Fantasy Football What We Learned Week 1

We’re coming off a wild Week 1 in the NFL and there’s a ton of Fantasy Football takeaways that are going to help guide the rest of your fantasy season!

My goodness, the NFL is back and the Fantasy Football tilt is real. Week 1 was crazy for a lot of different reasons and this article is designed to highlight immediate takeaways and we’ll get deeper into it as the week moves along. Without any further ado, let’s get moving because there’s 14 games to get to today.

Fantasy Football Takeaways –  AFC East

New England Patriots – Win vs Houston Texans, 27-20 

One of the biggest winners and losers for Week 1 reside in this game. No, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski aren’t big winners because they just did what they always do – dominate. The winner was Rex Burkhead because he was the man in the backfield with 18 carries in this one to go along with three targets. 64 rushing yards isn’t great, but 20 touches in a Tom Brady-led offense is gold and you take your chances with that every single week.

The loser was Chris Hogan, who was supposed to be a major factor in this offense and he finished with one catch for 11 yards. That’s always going to be the struggle with the Pats offense but Phillip Dorsett is a name to note for waivers. Dorsett saw seven targets and that was eye-opening in this offense. We’ll see if Sony Michel is back next week before deciding on how to rank the running backs but Burkhead is clearly ahead right now.

Miami Dolphins – Win vs Tennessee Titans, 27-20

I don’t know why it was a borderline controversial take during the offseason, but receiver Kenny Stills is good at football. He may have finished third on the team in targets this week behind Danny Amendola and Jakeem Grant but he scorched the Titans for 106 yards and a touchdown. Granted, most of that yardage came on a 75 yard bomb but Stills is capable of doing that every week. He needs to see more because no other receiver with four receptions or more averaged over eight yards per catch.

Miami has to be able to stretch the field more often. This game had almost four hours of lightning delays but seeing the carries be split 14-9 for Kenyan Drake over Frank Gore has to be a little worrisome. Drake added 18 yards on three receptions but only gained five more total yards than Gore.

Buffalo Bills – Loss vs Baltimore Ravens, 47-3 

My word, this was uglier than I thought it would get. Nathan Peterman averaged 1.3 yards per pass attempt, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Josh Allen is likely not ready to be a starter yet but he can’t be much worse than peterman was in this game. This team is a wasteland and if you can get virtually anything for LeSean McCoy, it might be best to take it. Run from this team as fast as you can for fantasy purposes.

New York Jets – TBD

It’s a little bit of a rarity, but there’s four teams in action on Monday night that won’t be in this article and the Jets are one of them. The biggest story is going to be how the offense fits with Sam Darnold in their first game together.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers – It’s hard to figure out what to takeaways rom this game when the Steelers turned the ball over six(!) times in a single game. The old bad on the road Ben Roethlisberger surfaced with a whopping five of those six, so it didn’t really matter that he threw for over 300 yards and a touchdown. One thing that didn’t skip a beat was the running back position. James Connor racked up 192 total yards and two touchdowns. He’s a top 10 back as long as he has the job.

Le’Veon Bell probably wasn’t exactly happy about that but that’s probably why Pittsburgh hasn’t shelled out massive money at any point. This offense has better days ahead when they’re not coughing up the ball so much. Even through a terrible day from their quarterback, Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster both had good individual days.

Cincinnati Bengals – The results might not be quite as good every week, but Joe Mixon is the workhorse in this Bengal offense for 2018. He out-touched Gio Bernard by a rate of 22-2 and Mixon rolled up 149 yards and 1 touchdown. I knew my “fade Joe Mixon” take was going to take a beating this week and that’s fine. I’m interested to see how things go moving forward, but at that volume he’s going to have to be a very bad player to not pay dividends in fantasy.

What was surprising in this game was John Ross only saw two targets, which was fifth on the team. He did score on a goal line fade of all plays and it was Mixon and A.J. Green that made the passing game work. The Bengals offense has a much stiffer test on a short week against Baltimore so we’ll see just how good the offense really is in a hurry.

Cleveland Browns – Thank goodness for fantasy owners that quarterback Tyrod Taylor can run because he looked pretty rough as a passer in this one. The weather wasn’t ideal so maybe that had something to do with it but Taylor wasn’t very impressive. 77 rushing yards and a touchdown rescued his day. Jarvis Landry was the target hog with 15 but Josh Gordon will certainly get a bigger share as the season continues. He still did damage on just three targets with a 17-yard touchdown reception.

