Good things happened for a lot of players and teams in free agency. If you're more into focusing on the glass-half-full side of things, you can read all about the biggest winners from the last two weeks right here!

Unfortunately, today's task is a bit darker. If the winner's article was Season 2 of Entourage, this one is Season 7. Shit is about to go down.

Without further ado: The biggest losers from the first two weeks of free agency.

NFL Free Agency Losers For Fantasy Football

Steelers WRs DK Metcalf and George Pickens

I'm not doubting Metcalf's standing as a very good real-life receiver. Pickens has also shown quite a bit of promise through three years in the league.

One tiny problem: Who the hell will be throwing these guys the football next season?

The probable candidates …

This isn't to suggest those veterans are incapable of still spinning a pretty ball from time to time, but it'd certainly be a lot cooler if Metcalf and Pickens were looking at catching passes from an above-average QB in the year 2025.

There's also the issue of overall pass-game volume: Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith's Steelers offense posted a -6% DBOE last season, making them the fourth most run-heavy group in the league.

I'm sure Smith will engineer some big-play goodness to both weapons throughout the season–the ex-Titans OC and Falcons HC has always done a good job with the play-action deep ball dating back to his days with Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee—but the potential for middling efficiency and meh volume makes it tough to get overly excited about either WR.

Accordingly, both Metcalf (WR25) and Pickens (WR35) are being treated as boom-or-bust WR3s in the Fantasy Life ranks as opposed to pass-catchers expected to supply anything close to elite counting numbers.

Seahawks QB Sam Darnold

Last season was such a great comeback story for Darnold. Six years of pain and misery finally paid off in the form of 4,319 yards and 35 TDs as the former No. 3 overall pick led the Vikings to their most regular season wins since 1998.

Top 10 in PFF pass grade (80.3), yards per attempt (7.9), and completion percentage over expected (+3.9%) alike, Darnold was rather great for the heavy majority of last season, and the 27-year-old veteran accordingly demanded quite a bit of attention on the open market.

Enter: The Seahawks, who signed up to pay Darnold $100.5 million ($55 million guaranteed) over the course of the next three years. Kudos to the ex-Jet-Panther-49er-Viking signal-caller for, you know, making generational wealth, but this is a problematic fantasy football landing spot for a number of reasons:

  • Offensive line: PFF's reigning 31st-ranked unit ranked 30th in rush yards before contact per carry and 29th in pressure rate allowed. Not great! And a massive turnaround shouldn't be overly expected considering this is one of two o-line groups in the league with fewer than $25 million 2025 dollars invested in it.
     
  • Pass-game weapons: This could have been seen as a strength a few short weeks ago, but essentially swapping field-stretching 27-year-old DK Metcalf for soon-to-be 32-year-old Cooper Kupp and journeyman Marquez Valdes-Scantling is no bueno.
     
  • Scheme: Klint Kubiak did some good things in New Orleans before injuries largely sank the entire offense, although his -1% dropback rate over expected (DBOE) was tied for the 12th-lowest mark in the league.

Maybe the reigning QB9 in fantasy points per game offers up a Jay-Z level encore, but the Fantasy Life rankers certainly have their doubts: Darnold is currently ranked between QB21 and QB27 by all four of our rankers.

Patriots QB Drake Maye

Here's a list of the Patriots' offensive free agent signings so far:

  • QB Joshua Dobbs: Perfectly fine backup!
     
  • WR Mack Hollins: The outspoken hater of soup and shoes is the sort of big-bodied plus blocker that will probably take Mike Vrabel from six to midnight, but we're still talking about a 31-year-old veteran who has averaged under 25 yards per game in all but one of his seven career seasons.
     
  • RT Morgan Moses: The 34-year-old veteran has started 158 games since entering the league back in 2014, but his standing as PFF's 56th-highest graded tackle among 87 qualified players at the position reflects the reality that this isn't exactly a world-beating talent these days.
     
  • C Wes Schweitzer: The 31-year-old longtime backup hasn't started more than six games in a season since 2020.

Now, they have thrown a lot of dollars at the defense, and maybe that meeting with Stefon Diggs turns into something, but for the time being it's safe to say New England hasn't done much of anything to improve arguably the league's single-worst supporting cast.

This brings us to Maye, who flashed in a major way as a rookie thanks to his big arm, improvisational skillz, and ability to rack up yards on the ground. He's already in awfully enticing company when it comes to the list of QBs to clear 220 pass and 35 rush yards per game in a season … but would it kill the Patriots to splurge on LITERALLY ANY OFFENSIVE PLAYER to make the 22-year-old talent's life just a little bit easier!?

Maye's rushing floor will keep the fantasy points flowing even in the absence of higher-end passing numbers; we did see him average 17.4 fantasy points per game from Weeks 6-17 as a starter last season. Still, it'll be tough to expect a true boom without anything close to an alpha receiver or great offensive line: Maye is currently Fantasy Life's consensus QB16. PLEASE come on down, Travis Hunter.

Honorable Mentions

Jerry Jeudy and Calvin Ridley join the aforementioned Steelers WRs as capable pass catchers without any idea of who they will actually be catching the football from next season. … You'd like to think Anthony Richardson can beat out Daniel Jones, although $14 million to the ex-Giants signal-caller certainly indicates a competition is on the way. … Speaking of the Colts, it's safe to say none of their WRs are exactly looking at high-end QB play in 2025. … The decision to trade for Deebo Samuel and re-sign Zach Ertz doesn't exactly lend much optimism to either Luke McCaffrey or Ben Sinnott putting together second-year booms. … Dak Prescott and Bryce Young didn't exactly receive many (any?) upgrades across offenses that continue to look rather meh relative to other groups across the league. … We'll see how the QB musical chairs wind up, but clearly Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers didn't wind up with overly robust markets. … A similar sentiment is sadly true for Jameis Winston, who didn't exactly get starter-caliber money (2 years, $8 million) from the Giants. … Starting jobs could be tough to come by for veteran RBs J.K. Dobbins and Nick Chubb after neither seemingly received the sort of interest on the open market they were likely hoping for. … Rico Dowdle went from being the Cowboys' starting RB to the No. 2 in Carolina behind Chuba Hubbard. … Getting run out of town in Los Angeles wasn't a great look, and at a minimum, it's safe to say Cooper Kupp moving from the Rams to the Seahawks is a downgrade in terms of offensive environment. … Veteran WRs Stefon Diggs, Keenan Allen, Amari Cooper, Diontae Johnson, and Tyler Lockett seemingly haven't gotten the sort of attention they were hoping for, otherwise, they'd probably have new homes by now!