Self-criticism can be healthy, it can be psychologically destructive or it can be a core tenet of Maoist theory. This is not a Maoist column, so we will assume it is not that.
Instead, we’re just going to take a look at some of the fantasy football developments from the first week of NFL football and decide if I had any idea what I was talking about. Some of it, like my suggestion that you aim for Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs or Amon-Ra St. Brown in round one and go for Derrick Henry in round two, very much worked out. The rest of the hits won’t be covered here, since we live in an economy of negativity (I’m kidding) (kind of). It’s time for self-criticism: the fantasy football variety!
Was late-round QB really the way?
My passion project coming into the season was to get you to buy into the fact that late-round QB was absolutely positively unequivocally the way to go this fantasy season. And that was … kind of true in Week 1.
Caleb Williams was out of this world, Trevor Lawrence was great, as were Brock Purdy and Jordan Love and even Bryce Young (I don’t think he was really on the QB1 radar, though). But some of my other late-round favorites weren’t quite so successful, particularly Justin Herbert, who struggled against the Arizona Cardinals to much confusion and consternation.
Meanwhile, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (two players I faded) were great, and Josh Allen looked worth the third-round pick he was costing managers. He just won’t stop rushing for touchdowns, the secret sauce of fantasy football quarterbacks when running is worth more than passing. He’s just such a hard player to price preseason, but seeing it live … man, he’s really good.
I still think late-round QB will pay off for those that did it, especially if you managed to get some value in the fourth and fifth rounds and like the guys you got in those spots. It’s just one week, so we can’t go abandoning our laurels immediately.
The Trey McBride Corollary
I can’t sit here and victory lap for my “wait on TE” take because Brock Bowers is missing time with a surprising knee surgery; I did not know about that, nobody did. But Trey McBride proved, once again, that he isn’t really a tight end: he’s just a number one wide receiver who you can play in fantasy at a different position. Some did great, like Isaiah Likely, but my preferred late-round TEs Sam LaPorta, Tucker Kraft and Harold Fannin Jr., though, did not exactly inspire.
McBride is just a special case. His usage is out of control amazing for fantasy, and if Jacoby Brissett really is going to start the whole year? You can book 10+ targets a game like it’s nothing.
But not all highly drafted TEs did well; man did everyone who started Colston Loveland feel the pain of not getting a single catch out of 500+ yards of offense. Kyle Pitts, one of fantasy football’s great artists, did what I can only describe as a comedy routine by getting 0.0 points in Week 1. Just incredible work.
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