The David Njoku breakout watch continues as he was a total non-factor and Carlos Hyde was held in check as well. The offense flashed some potential but Gordon needs to be unleashed and Taylor has to play better from the pocket moving forward.

Baltimore Ravens – Win vs Buffalo Bills, 47-3 

I’m not sure how much to take from this. The game was so far out of hand early, I’m not sure how much of this was the real Ravens or just to terrible Bills. The Baltimore D/ST is going to be a great option more weeks than not. Alex Collins let me down but I wonder if this is encouraging from the standpoint of the Ravens treating him as the starter, leaving him on the bench for a good chunk of the game.

John Brown, Michael Crabtree and Willie Snead all scored touchdowns and it’s going to be hard to predict these three. They’re likely just matchup-dependent flex options as things stand. Let’s see how thing go versus the Bengals before we get too hung up on the Ravens and what they did today for fantasy.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – AFC West

Los Angeles Chargers – Loss vs Kansas City Chiefs, 38-28

Philip Rivers was a monster for fantasy, going over 400 yards and throwing three touchdowns and that helped Melvin Gordon lead the team in targets and rack up 102 yards receiving with 64 yards rushing as well. Austin Ekeler needs to be a priority add on the waiver wire. He has standalone value with about 10-12 touches every week and he just churns yardage. If anything ever happened to Gordon, Ekeler should exceed 15 touches.

Both Tyrell and Mike Williams remain interesting. Mike looked better via the stat sheet, but Tyrell dropped a big touchdown pass that changes the game. Keenan Allen remains one of the best receivers in football and the defense can’t be touched until Bosa is back and healthy.

Kansas City Chiefs – Win vs Los Angeles Chargers, 38-28

I don’t know what to do with Tyreek Hill anymore but play him every week at least once in DFS and just eat it on the weeks that he bust out. This guy just is so explosive, he can literally score any single time he touches the ball. Patrick Mahomes threw four touchdowns and I’m happy I started to gravitate back towards him once Chargers defensive lineman Joey Bosa got ruled out. This offense can score a ton of points and I still think they’re going to need to most games with the defense that they have.

Sammy Watkins continues his disappearing act and it had to hurt Travis Kelce owners that  he only had one catch for six yards. That’s just a bump in the road for a tight end of Kelce’s caliber. I definitely feel the same way of Kareem Hunt since he got the lion’s share of the work even with Spencer Ware back and healthy. Mahomes is going to be tough to sit the rest of the way in anything but the worst matchups.

Oakland Raiders – TBD 

The Raiders play Monday night and are probably still smarting after Khalil Mack was an absolute force on Sunday Night Football last night.

Denver Broncos – Win vs Seattle Seahawks, 27-24 

Royce Freeman fans(raises hand) can’t be feeling too god right now about investing what could have been a third/fourth round pick in the running back. He split time evenly with Phillip Lindsay at 15 carries a piece and they gained the exact same yardage, so there’s no reason to think some type of major split won’t continue. Lindsay also saw three targets to Freeman’s zero so this is a huge issue for Freeman owners. Freeman probably is nothing more than a flex right now and Lindsay is going to be a major add for Week 2.

Case Keenum and Emmanuel Sanders were on the same page immediately, racking up 135 yards, one touchdown and 10 receptions on 11 targets. Keenum took a step on proving last season was not a fluke with over 300 yards and three touchdowns even though he also threw three picks. With a competent quarterback, this offense suddenly looks solid. Sanders can return WR2 value and Keenum looks like a streaming option in a lot of matchups.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – AFC South

Jacksonville Jaguars – Win vs New York Giants, 20-15 

The biggest story of the week heading towards Week 2 is the shape that Leonard Fournette is in. He was forced from the game with a hamstring injury this week and that’s going to make T.J. Yeldon one of the biggest priorities on waivers. If Fournette doesn’t play, Yeldon is a top 15 back for this upcoming week. This passing game is going to be frustrating this year. First, it’s going to be relatively low-volume.

The pass/run ratio is always going to be close if the game stays on track and none of the receiving options saw more than seven targets and the leader was Yeldon. Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook will have some good games, but it also might be tough to figure out exactly when. This wasn’t a great game from Blake Bortles but that sometimes happens with him. He’ll still be productive going forward.

Houston Texans – Loss vs New England Patriots, 27-20

This game really illustrates how thin the Texans receivers are. Will Fuller was out and that meant that the Patriots were able to focus almost solely on DeAndre Hopkins. They contained Hopkins to eight receptions for just 78 yards so consequently, Deshaun Watson had himself a pretty poor day as well. That wasn’t what people were hoping for when they drafted him s high for months.

