NFL Week 1 Fantasy Musings

There are a lot of storylines coming out of week 1.

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NFL Week 1 Fantasy Musings

NFL Week 1 Fantasy Musings
_Episode 33 of the Fantasy Sports Collective Podcast. This episode is our weekly discussion on fantasy stories as it…_share.transistor.fm

There are a lot of storylines coming out of week 1.

SF 49’ers — this team was impressive on the road in Pittsburgh. Their defense was lights out. WR Brandon Aiyuk, reportedly the MVP of their training camp, carried over the momentum into the season. A 30 point fantasy opening week plus an incredible pancake block on CMC’s 66 yard TD run. So who is the loser in targets with so many weapons? Hard to say 1 week in BUT the loser was anybody not named Aiyuk (8), Deebo (7), Kittle (6) or CMC (5).

Ravens — they looked like they always have. They win with defense and running the ball. The big news here is JK Dobbins tore his achilles, he’s out for the season. On paper this looks bad but Dobbins has only played in 24 games over his first 4 seasons, and only 9 over the last 3 years (8 last year and week 1). This team will run a committee with Justice Hill & Gus Edwards. Neither are better than RB2/3, more flex options. The positive surprise here was Zay Flowers who looked very good.

LA Rams — they struggled with weapons. Van Jefferson is simply not a competent receiver, dropping a huge open play. Puka Nukua looks good. He maybe the featured target guy while Kupp is out. At RB it appears Kyren Williams maybe in a full rotation with Cam Akers, with Williams having the more valuable short yardage & 3rd down role. He was in on 53 snaps vs. only 29 for Akers. However Stafford does NOT check down the RB’s (Williams had 2 targets; no catches) so Akers out touched Williams.

Philadephia Eagles — Let’s talk RB. We didn’t know what the breakdown was going to be. Possibly we shouldn’t read too much into this given the Pats have such a dominant defense but Gainwell got 18 touches (4 receptions) vs. Scott (2), Swift (3) and Rashard penny (0). Gainwell was productive. My gut says we’ll hear from all these guys this season but it’s safe to drop Scott and Penny now.

Cowboys / Giants game — are the Giants terrible or the Cowboys a championship favorite and world beater? I tend to think there will be regression to the mean. The Giants aren’t that bad, if you remove the pick 6, and they find some rhthym it’s still a loss but not this extreme. The Giants just need to find some chemistry.

As for the Cowboys, they won’t be this great. What did we learn? Tony Pollard maybe ready to have a huge fantasy league. He had a highly efficient 2 TD outing.

Tennessee Titans — they lost but the RB rotation was a surprise. Spears out snapped Henry 34 to 30, and is the clear 3rd down back (12 snaps by themselves). In a normal game script (Titans leading) Henry likely would have out snapped Spears but this was a surprising development. Spears should be owned in almost every format.

Lastly is Tyreek Hill is the best receiver in the NFL right now. Justin Jefferson is great but Hill is a biggest differentiator at the receiver position.

Here’s to a great, injury free, week 2 ahead. Cheers!

NOTE: The podcast was recorded during halftime of MNF so it didn’t have the Aaron Rodgers injury news.