The Athletic has live fantasy football lineup advice, rankings, injury news and projections ahead of Week 2.
And we are off and running!!
The last two weeks have been a blur for me, personally, drafting multiple teams daily and flying out to Vegas for an unbelievable five days of live drafts and then having the season kick off and the madness that Week 1 presented to us. Deep breath. Settle in for a long bumpy, unpredictable ride this season!
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Week 1 got off to a pretty slow start in the scoring department, as I’m sure most of your league totals will tell you. The defenses are clearly ahead of the offenses out of the gate and that seems to be a trend early on. We have the quarterbacks to blame, as most of the top ones came out flat and — other than Tua Tagovailoa — no other QB who was ranked in the Top 12 threw more than two TDs.
Elite tight ends also extended their Labor Day vacation and took Week 1 off, as all of the big name tight ends we drafted in the Top 100 for the supposed “edge” failed to deliver — especially with us losing Kelce and Andrews leading up to their first games. All these things added up to a low scoring week one and we won’t even begin to discuss what exactly Joe Burrow and the Bengals did in Cleveland. OUCH.
Week 1 also saw two major injuries, as J.K Dobbins and Aaron Rodgers were lost for the season. You may say, “well, hey, Rodgers wasn’t even a QB1 for fantasy this year,” and you would be right — but you also have to remember the reason why losing him is so harsh — the last few weeks of drafts we were taking Garrett Wilson in the first round because of his attachment to Rodgers. Wilson takes a huge hit to his season outlook and hopes we had for him being a possible overall Top 5 fantasy receiver.
Diontae Johnson was another big loss, as it looks like we won’t have him in our lineups until after the Steelers’ Week 6 bye. Another tough blow. If Calvin Austin is still sitting on your wire, go pick him up. The kid is super fast and has a really good chance over the next month to be a target monster in the Steelers offense.
Did that Bijan Robinson TD catch where he juked the defender and ran over two more not get your attention?
Bijan Robinson’s first NFL touchdown: pic.twitter.com/uKbSplNzCc
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 10, 2023
What a way to say “I’ve arrived” in your NFL debut! The kid is going to be a superstar in no time and was one of my main targets in drafts this season. We are all in on Bijan, but I’d be lying if I told you the amount of touches Tyler Allgeier got (and the role he played) wasn’t a little scary for my liking. Allgeier is a solid back and will factor in all year — and those touches in the red zone might be infuriating to us Bijan managers — but they don’t want to put the entire load on his shoulders and Bijan will get enough touches every week to fill up the box score. But Allgeier has wiggled his way into the RB2 weekly discussion. My draft plan was to make sure I walked away from every draft with one of Bijan Robinson, Saquon Barkley, Nick Chubb, or Tony Pollard as my RB1/bell-cow in the early second round — whoever fell to me after starting off Round 1 with one of the elite 8 wide receivers. I know this doesn’t mean much to you now, but a lot of you ask me who I am in on heavy this year and if you look across all my teams you will find one of these running backs on it more than 90% of the time. Having one of these running backs in late Round 1/early Round 2 allowed me to then attack the receiver position in the mid rounds, along with a Top 8 QB, and then come back and grab a few running backs in Rounds 6-8.
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But enough about me…
Here are five (six?) players who jumped out to me opening week — you should either be happy you have them rostered or should try and trade for/pick up off waivers:
- Jakobi Meyers: 10 targets, 9/81/2 TD! First off, scary hit that eventually knocked him out of the game and into concussion protocol and hopefully he has a speedy recovery. I think he misses a game or two but for a receiver you could have gotten after the 100th pick in the draft, Jimmy G was locked in on him and fits his game perfectly. 100 catch season incoming for Meyers in this offense. Draft day steal.
- Kyren Williams: He just looks like the better back. Finally healthy this season and with Akers’ track record I won’t be surprised to see a full takeover real soon in the Rams backfield.
