Fantasy Football 2018: NFC East Week 1 Once-Over

GLENDALE, AZ – SEPTEMBER 9: Quarterback Alex Smith #11 of the Washington Redskins hands the ball off to running back Adrian Peterson #26 during the second quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on September 9, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football 2018: NFC East Week 1 Once-Over

Now that the dust has settled let’s take a little time for a Fantasy Football 2018: NFC East Week 1 Once-Over. This article comes from my personal notes after watching each team’s games with NFL Game Pass and via stats I accumulated using sites such as pfr.com, rotowire.com and fftoday.com. This division is chock full of fantasy relevant studs and potential duds. Here’s what I learned Week 1.

Redskins:

Adrian Peterson ran well. He looked better in Week 1 than he did last year. He looks fast and strong on film. Redskins fans everywhere have their fingers crossed.
AP had the ball in his hands on 67% of the 42 snaps he was on the field. 28 touches, 166 yards and 1 TD
The Redskins 182 rushing yards leads the NFL.
Alex Smith looked confident and sharp–quick too. He could add an extra 30 yards (3 points) any given week running with the football.
He targeted Chris Thompson (7), Paul Richardson (6) and Jordan Reed (5) the most despite Josh Doctson playing the more snaps than any other Redskin skill player.
Chris Thompson looks back to form–this offense will keep him and Jordan Reed busy all year-long if they remain available.
Neither Rob Kelley or Samaje Perine should be on anyone but the Redskins bench. They won’t do what AP did if given the same opportunity. Feel free to drop them everywhere.
Vernon Davis out-snapped Jordan Reed 47 to 41. This could be the Redskins attempt at minimizing risk of Reed sustaining another injury. The offense needs a healthy Reed to be dynamic.

Eagles:

Jay Ajayi looks like he’s back in fighting shape. He looks faster this year. His 15 carries for 62 yards were enough for a 4.1 yards per carry average.
Ajayi did most of his damage when the team was farthest from the 1st down marker. Rushing 6 times on down and 10 or more yards to go for 30 yards, Ajayi averaged 5 yards per carry.
Darren Sproles and Ajayi were on the field for 29 snaps each–13 snaps for Clement.
There is no clear-cut red zone RB in Philly–Sproles led with 3 RZ touches–Ajayi and Clement had 2.
Corey Clement is a must-add handcuff. The Eagles are going to run the ball a lot this year–If Ajayi gets banged up–Clement will get a lot of opportunity behind an elite offensive line.
Nick Foles favored Nelson Aghlolor week 1, peppering him with 10 targets–Agholor hauled in 8 for just 33 yards. Agholor’s 4.1 yards per reception matched Ajayi’s 4.1 yards per rush. Agholor scored the fewest points out of any receiver with at least 8 catches in week 1.
DeAndre Carter is the Eagle WR3 until Alshon Jeffery returns–He was on the field for 53 offensive snaps. Shelton Gibson and freshly released Marcus Wheaton combined for 6 total snaps. Wheaton’s release made room for the Birds to sign WR Kamar Aiken.

Cowboys:

Cole Beasley was Dak’s go-to with 8 targets.

29-year-old journeyman

Deonte Thompson

who’s played for the Ravens, Bills, Bears, Bills again and now Cowboys was 2nd in targets with 5. Ezekial Elliot and

Allen Hurns

garnered 4 and 3 targets each.

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Rookie, 3rd round draft pick Michael Gallup was the Cowboys WR4– snap count wise. Gallup made the most of his 1 target with a 9 yard reception.

TE, Geoff Swaim was 2nd in offensive snaps behind only Zeke. Swaim was on the field for 91% of Cowboy offensive plays compared to TE Blake Jarwin who was on the field for 34% of plays.

Swaim was targeted 4 times compared to 1 for Jarwin– Jarwin went catchless. Swaim hauled in 3 for 18 yards.

Ezekiel Elliot was on the field more than any other Cowboy skill player. He did what he could on his 15 attempts, averaging 4.6 yards per carry and adding a score.

Dak Prescott was 19 of 29 for 170 yards. That’s 8.9 yards per completion or 5.8 yards per attempt.

Cowboys fans on team blogs and reddit.com are not happy with the team’s handling of Prescott. After watching game film, he looks like they have a leash on his decision-making.

Prescott doesn’t use his legs or push the ball down the field nearly enough. Prescott completed just 1 of 4 passes that traveled 15 yards or more in the air. 16 of his 19 completions traveled under 10 yards, 5 of which were at or behind the LOS.

Giants:

Rookie phenom Saquon Barkley carried the ball 18 times for 106 yards and an electrifying 68 yards score. Take the 68 yard run away and the Jags bottled Barkley up to the tune of 17 carries for 38 yards–2.2 yards per carry.
Odell Beckham Jr. looked 100% in his return–leading all Giants skill players by being on the field for 96% of the team’s offensive plays.
OBJ led the team with 15 targets–he caught 11 for 111 yards.
Eli Manning only targeted 1 other Giant WR–He looked Sterling Shephard’s way 7 times.
TE Evan Engram was 2nd in offensive snaps–he was on the field for 90% of Giant offensive plays. Engram was 4th on the team in targets with 5–Barkley had 6.
Eli Manning went 23 of 37 for 224 yards. Manning, when given time did a nice job of spreading the ball around. 8 of his completions were to the right, 5 up the middle and 10 were to the left.
Erick Flowers is a major liability at RT. Profootballfocus.com rated his week 1 performance a 38.4–LA Rams, Rob Havenstein was the highest rated RT at 83.4.
The Giants entire 0-line graded out poorly minus the lone bright spot–Center Jon Halapio received a very respectable 85.2 grade.
Barkley owners, it might be a long season for the former Whitehall Zephyr highschool standout. The kid’s going to need to have more 68 yarders in the tank to be valuable with the line he’s running behind.

Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest DFS news and Fantasy Football analysis all season long!