The one positive takeaway was Lamar Miller is exactly what you thought he was and that’s a volume based RB2. Alfred Blue did score the touchdown which was frustrating but Miller had 20+ touches again and he’ll find the end zone. This offense is concentrated to a select few players nd the defense will be better when they’re not in New England every week.

Indianapolis Colts – Loss vs Cincinnati Bengals, 

The biggest news here has to be Andrew Luck is back like he never missed a beat. The Colts had him throw 53 times so there is exactly zero fear about his surgically repaired shoulder. Owners were probably hoping for more yards with that many attempts but you’re going to take a 300 yard game with two touchdowns in Luck’s first game back. T.Y. Hilton and Jack Doyle both had double-digit targets while Ryan Grant and Nyheim Hynes both had nine as well.

Doyle led the corps with 60 yards receiving so it’s interesting to see if this is going to become an offense that gets spread out or if Hilton and Doyle will dominate target share and the yardage follows. Jordan Wilkins dominated the rushes out of the backfield but only out-touched Hines by five total touches. Ryan Grant is also interesting in a deeper league if you need some receiving help. Drafters who snagged Luck as a top 10-12 quarterback might be paid off handsomely.

Tennessee Titans – Loss to Miami Dolphins, 27-20 

I don’t think things could have gone much worse for the Titans in Week 1. Quarterback Marcus Mariota looked awful when he did play, tossing two interceptions in just 16 attempts. He then left with an elbow injury that seems pretty mysterious as of this writing. Key member of the offensive line Taylor Lewan left with a concussion and they likely lost tight end Delanie Walker for the season with a gruesome looking ankle injury. Those three pieces are absolutely vital to this team and would be major losses, not to mention the blow to fantasy production across the board.

The backfield was skewed towards Dion Lewis this week by a 21-11 touch count but Derrick Henry also had a 60+ yard touchdown called back due to a penalty. Corey Davis underwhelmed with a 6/62/0 line on 13 targets but that tends to happen with sub-par quarterback play. Depending on the status of these injuries, the fantasy value in this team might go down the drain early.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – NFC East

New York Giants – Loss to Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-15

Now that Odell Beckham showed that he can produce against the Jaguars and their tough secondary, we can all agree to never think about benching him again. He caught 11 passes for 111 yards and could have had about a 40 yard touchdown on top of that but Eli Manning overthrew him. Evan Engram was rough but it’s going to be hard to see consistent targets when Beckham and Barkley combine for almost 40 looks between touches and targets.

Speaking of Barkley, fantasy owners are happy because of a 68 yard touchdown and keep in mind – Barkley sometimes has a tendency to bounce a lot of runs outside. That’s not always going to work in the NFL so games like this are probably going to happen often this year. The defense played better than most people probably though, which could be interesting in the right matchup.

Washington Redskins – Win vs Arizona Cardinals, 24-6 

Adrian Peterson continues to defy the odds and he rolled up 166 total yards and a touchdown. What is really important is Peterson got basically all of the workload in this backfield. Rob Kelly and Samaje Perine were clearly not that big of a part of the game plan so if Peterson is getting this amount, he’s going to be a low-end RB2 the rest of the way. Remember, it’s not always the talent level. I’m always going to take the opportunity over any talent level. Alex Smith will always be a fine streamer but it was a little disappointing to see Jamison Crowder come up small with just three receptions on four targets.

Jordan Reed was a nice tight end play today and could flirt with top five numbers, but his snap percentage was very low for what he normally sees when he’s healthy. Chris Thompson continues to be insanely efficient, racking up 128 yards and a touchdown on just 12 touches. He’s going to be a weekly flex that I’m not fully trusting.

Philadelphia Eagles – Win vs Atlanta Falcons, 18-12

It’s now Sunday night and I still don’t think Nick Foles has thrown a pass over four yards past the line of scrimmage. Nelson Agholor caught eight passes but for just 33 yards, adding fuel to the fire of folks who hate PPR scoring. Jay Ajayi scored the touchdowns that mattered but the backfield split still was tilting at best. Darren Sproles played a ton of snaps and I dropped Corey Clement after barely seeing double-digit snaps. Something will have to give to feel good about any running back every week. Zach Ertz and the rest of the offense is basically being held hostage right now without their starting quarterback and wide receiver. It may still be a few weeks before we see this team at full power.

