Football season is just around the corner, and with the NFL preseason in full swing, the time for fantasy football is upon us. That is why this week on “The Granite Gameplan,” I wanna touch on just a few of my fantasy picks and players I think will have a breakout year.
To start us off, at the wide receiver position, I have Rome Odunze of the Chicago Bears. In my opinion, Odunze is a sleeper who got dealt a bad hand last season and is due for a good season in 2025. His rookie year was rough; however, when you break it down, his quarterback, Caleb Williams, was throwing behind a terrible offensive line, and he only completed around 27% of his deep passes. Not to mention, Odunze was struggling to get targets at times, clashing with teammates D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen. The Bears, however, have improved during this offseason, and with Caleb Williams in his second year as well as a stronger offensive line, I’d bet on Odunze to reach his full potential this season. While on the topic of the Bears picking up weapons, they drafted rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III out of Mizzou this year, looking for him to put up some numbers as well. Burden has been carrying Mizzou football on his back the past 3 seasons and will be hungry to prove himself now in the NFL.

Now I want to look at a quarterback who, in my opinion, is very underrated this preseason. That would be a young kid by the name of Bryce Young. The Panthers have had it rough since Cam Newton’s prime, and since making Bryce Young the first pick in the 2023 NFL draft, it hasn’t gotten much better. On paper, he looks like a bust, but you can’t just pluck a kid out of college and expect him to be Superman for you. That’s the problem with the way quarterbacks are viewed these days. Some of the best quarterbacks of this era started their careers on the bench, watching a veteran and learning the game. This also gives them a hunger for the field and a need to prove themselves. Players like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers have this in common, and look at how they’ve turned out. This article isn’t about that, and I won’t get into it too much, but I mention that so I can say, give these kids a chance, don’t dismiss them after one or two bad seasons. A player like Bryce Young needs to grow and have a team built around him. That being said, he had veteran quarterback Andy Dalton as a teammate last season, and though he’s not considered a superstar, that presence can be everything. However, the biggest reason I picked Bryce Young to succeed this year is the fact that Carolina drafted wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan this year. The Kid is good, and no matter what critics say about Young, his accuracy is there. If he can find McMillan when it counts this season, then you can sit back and watch the fantasy points rise.

Those are just a couple of players to watch for on the board when you’ve drafted your superstars and are looking to gamble on guys who not everyone’s thinking of. At the end of the day, none of us know how the season is gonna go, that’s why we watch!

Christopher Smith is a graduate of Littleton High School and will be attending the University of Missouri in the fall to study journalism.

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