- Parker Washington is the prime example from 2025: From Week 12 through the wild-card round, only Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua earned a higher PFF receiving grade (95.6) than Washington’s 90.8 mark this past season.
- Players like Jordan Love and James Conner are evidence that down-the-stretch production can translate: It may not happen immediately, so don't overdraft a player based on a few weeks of success, but there are several examples of players turning strong end-of-year showings into productive future seasons.
- 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: 8 minutes
Players getting hot down the stretch in fantasy football is one of the great feelings in life. When the business end of the season comes and you’re contending for championships — or preparing for a dynasty rebuild and looking for assets for the following season — fewer things feel better than a player who catches fire in the final weeks.
Parker Washington went from a waiver-wire occupant or deep stash in dynasty leagues to basically being rostered in every format because he caught fire in the fantasy playoffs, grabbing 14 balls for 260 yards and a touchdown across Weeks 16 and 17. He then added five catches for 87 yards and a touchdown in Week 18 before snagging seven passes for 107 yards and a score in the wild-card round against the Buffalo Bills.
From Week 12 through the wild-card round, only Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua earned a higher PFF receiving grade (95.6) than Washington’s 90.8 mark. He went from relative fantasy afterthought in a Jacksonville Jaguars receiving room that featured Brian Thomas Jr. coming off a sensational rookie season (and a player relevant to this article) and No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter, who was often the secondary receiver on the team.
Now, fantasy general managers are pinning their hopes on Washington going into 2026. But will it translate for him and other players who caught fire in the back half of the 2025 season?
One of the poster boys for getting hot down the stretch in recent years is Green Bay Packers signal-caller Jordan Love. During Love’s first season as an NFL starter in 2023, the former first-round pick posted fairly pedestrian numbers throughout the first 11 weeks.
Among qualifying quarterbacks, Love ranked 17th out of 27 in PFF overall grade (70.7), tossing 16 touchdowns (11th most through 11 weeks in 2023) and 10 interceptions. Those marks left him as the QB14 overall (176.0 points).
Then, a Thanksgiving blowout against the rival Detroit Lions happened, and he has never really looked back since. From Week 12, nobody was in Love’s solar system from a PFF passing grade standpoint (90.9). Matthew Stafford was the next-closest passer, at just 84.7.
Love led the NFL in touchdowns (21), big-time throws (21, tied with Josh Allen), passer rating (11.5) and pressure-to-sack percentage (8.1%, lowest).
That hot streak helped power fantasy teams to wins, as Love finished as the QB1 overall from Week 12 onwards, scoring 154.6 points. That second-half surge propelled him to the QB5 by season’s end, and expectations were high.
Love came back down to earth in 2024, though, and an injury in the opener against the Philadelphia Eagles was the first domino in a fine but underwhelming season, given what we saw from him just eight months prior.
Love ended 2024 with the 13th-best PFF passing grade (76.6) out of 26 qualifying passers, and he finished the fantasy season as the QB18 overall (238.9 points).
Although he missed two games (Weeks 2 and 3) due to injury in 2024, Love had clearly tailed off. Through the first 11 weeks of 2024, he had 16 touchdowns to 11 picks — similar to his 2023 numbers (16 touchdowns to 10 picks through 11 weeks). He was also not making big-time plays while still putting the ball in harm's way, logging just 10 big-time throws against 11 turnover-worthy plays.
Love bounced back from that underwhelming campaign to play arguably the best ball of his career in 2025, blending efficiency with mind-bending throws (and some mind-numbing decisions), but his 2023 hot streak did not immediately stick.
The same can be said for Brian Thoma Jr. The first-round receiver ended the 2024 season with 129 targets, but 67 came after the Jaguars' Week 12 bye.
It wasn’t like Thomas was having a bad year heading into the back end of the season. The LSU product ranked 10th in the NFL in receiving yards for wide receivers (689), led all qualifying receivers in yards per catch (16.4) and had 10 catches of over 20 yards (10th in the NFL). Thomas was the WR11 (142.8 points) entering his Week 12 bye.
From Week 13 on, he was the WR2 — behind only Ja'Marr Chase. Thomas logged almost as many points in a six-week stretch to end the season (137.2) as he did throughout the first 11 games of his career. His three 100-plus-yard receiving games in that span led the NFL, and his 10 catches of 20 or more yards ranked second only to fellow rookie stud receiver Malik Nabers (11).
That, unfortunately, did not result in a prosperous 2025 campaign. Thomas finished as the WR42 in 2025, behind Rashee Rice (WR39), who missed the first third of the season due to off-the-field issues, and even his own teammate Washington (WR34) who, as we discussed, only truly caught fire in the final month of the season.
Thomas’ 66.7 PFF receiving grade in 2025 was also a far cry from his 83.4 mark as a rookie.
One player who did manage to keep the momentum rolling was James Conner. In 2023, the former Pittsburgh Steeler endured a tough couple of months to open the season. Conner was playing well in real life, averaging 5.1 yards per carry from Weeks 1 to 12 (fifth in the NFL among qualifying rushers) and owned an 85.1 PFF rushing grade (sixth best).
The problem was health. Conner played in eight games through the first 12 weeks of the season and handled just 104 carries, 34th out of 41 qualifying rushers. Come the final month of the fantasy season, he was sitting as the RB38 with just 81.1 points.
Then, he got healthy. Only Kyren Williams (545) and Christian McCaffrey (520) put up more rushing yards than Conner (514) from Week 13 on. Conner matched his 104 carries that he’d logged in his first eight games during his final five, and throughout the workload, his yards per carry figure dipped by only 0.2 yards. He also logged five rushing scores.
That propelled the Arizona rusher to being the RB2 over the final five weeks of the season, behind only Breece Hall. He carried some fantasy managers through the playoffs with 22.2 points in Week 16 and then 26.3 points in many Week 17 fantasy championships.
Conner built on that in 2024, dashing for 557 yards during the first eight weeks of the season (eighth in the NFL) and four touchdowns while notching an 85.5 PFF rushing grade — sixth among qualifying rushers. He was motoring along enough to be the RB15 after Week 8 (111.2 points) and would finish the 2024 season as an RB1 (RB11 overall).
That all makes his injury-shortened 2025 even more disappointing and treacherous for fantasy managers in 2026.
Players who end seasons on hot streaks don’t often carry them over into the following year. It’s a hard act to follow, and a lot of time — eight months — passes between the end of one campaign and the start of the next, during which a lot has also changed around the team.
Fantasy managers should set their boards accordingly and think carefully before potentially overdrafting somebody based on five weeks of production eight months ago. And dynasty managers should tinker with their roster with the same thing in mind.
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