward to play at a transformative level, similar to what Jayden Daniels did last season. While that may be unlikely, Ward can still have a strong rookie season and lift this offense from its 30th finish in EPA per play from last season. No Titans player comes off the board until the 70s, where I’m happily taking the plunge on guys like Pollard and Ridley, who could be nice ADP-beaters.

Los Angeles Chargers

Without question, this is the most cheating answer based on my “no players with a top-10 positional ADP” because Ladd McConkey is the WR11 right now. However, his 24th overall ADP is enough of a value that I want to include this group

I’m still not sure people understand that McConkey was the best rookie wide receiver on film last season.

Beyond McConkey, rookie running back Omarion Hampton is the next Charger off the board at RB17, 46th overall. He’ll have to split some carries with Najee Harris, especially early on, but he’ll rip big plays and should be the clear starter by midseason. After the backs, Justin Herbert goes off the board as QB15 but can carry that ceiling if Tre Harris is a quick learner at X-receiver to boost the passing game. Remember that Herbert is coming off a career high in carries and was used as a proactive runner once he got healthy from a training camp high-ankle sprain.

I was more bullish than most on the Chargers offense heading into last season and it still feels like the market is behind and unclear on what this coaching staff wants to be. Los Angeles was second in neutral pass rate following the Week 5 bye in 2024, has a superstar receiver and an excellent passing quarterback. The Chargers won’t be some ground-and-pound team just for the sake of it. I like this unit to be a fringe top-10 offense league-wide next season.

Seattle Seahawks

Of all the teams included, I’m the least confident that the Seahawks can pull this off but they count for the exercise after an offseason of change. Seattle completely dismantled a unit that had plenty of brand names but finished 21st in points per game and 19th in EPA per play. It began with hiring Klint Kubiak to be the play-caller in place of an overmatched Ryan Grubb, in hopes that his tried-and-true Shanahan tree concepts could revive a flailing run game and protection scheme.

The next domino was moving out Geno Smith for Sam Darnold and trading DK Metcalf away. All of these variables make Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who is the highest drafted Seahawks player at WR12, 28th overall, a trick projection. I’ll never flat-out bet against a good ascending young receiver talent who is the clear No. 1 target on his team but the pass rate in Seattle is likely to come down with Kubiak taking over, and Darnold is far from a sure thing. Beyond JSN, lead back Kenneth Walker III is outside the top-40 overall picks and no one else goes inside the top 80.

In my view, the Seahawks have the makings of being an average offense if Darnold plays well, they can protect him and Kubiak adds some juice to the run game. That’s a lot of “if” statements just to start and the depth in the pass-catching corps is questionable with Cooper Kupp in clear decline. It’s a high-wire act for Seattle to push for a top-10 offensive finish after all this change but it does, as mentioned, qualify for this exercise.

Honorable mention: New Orleans Saints

I couldn’t quite get the Saints into the top-five candidates because I’m skeptical of their quarterback room with second-round rookie Tyler Shough in position to start. However, I’m pretty confident that if — heavy-lifting word here, I know — both Alvin Kamara (RB15) and Chris Olave (WR34) stay healthy, they’re good bets to outkick those ADPs. Even Rashid Shaheed at WR57 is a more than palatable bet at the moment. The offensive line looks like it's in a good spot after adding rookie Kelvin Banks at tackle.

There is a lot that needs to come together and break right in Kellen Moore’s first year on the job but there is talent on the roster enough to make me want to take discounts on some of the skill-position guys.

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