Dallas Cowboys – Loss to Carolina Panthers, 16-8

If you ask Dez Bryant on Twitter, this Cowboys offensive effort could have been seen from a mile away. Bryant said he could see all the plays from his TV which really isn’t a good sign. If Dez sees all of these things, don’t you think the Carolina defensive staff notices things too? Ezekiel Elliot is still an RB1 and maybe Cole Beasley is an asset in PPR as he caught seven passes. There’s not much to write home about here and hopefully this offense shows up a little more the next couple of weeks.

NFC North

Green Bay Packers – Win vs Chicago Bears, 24-23 

What a roller coaster for the Packers and their fans. It went from looking like their season could be over when Aaron Rodgers was carted to the back with a knee injury and the Bears were up big. Then Rodgers came back out in the second half and did GOAT style things. He brought the Packers back from the brink of an ugly loss at home and Randall Cobb led the receivers in yards, targets and receptions. Rumors of a cut were greatly exaggerated. Davante Adams and Geronimo Allison both had big days as well and Jimmy Graham was the one left out in the cold. It’s almost like he’s not going to be that useful for fantasy if he doesn’t catch a touchdown.

Jamaal Williams didn’t light up the box score, but it has to be pointed out yet again – he was excellent in pass protection, especially after Rodgers was hurt. If he continues that and Aaron Jones can’t protect, it doesn’t matter if Jones is the next coming of Barry Sanders. If he can’t protect number 12, he can’s score fantasy points from the bench.

Chicago Bears – Loss ve Green Bay Packers, 24-23 

It turned into a gut-wrenching loss, but I thought Chicago showed some promise in this game. Sure, Mitchell Trubisky looked shaky down the stretch but it was also the first game with Matt Nagy as coach, running the offense. They look like they might spread the ball around, which isn’t what Trey Burton and Allen Robinson owners want to hear but we’ll see how the offense continues to evolve every week.

The massive takeaway here is Jordan Howard is a legit RB1. He played on third downs and caught all five of his targets. Yes, Tarik Cohen is going to be involved but this is Howard’s show and there is zero doubt moving forward. Adding a reception floor to his game is a massive storyline.

Detroit Lions – TBD

The Lions have some potential promise but they are in a a stacked division. Let’s see how the trio of Golden Tate, Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay co-exist.

Minnesota Vikings – Win vs San Francisco 49ers, 24-16 

The Kirk Cousins Era got off to a decent start, but he didn’t put up gaudy numbers. Breaking down the passing game is interesting because while my man crush Stefon Diggs caught a touchdown, he saw only half the targets and half the yards that teammate Adam Thielen did. Diggs saw six to Thielen’s 12 and I can’t say I’m totally thrilled with how much Diggs I have across my leagues. He did catch a touchdown which helped swing the scoring to basically even so it worked out for fantasy owners everywhere. I don’t think the targets will continue to be that drastically apart and will still side with the talent of Diggs.

Here’s where owners have to be nervous – Dalvin Cook and Kyle Rudolph. Cook did see seven targets, catching six of them but Latavius Murray also got 11 carries and was more effective on a per carry basis. Those carries for Murray came late and you’re still happy with Cooke getting 20 touches, but some garbage time production for Cook would have been nice. Rudolph only saw two targets which was two fewer than Laquon Treadwell. Rudolph did score a touchdown which bailed out his day but this is not what owners were looking for when they drafted him around the TE5-7 range. The D/ST remains one of the best options in fantasy.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – NFC West

Seattle Seahawks – Loss to Denver Broncos, 27-24 

Well, I’m in this portion of the article to take my loss on saying Russell Wilson was a “Sit” this week since he passed for over 300 yards and threw three touchdowns. I can’t even say I got Doug Baldwin right because he left due to injury so there’s no victory lap to be had. Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny both carried the ball seven times and Carson averaged 7.3 yards per rush while Penny averaged 1.1. That doesn’t make a lot of sense and Carson even averaged more yards per reception in the passing game, as they both saw five targets.

Brandon Marshall and Tyler Lockett both played roles in the passing game but Lockett made his day on a 51 yard touchdown while Marshall saw two more targets. Baldwin has an MCL strain so these two will be hot waiver wire targets for Week 2. Wilson can apparently get it done with any cast of characters, including some dude named Will Dissly, who led the team with 106 yards receiving. The backfield projects to the a headache and the receivers leave something to be desired right now.