- Luke Musgrave/Hayden Hurst: Yep, lumping these two together. A rookie and a vet. Go get both of them, Musgrave played a high percentage of snaps and looked like a future star at the position right out of the gate. The numbers would have been better if not for a few overthrows by Love. Hurst is going to be that trusty 5-for-60 every-week blanket for Bryce Young. These two tight ends are going to be the answer for waiting on the position this season. Both Top 12 tight ends.
- Joshua Kelley: OK, this one is cheating a little because of the Ekeler ankle injury this week, but Kelley is my most-rostered late round pick and part of it is because Ekeler was a full fade for me in Round 1 — and if I’m out on him then a reasonable pick to make in the late rounds was on his backup, who looked great in preseason and had the No. 2 role locked up to himself. Plus, the starting back is not someone the team wants to give 20+ carries or goal line attempts to. I felt Kelley had standalone value, even if Ekeler stayed healthy all season. I’ll take 15 for 90 and a TD every week, please and thank you.
- Zay Flowers: OMG… my friends, we have the next great fantasy receiver. I don’t know if I can control my excitement for what’s possibly to come for Flowers this season but I do know that I’m heavily invested in him and watching him every Sunday is going to be a weekly treat for me… and hopefully you, as well. The hype is real and all those camp reports of how nobody could stay with him sure looked like the truth Week 1.
Survivor pick
We advanced Week 1 with Washington, and my official pick here is Dallas. We can also use Buffalo. There’s a much deeper dive into weekly survivor picks here from my friend Renee Miler (and Adam Gretz).
Bets of the week
Going to give my Top 3 plays every week here…
Back to fantasy
Really fun Week 2 schedule ahead of us, kicking off with what we hope is the beginning of a higher scoring week, as the Vikings’ defense-optional approach invades Philly. Have to think this is a prime bounce back spot for Hurts and the Eagles offense at home, and I look for the squeaky wheel Dallas Goedert, who was nowhere to be found in Week 1, to get his season going in this one. James Bradberry will miss this game for the Eagles and as if Justin Jefferson needed any extra help, now he and the Viking passing game have a little more of a window to put up some big numbers, hopefully playing from behind. If all breaks right in this game, it could be one of those high-scoring fantasy dream games. Fingers crossed. Philly 38-28
The other game I’m looking forward to is the Chiefs/Jags game on Sunday, with firepower galore on the field. Travis Kelce looks like he’ll be back for this one and we can maybe get treated to a back and forth shootout between the kings of the AFC mountain (Chiefs) and a new up and coming contender in the Jags. The Jags have one of these offenses that look like they should be able to hang 30+ points on you every week and I love what I saw out of Travis Etienne in Week 1, both rushing and receiving. Let’s see if that continues because in this offense we could be looking at a top 5 fantasy RB this year. Also, Zay Jones > Christian Kirk in this offense. Jags show they are for real and put the AFC champs on notice, 34-31.
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The perfect Week 2 fantasy team
QB: Josh Allen. Loved how he took full ownership for the loss Monday. Bounceback spot home opener.
RB1: Derrick Henry. King Henry does what he does early season vs this Charger run D.
RB2: David Montgomery. I think we have a lifeless Seattle team and Monty runs all over them. 20/110/2 TDs
WR1: Keenan Allen. Him and Herbert light up this Titan secondary. Mike Williams scores, too.
WR2 Deebo Samuel. I hope it’s my boy Aiyuk again personally but Deebo always owns the rams.
Wr3: Ja’Marr Chase. Either he or Tee Higgins, if not both, are going to light up this Raven secondary. Joey B has to be angry and the Ravens are the ones going to pay.
TE1: Dallas Goedert. Think he’s dropping a 6/85/TD vs. this Vikings defense.
Finally, as we head into Week 2…
10 thoughts I have about well everything and anything
(Top photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images; Garfield gif via GIPHY)
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