Fantasy Football: Dynasty lessons From wild-card weekend
- The Steelers’ offense has become an intriguing evaluation: With Mike Tomlin, and potentially quarterback Aaron Rodgers, gone, dynasty managers may want to buy low on Pittsburgh’s top target-earner.
- Is now the time to flip Christian McCaffrey? 2025’s RB1 may be petering out as a runner as he nears 30 years old. If you flip him now, you can still get great value for him.
- 2026 NFL Draft season is here: Try the best-in-class PFF Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2026’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 10minutes
In dynasty fantasy football, planning for the next season starts as soon as the previous campaign has ended. Naturally, your player then shines in the playoffs and you’re left asking where that production was in the regular season.
But the playoffs are also great indicators for the future, and with that comes roster tinkering. Players and teams from both those eliminated and those advancing will look very different this time next year, and that should influence your roster management.
Prepare for the 2026 NFL Draft with PFF+
Your complete draft preparation toolkit
The Steelers‘ Offense is Intriguing
First off, the big one. After 19 seasons, Mike Tomlin has stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tomlin is undoubtedly a giant of the game, a Steelers legend and a very capable coach who will no doubt be back on the touchline soon. However, his Pittsburgh offenses have not had nearly the same bite to them over the past half-decade as they did throughout the early 2010s.
Over the past five seasons, the Steelers have ranked the following in points scored:
- 2020: 12th (416)
- 2021: 21st (343)
- 2022: 26th (308)
- 2023: 28th (304)
- 2024: 16th (380)
- 2025: 15th (397)
In that span, the Steelers rank 28th in drives ending with a touchdown (19.0%). Only the Texans (who were in a huge transition before C.J. Stroud), Panthers, Giants and Jets rank lower. Very few fantasy managers are putting stock into those offenses, save Houston in the here and now.
All that is to say, the Steelers’ offense has not been very good. With Tomlin and possibly quarterback Aaron Rodgers stepping back from the team in the offseason, the team will have enormous voids to fill.
The optimistic dynasty manager, especially one in a win-now window who needs a high-end WR3 with WR2 and week-winning upside, would be buying D.K. Metcalf.
Metcalf finished as the WR26 in standard PPR formats and didn’t top 1,000 receiving yards for the second consecutive season. It was a relatively disappointing return, but there is reason to believe he can bounce back.
In 2025, the former Seattle Seahawk registered the lowest average depth of target of his career (11.3 yards). His 99 targets were also his fewest since his 2019 rookie season (97), and his yards per catch average ranked third lowest (14.4).
Metcalf did average the most yards after the catch per reception of his career (7.1), but it just didn’t equate to enough big games (just two 100-plus-yard receiving games in 2025).
But that’s going to happen when Rodgers is averaging 6.7 yards per attempt — the joint lowest mark of his career — and has a 6.4-yard average depth of target, the lowest mark of his illustrious career.
Whoever comes in next for the Steelers is going to have to focus on pushing the ball downfield, and that could pay dividends for Metcalf.
Romeo Doubs is in Line For a Production Bump (But Not With The Packers?)
This could age like sushi in a glovebox, should Doubs resign with the Packers. It’s not a question of if they’d like him back; it’s more about whether the former fourth-round pick would want to go elsewhere for a potentially bigger payday.
Since entering the league in 2022, Doubs has the most targets (310), receiving yards (2,424) and touchdowns (21) of any Green Bay receiver. But in fantasy, he’s been a wildly inconsistent WR4 for many owners.
Should Doubs test the market and land with a team in need of pass catchers, his dynasty value could jump. Christian Kirk occupied a similar position when he hit free agency in 2022, and during his first year in Jacksonville, he went off for 1,108 yards and eight scores, finishing as the WR12 that season.
Sure, that turned out to be an outlier for Kirk, and if Doubs has a similar statistical season, it could be for him, too. But you only need that one season, and if you doubt he can reproduce it, flip him for a profit. That’s the beauty of dynasty.
The other reason Green Bay may not bring Doubs back this offseason is Matthew Golden. General manager Brian Gutekunst invested a first-round pick in the receiver last April, and Golden had his best game as a pro in the Packers’ playoff loss to the Bears.
The Packers have always spread the ball around, but if they’re going to squeeze the most out of their first-round receiver, those targets will have to come at the expense of somebody else — and that could be Doubs.
Christian McCaffrey May be Done … as a Runner
Make no mistake about it: The RB1 in 2025 still has plenty left in the tank. McCaffrey ended the season on a high with 100-plus rushing yards in Weeks 16 and 17, helping him exceed 1,000 rushing yards for the season.
However, it can’t be ignored that his 3.9 yards per carry is the second-lowest mark of his career in a season in which he saw 100-plus carries. You also can’t ignore his performance against an admittedly stout Eagles run defense in the playoffs. His 50.4 PFF rushing grade in that game was the lowest among running backs with at least 10 carries during the wild-card round.
McCaffrey can still make a man miss, evidenced by his 47 forced missed tackles — tied for the seventh most. He can also still create explosive plays, having racked up 27 runs of 10-plus yards in the 2025 regular season — tied for the ninth most, along with Tony Pollard and Jahmyr Gibbs.
But the former Panther is nearing that age-30 cliff that so often limits running backs. In dynasty, if you flip him now, you can still get great value for him. He is the reigning RB1, after all.
If you wait until next season and he shows further signs of decline as a rusher, forget it. You always want to be a year early on flipping players than a year late. McCaffrey may have entered that territory.