San Francisco 49ers – Loss to Minnesota Vikings, 24-16

The 49ers really hung tough with the Vikings, who are one of the favorites in the NFC. The fantasy production wasn’t inspiring but that was kind of expected. It really hurt that Marquise Goodwin suffered a wrist injury and only saw one target. In his stead, George Kittle was the man in the passing game with nine targets and no other player saw more than six. Alfred Morris likely didn’t endear himself to coach Kyle Shanahan today with a fumble at the goal line and Matt Breida was more productive with one less carry.

Breida only saw two targets in the passing game which was a little surprising. Jimmy Garoppolo struggled against a great defense on the road and threw three interceptions but there’s better days ahead for him. Goodwin being healthy for Week 2 is a very important factor to keep an eye on. We didn’t learn an overwhelming amount about this offense yet so for now, everyone is kind of status quo. Kittle needs to be owned everywhere if he’s not already.

Arizona Cardinals – Loss to Washington Redskins, 24-6 

Well, this did not go well for the Cards. The biggest fear is there is a lack of talent in the skill positions past David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald and now there’s not an offensive mind like Bruce Arians on the sideline to help figure things out. Johnson wasn’t spectacular but he’s going to get all the work he can handle the rest of the year and he’s still an elite RB1. Fitzgerald is probably a PPR specialist with better games ahead if Sam Bradford can look halfway passable, unlike today. Even in a loss, not much changed the outlook from this game. Ricky Seals-Jones might be a steaming option at tight end but he’s reliant on Bradford being better as well.

Los Angeles Rams – TBD 

The Rams are one of the four teams to play tonight so keep an eye on how the targets are distributed through this crowded receiving corps.

Fantasy Football Takeaways – NFC South

New Orleans Saints – Loss vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 48-40

The bad news for real life football is the Saints lost and their defense looked pathetic. The good news(if you just have Saints players and not a Saints fan) is poor defense is going to lead to monster numbers for this offense. Look no further than this game, as Drew Brees completed 37/45 passes for over 400 yards and three touchdowns. Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas were the main cogs and while Kamara only saw eight carries, he caught nine passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.

If you drafted Kamara, that’s exactly what you want. There’s no need to load him up with 20 carries. Thomas did have some miscues but you can’t argue with the line of 16/180/1. If the Saints don’t get their act together on defense, this trio could legitimately finish as the highest ranked player at their respective positions this year.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Win vs New Orleans Saints, 48-40

If you had Ryan Fitzpatrick going for over 400 yards and five total touchdowns in New Orleans, raise your hand. Now put your hand right back down because you’re a liar. Maybe the Bucs weren’t lying when they said that suspended quarterback Jameis Winston wasn’t guaranteed his starting role back immediately. I whiffed on Mike Evans in DFS and he was a beast, catching all seven targets for 147 yards and a touchdown.

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Every Bucs receiver had his moment in the sun. Both DeSean Jackson and Chris Godwin had a touchdown but Jackson racked up 146 yards to go along with his score. I think both of those options are going to be volatile moving forward but the upside is clearly there. Peyton Barber looks like a flex option that will need touchdowns to pay off, much like we thought. The Bucs offense is clearly talented in the passing game and they put on a show but Evans remains the most trustworthy option here.

Carolina Panthers – Win vs Dallas Cowboys, 16-8

The major story is Greg Olsen was on the sidelines in a walking boot and crutches, so that’s definitely less than ideal. That should mean more targets for Devin Funchess and Christian McCaffrey. Funchess is definitely a flex style option at receiver while the usage for McCaffrey was frustrating at best. he averaged five yards a carry but only got 10 carries to seven for C.J. Anderson.

Someone is going to have to explain to me why the Panthers ran him to death in the preseason only to give him 10 carries once the games mattered. Cam Newton didn’t have the best day passing but made up for it on the ground. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before. Through one game, this offense is basically exactly what we thought it was.

Atlanta Falcons – Loss vs Philadelphia Eagles, 18-12 

It’s fashionable to take shots at Steve Sarkisian with the red zone struggles of this team once again. While he deserves some of it, how about some criticism of Matt Ryan in that area of the field? He had a terrible game, throwing ducks multiple times and was totally inaccurate throughout. He also missed Devonta Freeman for a touchdown and then couldn’t give Julio Jones a chance on two passes in the end zone. He threw it over his head once and then led him too far out-of-bounds on another. Tevin Coleman might already have a huge role.

Coleman and Freeman split almost evenly but Freeman has a knee issue that needs to be monitored. In the last piece of news, Julio Jones is a GROWN man. He terrorized the Eagles defense for 10 receptions and 169 yards and it should have been a lot more. Jones and Odell Beckham look like they shouldn’t have lasted into the end of the first rounds in drafts after the first week.

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