NFL FantasyDraft Week 1 Best Plays – Main Slate

Welcome to week 1 of NFL FantasyDraft best plays. In this article I will discuss the best plays at each position for this week.

Football is finally back and I know you all are as excited as I am that the real games finally get started this weekend. We have a full 13 game NFL FantasyDraft slate for the main slate this Sunday ending with one of the NFL’s best rivalries when the Bears travel to Green Bay to take on the returning Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. There are a lot of exploitable match ups in week 1 and we will discuss some of them here in hopes of helping you cash this Sunday

Let’s get to work!

NFL FantasyDraft Quarterbacks:

Deshaun Watson ( $13,600) – Deshaun is going to want to prove he is back to the same quarterback we saw tearing up the league at the beginning of 2017. Watson might not be the best quarterback on the field this week, he should have himself a day. While New England is a big favorite at home this weekend, this game should be one of the highest scoring games on the slate. Houston could find themselves down in the second half and because of that Watson could be forced to throw a lot. Before being injured last season Watson was completing nearly 62% of his passes and threw 19 touchdown passes while running in 2 more in just 7 games. Deshaun could easily find the end zone 3 times in this game and I will definitely want get some of those points.

Drew Brees ( $13,300) – Drew Brees and his high-octane offense opens the 2018 season at home against division rival Tampa Bay. Drew is my favorite quarterback on this slate by a wide margin.  He is the 3rd highest priced QB and with good reason. Brees has one of the highest floors of any QB in the league, basically you know what you are getting with Brees. New Orleans is the biggest favorite on the day ( -9.5) and also are expected to be in a high scoring affair with the Bucs. Over the last two season Brees is the only QB to have completed over 70% of all passes attempted. New Orleans ran pass plays on over 56% of their plays last year which is the kind of stat you like to see when picking a QB. I expect Drew and the entire Saints offense to have big days today as you will read in the next couple of pages.

Aaron Rodgers ( $13,100) – A-A-Ron is going to want to show everyone that he is back and is 100% healthy, and what better way to do so then on Sunday Night Football with the entire country watching. I know the Bears just added Khalil Mack this week but I still think Rodgers has a great fantasy night at home on SNF. Green Bay’s running game is in a sense of uncertainty with Aaron Jones suspended for the first two games of the season and only having two eligible running backs on the roster will mean Rodgers should be chucking the ball all over the field on Sunday.

Andy Dalton ($11,400) – First thing you will notice is that Andy Dalton is about $2K less than every other QB on this list, and with good reason…or is it. Last season may have been Dalton’s worst year of his career. He was under 62% completion percentage for the first time since his rookie year but he was missing his safety blanket in tight end Tyler Eifert practically all season. Well, Eifert is back and with Joe Mixon and John Ross having a full season under their belt giving Dalton a plethora of options. Opening the season in Indy against a horrendous Colts defense should be just what Dalton and Bengals need to get off to a good start

NFL FantasyDraft Running Backs:

Alvin Kamara ( $16,700) – Kamara started 2017 as Mark Ingrams back up, but this season he is the guy for New Orleans. Like I mentioned earlier, New Orleans is a big favorite at home in what is expected to be a high scoring game. Alvin averaged 6 ypc last season and found the end zone a combined 13 times last year. What makes Kamara so desirable is his catching ability. In his rookie year Kamara actually had more receiving yards then he did rushing yards.  He caught 81 passes for 826 yards while rushing for 726 yards. Drew Brees and the Saints will want to get the ball in Kamara’s hands as much as possible against this putrid Bucs team

David Johnson ($16,600) – Welcome back David Johnson ! DJ missed (almost) all of the 2017 season after injuring his wrist 11 carries into the first game of the season. We all now how explosive DJ can be in both the rushing and passing games. He had over 2100 yards from scrimmage and 20 td’s in 2016. Washington allowed 348 ypg last year, and were ever worse on the road, allowing over 400 ypg. David Johnson is going to be the leader of this offense this season and it all starts in week 1 against the Skins

Leonard Fournette ($12,900) – Fournette may be my favorite RB in week 1 against a Giants defense that was not very good last season. New York ranked 28th in points allowed last season with 24.2 points and also allowed over 120 yards rushing allowed per game. We all know that Fournette is a beast and I am pretty sure the Giants defense will find out first hand on Sunday

Christian McCaffrey ($11,600) – CMC is the NFL version of a 5 tool player, he can run the ball, catch the ball, and run back kicks, ok so he’s a 3 tool player, but you get the point. Last season he rushed for 435 yards on only 117 carries, but caught 80 balls for 651 yards and 5 tds. CMC’s rushing yards don’t look like much, but he did the bulk of his damage after the week 11 bye last season. I anticipate that he will continue the growth he showed at the end of last season to start the 2018 campaign.

