The Ben Johnson Sweepstakes is Already Over 🐻

The second hire of the 2025 head coaching cycle is in the books: Ben Johnson is a Chicago Bear! See who Zach is predicting to fill the rest of the coaching vacancies over on our Instagram!

• Bears hire former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their new head coach Monday

  • The Ben Johnson sweepstakes is over just 48 hours after the Lions’ season-ending loss at the hands of the Commanders in the divisional round. Given the Bears’ move from Shane Waldron as the lead offensive mind to Johnson, it’s 100% fair to not only anticipate, but expect the Bears offense to be a much better oiled machine in 2025 than it was in 2024. Johnson has spearheaded an offense in Detroit over the past two years that has ranked top-4 in yards, top-5 in points, top-6 in rush yards, top-2 in passing yards, top-2 in rush touchdowns and top-4 in passing touchdowns each season. As great as those stats are, the box scores don’t come close to telling the full story about Johnson’s creativity in his playcalling, and his presence will be a massive boon to second-year QB Caleb Williams as he looks to rebound from a relatively dry rookie year. With Ben Johnson out in Detroit, the onus will fall onto Dan Campbell to replace Johnson at OC for the 2025 season. As talented as the Lions are, it’ll be difficult to reproduce the efficiency and domination we saw from their offense in 2025 that we’ve seen over the few seasons of Johnson’s tenure. The bottom line here, though, is primarily regarding Caleb Williams'‘ upgrade with a QB whisperer in the fold.

• Rams WR Cooper Kupp reiterated his plans to play in the 2025 season, but wouldn’t confirm whether or not he anticipates being in LA

  • Kupp showed some signs of life in a messy, snowy divisional round loss to the Eagles this past weekend, but nothing to convince fantasy managers that he’s anywhere close to the triple-crown winning receiver he was three years ago – or even to the borderline WR1 he was just a month and a half ago before his season was sent off the rails by his goose egg on Thursday Night football. Since that game, Kupp has caught three or fewer passes in four of his past five games and been held under 29 yards without a score in those same four contests. At this point, it’s impossible to ignore the fantasy red flags that come with Cooper Kupp heading into 2025 – and to make matters even more complicated, it seems as though Kupp could potentially be playing out the twilight of his career on a different team. Kupp is expected to be relatively available on the trade block this offseason and even profiles as a potential cut candidate for the Rams. With Puka Nacua still under contract for another two years on his rookie deal and Kupp struggling to stay consistently healthy, LA certainly has the leverage to cut Kupp using a built-in out in his contract this season. Regardless of where Kupp lands (or if he even leaves), he’s looking less and less like a substantial part of winning fantasy teams and more like the desperate flex plays that guys like Julio Jones became late in their careers.

• The Broncos are ‘not expected’ to re-sign RB Javonte Williams this offseason, per the Denver Gazette’s Chris Tomasson

  • In a still young career that’s been marred by injuries and inefficiency, Williams hasn’t been able to fit the bill of a true workhorse running back, and with his rookie contract set to expire, it’s likely the soon-to-be fifth-year running back will be in a new home come the 2025 season. In a relatively lackluster RB free agency class, Williams will likely have a few suitors interested in adding talented depth to their backfields – however, it’s hard to imagine that Williams will be catching on in any kind of lead role any time soon. If Denver and Williams decide to go their separate ways, their backfield will be one of the most fluid situations to watch heading into the new league year and into the draft. This year’s class of running backs is as deep as any we’ve seen over the past ten years, and it’s likely safe to assume that the Broncos will look to add some premier talent with names like Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime sitting atop the depth chart going into 2025. With the Broncos offense presumably on the upswing with Bo Nix entering his second year after a stellar rookie season, a top-end running back could have some serious value in Denver next year.

Winner: Travis Etienne (RB)

You may not remember it, but Travis Etienne was actually being drafted just behind Kyren Williams and was actually drafted (on ADP) ahead of the likes of Derrick Henry and De'Von Achane, going as a mid-2nd rounder as the RB8 off the board.

It initially looked like he was going to be at least decent in 2024, posting 12+ points in each of his first three games - a mark he hit eleven times in 2023. Then the wheels fell off, hitting that mark just twice the rest of the season and never eclipsing the 13+ point mark after the second game.

Etienne's massive decline came as a direct result of volume, going from 19.1 touches per game (7th among RBs) to a mere 12.6 touches per game (34th among RBs) in large part due to the expanded involvement of RB Tank Bigsby.

It was the massive decline in volume, the career-lows in efficiency in both the rushing and receiving games (3.7 YPC, 6.5 YPR), and then the opportunity cost of passing on other RBs/WRs that paid off in major ways (i.e. Henry) that made Etienne my 'Bust of the Year'.

Nobody knows what to expect for Etienne beyond 2024 seeing as there will be a coaching change in Jacksonville, Tank Bigsby could retain his pronounced role, and even the fact that there had been consistent trade rumors surrounding Etienne throughout the season. We could easily see a resurgence to top-15 production from Etienne with Lawrence back at QB and a revamped offense (especially if Ben Johnson becomes the Jaguars' HC), but perhaps just as likely, Etienne could be the RB2 with little fantasy relevancy or even be somewhere else completely.

Runner-Up: Sam LaPorta (TE)

Drafting someone among the likes of Christian McCaffrey, Isiah Pacheco, or Chris Olave in the opening round or two may have completely derailed your fantasy season, but those were injuries - Sam LaPorta didn't have the excuse of missed time for being severely underwhelming in 2024.

After one of the most prolific rookie seasons for a TE in history, leading all TEs in 2023 in TDs and fantasy points, LaPorta was a consensus top-3 pick among the TE position heading into 2024, being drafted as the TE2 on ADP in the mid-to-late 3rd round.

The indicators of potential regression were there heading into this season, stemming primarily from the high TD numbers in his rookie season, featuring over 25% of his production in 2023 coming via TDs. What wasn't expected was that in addition to a massive shift within the Lions' offense that saw LaPorta go from a 19.8% target share to a mere 15.1% target share. Combine those two factors and you see a TE go from the top overall TE in 2023 to the TE8 in fantasy in 2024. It was really apparent on a per-game basis as LaPorta went from one of the most secure weekly TEs in 2023 with a top-10 finish in 11 games to one of the least secure weekly TEs in 2024, hitting that same threshold in just half his games, including a top-5 finish just twice this year (vs 8 times in 2023).

That level of production for someone who was expected to be at the top of the position or, at a minimum finish within the top 5, was severely underwhelming given the fact it cost the draft price of a quality RB2 or WR2 to get LaPorta.

It's very unclear what 2025 and beyond will hold for LaPorta with the number of mouths to feed in Detroit (i.e. St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, etc.) remaining consistent, but OC Ben Johnson potentially moving on to a head coaching gig elsewhere. Any change to the offensive coordinator and play-caller for the top offense in the league will likely force LaPorta to lean more toward his underwhelming 2024 production than his elite 2023 production.