10 Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 4: Tyreek Hill injury fallout

Week 4 of the 2025 NFL season is in the books, putting us roughly a quarter of the way through the fantasy football season. With injuries piling up and bye weeks underway, here are the 10 stats, facts, and storylines you need to know ahead of Week 5.

1) Tyreek Hill suffers a season-ending knee injury

Tyreek Hill tore multiple ligaments in his knee, including his ACL, in the third quarter of his Monday night game versus the Jets. He also dislocated his knee and has undergone one surgery because of the gruesome injury, with more likely to follow. His season is over, leaving a struggling Dolphins team to replace one of the most valuable players in football. After Hill went down, Jaylen Waddle accounted for 3-of-9 targets and ran all but one route. Miami ran five full drives after Hill left. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine ran the second-most routes but was only targeted once. De’Von Achane wasn’t targeted, but it is notable that he was lined up as a receiver on three of his eight routes. Achane already leads all running backs in routes from the slot and out wide combined. An increase in receiver duties seems impossible, yet the Dolphins are going to be forced to do just that.

2) Rookie runners bounce back

Possibly the biggest storyline of the 2025 season has been the struggles of the first-round rookie running backs. Both Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton flipped the script in Week 4. Jeanty was the RB1 of the week on the back of three touchdowns — one on the ground and two through the air — and Hampton was the RB7. The two rookies led the league in rushing in Week 4. They also led all running backs in yards after contact per carry (min. 10 carries). PFF assigned them top-five running grades. Jeanty and Hampton each dominated their respective backfields and played their best football of the year in the process. You can’t ask for more than that.

3) Can Ja’Marr Chase survive the Jake Browning era?

Ja’Marr Chase has played in eight games with Jake Browning as his starting quarterback. He has scored more than 12.1 PPR points in one of them. Chase has averaged 4.9 catches for 57 yards and .13 touchdowns in those eight games, good for 11.3 PPR points. That would make him the WR37 this year. Browning currently ranks 33rd out of 35 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per dropback. The good news is that he’s far better in completion rate over expected, sitting at 19th. Pro Football Focus has him graded as their No. 29 passer this year. Browning isn’t playing well, but it’s not all his fault. Cincy has one of the worst offensive lines in the league and Chase Brown is giving his quarterback zero support via the ground.

4) Puka Nacua’s record-setting pace

The question of how to win your fantasy league this year appears to be partially answered. Puka Nacua is on pace for:

• 213 targets
• 179 receptions
• 2,359 yards from scrimmage
• Nine total touchdowns

Since 2006, two players have averaged more than 3.8 yards per route run on at least 100 targets. Steve Smith (3.87 – the unofficial record) did it in 2008 and Tyreek Hill (3.82) followed up in 2023. Nacua is on pace for 4.19 YPRR.

5) Cam Skattebo’s role grows

The Giants leaned on their ground game for Jaxson Dart’s first career start. Without Tyrone Tracy, that meant an absurd workload for Cam Skattebo. He ran the ball 25 times and added two receptions. Skattebo was stonewalled on the ground, averaging just 3.2 yards per carry. He was, however, the RB4 in expected fantasy points. Skattebo became just the ninth rookie running back since 2015 to see 25 carries in one of his first four games. Five of the other eight went on to post multiple RB1 seasons during their career.

6) Bijan Robinson’s pass-catching breakout

Bijan Robinson’s pass-catching prowess has always been an underrated aspect of his fantasy profile, but he has never been considered one of the league’s premier dual-threat backs. That might be changing this year. Robinson went for 106 yards through the air in Week 4, marking the third time he has hit the century mark as a receiver since entering the league. No other player has done that more than once over the past two years and four games. Robinson is tied for second among running backs in routes run from a receiver alignment — slot or wide — this year. He is averaging 2.39 yards per route run, a mark that would rank top-10 among wide receivers.

7) Jaxson Dart makes his debut

The bad news for Giants fans is that Dart looked the part of a rookie quarterback taken in the 20s making his first start. PFF graded him as their No. 30 passer and he is averaging a lower EPA per dropback than Russell Wilson. For fantasy purposes, we ain’t reading all that. Dart had six designed carries in his first start. No other quarterback saw more than two designed carries on Sunday.

Brian Daboll used his ground game to hide Dart, but that also meant a healthy workload for the rookie as a runner. This won’t be great for the pass-catchers, but it will keep Dart in the QB2 mix while he finds his feet as a passer.

8) The Waldron effect

Chicago fielded what appeared to be one of the league’s worst receiving rooms in 2024, despite spending big on weapons for Caleb Williams. Per ESPN’s player tracking data, they did not have a top-30 wideout. They revamped their coaching staff this year and suddenly everyone looks like a superstar.

The Bears’ offense has been far from perfect, but there is a night-and-day difference between the disaster they were in 2024 and the promise they have shown this year. Unlocking the potential of their talented receiving corps has played a critical role in that turnaround. Leaving Chicago has also worked out quite well for Keenan Allen.

9) A.J. Brown’s reading list is growing

No team attempted or completed fewer passes in the second half of games last year than the Eagles. They won the Super Bowl in dominant fashion and don’t appear to have any interest in changing their ways.

No team has fewer completions in the second half this year. Philly became the first team in nearly two years to win a game without a second-half completion on Sunday. They rank last in the league in 2H completions at 7.5, a slight uptick from their 2024 mark of 6.9. They are, however, averaging 15.4 fewer yards per game in the final two quarters. The Eagles’ ability to win ugly games is proving to be a massive issue for A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith, both of whom are in the WR4 ranks through four weeks.

10) Kyren Williams gets committee’d

The Rams have treated Kyren Williams as a workhorse for years, but that appears to be at an end with an uptick in touches for Blake Corum. The second-year back earned career-highs in carries (nine) and targets (four) in Week 4. Williams, in turn, only saw 52 percent of the team’s rush attempts. That is his lowest mark in a single game since 2023. Williams accounted for at least 80 percent of the Rams’ attempts nine times last year and five times (in 12 games) in 2023. He hasn’t hit that mark once in four games this season.