Alex Collins ( $10,200) – Alex Collins got the superstar treatment this preseason which leads me to believe he is going to be a work horse for the Ravens. Collins has a match up with Buffalo Bills this week in a game that might not be to close. Baltimore is a big home favorite against the Bills in what is expected to be a low scoring game. Buffalo was 29th in the league in rushing yards allowed in 2017 ( 126.4 rushing yards allowed per game) . Collins will save you a big chunk of change so you can pay up for other positions while giving you some good production.

NFL FantasyDraft Wide Receivers

Antonio Brown ( $16,600) – He’s Antonio Brown, do you need any other reason to play him? Ok, he’s playing the Cleveland Browns this week, there’s two solid reasons to put Brown into your lineups this week. Last season on opening weekend AB torched the Browns for 11 catches and 182 yards, and I think we may see something similar on Sunday. I know Cleveland has improved, but until I see them show they aren’t the 1-31 browns from the past two seasons consistently I will continue to pick on them in fantasy.

Michael Thomas ($15,100) – I am sure no one is surprised to see Thomas here after I already talked about Brees and AK above. Clearly we think New Orleans is just going to score in bunches against the Bucs, and the leagues 31st ranked secondary (PFF). Tampa’s D last season ranked 25th in red zone scoring attempts per game (3.3) and Thomas had 12 red zone receptions last year resulting in 7 touchdowns, that’s some pretty good efficiency if you ask me.

Keenan Allen ( $14,500) – After two injury plagued seasons Keenan Allen finally played all 16 games last season, and he had a career year. He had his first 100+ reception season and finally showed he is an elite WR in the NFL. This Sunday the Chargers welcome the Chiefs into LA for a week 1 divisional match up. KC’s secondary is ranked among the worst in the NFL and they may be without Eric Berry to start the year.

AJ Green ($14,000) – I mentioned Tampa having the 31st ranked secondary above, can you guess who is number 32? Yep, Indianapolis. Green is the model of consistency in Cincinnati as he performs to his high expectations year after year. Green had his 6th 1,000+ yard season in 7 seasons of NFL action.   Cincinnati’s defense is just bad enough to let Andrew Luck and the Colts hang around to keep the passing game of Cincinnati going all game.

Keelan Cole ( $7,900) – When Marquis Lee went down in the preseason it thrust Cole into the picture as a big time fantasy option. At his low price he doesn’t need to score a ton of points to make value, but we believe he will definitely blow his value away. Cole is not some scrub being thrown out there with no experience. He quietly but up 748 yards on 42 receptions last season and scored 3 times as a rookie. While the Giants have a decent secondary I don’t believe they will be able to shut down Cole completely and this could lead to a big day for the second year WR.

NFL FantasyDraft Tight End/DST

Tight End

Rob Gronkowski ( $13,000) – If you are looking to spend up at tight end, then Gronk is your man. Houston will have a hard time shutting him, like most teams. He terrorized them last season the tune of 8 receptions for 89 yards and a score. If you can find a way to fit Gronk into your lineup I highly recommend doing so.

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Kyle Rudolph ( $8,400) – Last season the 49ers allowed 10.8 fantasty points per game to tight ends and allowed 8 touchdowns as well. We really like Kyle’s chances for a big game Sunday against the 49ers because of this.

Jack Doyle ( $7,400) – Andrew Luck is finally healthy after spending the entire 2017 on the sidelines and he will be looking to his old buddy Mr. Doyle to help him get back into the swing of things against the Bengals on Sunday. In 2016 Luck found Doyle 59 times leading to an 9.9 avg yards per reception and 5 touchdowns. Last season without Luck, Doyle caught 80 balls for 690 yards ( both career highs). These stats came with the likes of Jacoby Brisset at QB, not a perennial  all pro like Luck.

DST

Baltimore Ravens ( $6,900) – Before the news came down that Peterman would be the week 1 starter we liked this Ravens D, now that he is starting we like them even more. I think we all might remember his 5 interception FIRST HALF against the Chargers last November. Now I am sure he has improved some since then, but he is not going to light the world on fire with his arm. I suspect Baltimore will get a pick or 2 and 3-4 sacks against this Bills team while also keeping them to a low point total.

Tennessee Titans ( $5,900) – Miami averaged over 1 interception per game last season, but that was with Jay Cutler at QB, but even with Tannehill back under center this season the numbers don’t improve much. Miami also allowed 2.1 sacks per game last season.

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