With just the Super Bowl remaining to close out the 2024-25 fantasy football calendar year, it is time to focus on next season, with an early look at sleepers to target.

Several players closed out this season strong and captured my attention, so I’m jotting them down to keep track of with free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft right around the corner (both of which have the potential to alter this list). Here are a few early fantasy football sleepers to keep an eye on.

Early Redraft Fantasy Football Sleepers

Brock Purdy (QB – SF)

This past season was a testament to the “Murphy’s Law” adage of “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” for Brock Purdy and San Francisco. Injuries plagued the team all year long, highlighted by:

• Brandon Aiyuk – Missed 10 games with a torn ACL after a slow start due to a contract dispute
• Christian McCaffrey – Participated in just four games total due to Achilles tendinitis and a PCL strain
• Jordan Mason – Missed the final four games with a high-ankle sprain
• Ricky Pearsall – Missed the first six weeks of the season due to a gunshot wound suffered in the offseason but was slowly worked back in
• Trent Williams – Sustained an ankle injury in Week 11 against Seattle and was later placed on injured reserve (IR)

I’m sure we can add the “partridge in a pear tree” as well if you were humming the holiday ditty.

Remember that this is just on the offensive side of the football — a litany of defensive players going down throughout the year placed further pressure on an already beleaguered offense to keep it afloat. There was little Purdy could do to right the ship.

Should the key core of San Francisco talent remain healthy for 2025, Purdy is primed for a bounce-back campaign. He still finished as the QB13 in fantasy points, despite the need to adapt to the injuries above while constantly under duress and missing two games of his own (Weeks 12 and 18).

Time to gel with Pearsall (who put up a tremendous 14/210/2 split over his final two games) and the healthy return of Aiyuk will provide him with weapons on the outside to complement yards-after-the-catch monsters Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, and the threat of a run game will significantly aid his play-action usage.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. (RB – NYG)

Lost amid yet another godawful season in New York was Tyrone Tracy’s stellar debut, eclipsing 1,100 scrimmage yards and six touchdowns over 17 games, despite not starting until Week 5. Tracy was initially anticipated to be in a timeshare with veteran Devin Singletary, who Giants brass signed to a three-year deal in the offseason, but played his way into a starting role.

After Singletary began the year with a sluggish start (combined with Daniel Jones imploding yet again), head coach Brian Daboll opted for a full-blown youth movement and headlined the New York Giants offense (if it could be called an offense) alongside fellow rookie Malik Nabers.

New York is sure to address the quarterback position this offseason for the first time since Daniel Jones was drafted in 2019. Any competent and able-bodied human being will surely be an upgrade over what the team started under center last year. The mere threat of an improvement in the passing game, coupled with another year of Tracy being accustomed to the offense, will result in an uptick in production for the youngster from Purdue.

Should the Giants further bolster their offensive line (which did take a step forward last year in run blocking but remained lackluster in the passing game) with a bonafide right tackle (and not the turnstile known as Evan Neal), Tracy could climb into the mid-range RB2 discussion for fantasy purposes. He finished as the RB26 this past season. I’d view that as his baseline for 2025.

Jerome Ford (RB – CLE)

Recommending the consideration of a Cleveland Browns player might raise some eyebrows, but hear me out on this one.

For most of 2024, fantasy managers were waiting with bated breath for the return of veteran Nick Chubb in the backfield, intrigued by his videos on social media of his rehab process, coming off of a gruesome knee injury for the second time in his playing career. Chubb was activated off IR in Week 7 and eventually thrust back into action amidst a timeshare.

Unable to regain his prior form, Chubb rushed for a meager 332 yards on 102 carries for the remainder of the season and is entering 2025 as a free agent at nearly 30 years old. The most recent reports from beat writers around Cleveland stated the “future is uncertain at best” for Chubb with the Browns, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team move on in a different direction.

Enter Jerome Ford.

Cleveland has no other existing running back on the roster with intrigue. In limited time last year, Ford rushed for 565 yards on 104 carries, adding another 37 receptions for 225 yards as a receiver.

The upcoming draft is chock full of talent at the running back position (it has been described as the deepest class in over a decade by top pundits), so Cleveland is almost certain to address the position on a cost-effective contract if possible.

That aside, if the team chooses to address other needs (and they have plenty) or draft a complimentary back rather than a bell-cow option, Ford is a dart throw I’m happy to take a chance on in the later rounds based on workload alone.