Welcome to Week 16 of the 2025 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.
This week's roundtable features these four topics:
- Unlikely Playoff Starters
- What to Make the Jaguars' Lawrence
- The Chiefs Without Mahomes
- Fantasy True/False
Let's roll...
Matt Waldman: Here are some players/scenarios with fantasy import for your consideration.
- Tetairoa McMillan can't deliver as a primary WR1 for an NFL team long-term until he can defeat press-man coverage against top corners.
- Kyler Murray will be better with a new team.
- Greg Roman told us all along Omarion Hampton would be in a committee. We'll see Hapton in a committee next year, too.
- Caleb Williams will be an elite NFL quarterback by 2027.
Pick a statement, tell us why it is true or false, and happy holidays.
Meng Song: I feel obligated as a Bears supporter to claim that "Caleb Williams will be an elite NFL quarterback by 2027" is a true statement. I say "supporter" and not "fan" because I live in Chicago but have no deep emotional ties to the Bears. I also emphasize this to illustrate that, while I have some bias, I believe this to be an objectively true statement without Bears fandom clouding my judgment.
Williams has been inconsistent and inaccurate at times in his sophomore season, but his underlying stats give reasons for optimism as we close out the 2025 season and look ahead to 2026. For starters, while his low completion rate is a concern, Williams ranking seventh-highest in air yards per attempt as well as seventh-highest in dropped passes among qualifying quarterbacks are mitigating factors.
Additionally, even with the troubling completion rate, he still ranks 13th in adjusted net yards per pass attempt, above names like Patrick Mahomes II and Trevor Lawrence this year. And finally, Williams leads all quarterbacks with a 7.3 percent escape rate. He's truly dazzled with some of his Mahomes-esque "scramble until something opens up downfield" throws.
At the end of the day, Williams could still bust despite a strong sophomore season (see Trubisky, Mitch in 2019 after Chicago's 12-4 season in 2018), but Williams has already shown flashes of something special in Year 1 with Ben Johnson alongside young, still-developing pass-catchers. Chicago should continue to build up the offensive line this offseason.
Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland have all displayed talent and should continue to develop. There are a lot of "ifs" heading into next season, but the 2026 Bears' offense has a chance to be every bit as special as the 2024 Lions were with Johnson.
If Williams can run the scheme even 80 percent as efficiently as Jared Goff was while adding mobility, forget 2027. He could be elite and an MVP candidate as soon as 2026.
Jason Wood: "There will be a rotation no matter what happens, the day of the one running back taking every rep, it's [kinda] gone the way of the prehistoric creatures."
That's a direct quote Greg Roman gave in August, and it speaks directly to your point, Matt. It also closely mirrors Roman's evolution as a play-caller.
Frank Gore Jr. was a workhorse in San Francisco. LeSean McCoy was a workhorse in Buffalo when healthy. But in Baltimore, Roman routinely used a rotation regardless of which tailbacks were on the roster.
Running back committees have proliferated throughout the league over the last decade, as teams have come to understand the importance of load management and have embraced more substitutions and sub-packages for specific downs and distances.
Omarion Hampton has the talent and strength to be an every-down back, and if the Chargers' injuries pile up next year, there's no doubt the team would opt to give him 20-plus touches rather than run less. That outcome would require a multitude of injuries across the rest of the depth chart.
The great news for dynasty managers, though, is that running backs no longer need 250-plus touches to deliver high-end fantasy value, because so few teams give their tailbacks a truly heavy workload anymore.