Heading into 2025 fantasy football dynasty drafts, you couldn’t find a manager with the No. 1 overall pick who wasn’t excited about RB Ashton Jeanty. Subsequently, once redraft season arrived in August, Jeanty was viewed as a first-round asset and was drafted as such in a highly anticipated rookie season in Las Vegas.
But things didn’t exactly go as planned.
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Jeanty didn’t have an awful season by rookie RB standards but he fell way short of expectations in 2025. The Boise State product took 266 attempts for just under 1,000 rushing yards and just five touchdowns, averaging 3.7 yards per carry. That YPC figure ranked just inside the top 50 among qualified rushers and Jeanty finished as the RB17 in fantasy points per game. He was saved by 55 catches for 346 yards and five scores through the air.
Those numbers weren’t dreadful but if you take away two spike weeks of 30+ fantasy points in which Jeanty finished as the RB1, he would have fallen even shorter of the hype.
The Jeanty of 2026 is Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love, who is expected to go in the first round in the upcoming NFL Draft. But after Jeanty’s performance in 2025, do we need to take a step back and temper expectations for Love? Matt Harmon and Justin Boone discussed Love’s prospects for next season and if he’ll resemble Jeanty in Year 1 on the latest episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.
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Harmon poses the question to Boone: Are you going to be nervous about a Jeanty déjà vu situation with Love, or will things be better? Boone reminds us of those numbers we mentioned above — Jeanty still went over 1,300 scrimmage yards with 10 total TDs as a rookie, which is pretty good.
And in terms of Love headed to the Titans with the No. 4 pick, Boone mentions how well Tony Pollard has done in Tennessee — over 1,200 yards the past two seasons. If Love were to go to the Titans, Boone may have to bump the back down a bit given Pollard and Tyjae Spears are still under contract. But Boone would still expect Love to get a ton of volume, though it would create a lot less excitement than if Love went to the Giants or Commanders.
If Love doesn’t go to Tennessee, Boone likes Pollard’s outlook a lot more in 2026. Brian Daboll was brought in as offensive coordinator under new head coach Robert Saleh. Pollard performed well under the old regime, which was lackluster. So, an upgrade there and strong finish to 2025 points to Pollard being a solid fantasy asset if Love goes elsewhere in the draft.
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