As the NFL season begins, so does the fantasy football season. Here are some tricks, tips, and overall fantasy advice to help you win your league.
Week One of the NFL season had some surprising outcomes, with top players not performing to the best of their abilities. Many star tight ends struggled, such as Travis Kelce (6.4pts), Mark Andrews (3.4pts), Sam LaPorta (8.5pts), Evan Engram (1.5pts), George Kittle (8.0 pts), Trey McBride (8.0pts), and Dalton Kincaid (2.1pts).
Even though many players did not have strong performances in Week One, they are all hopeful to return to their usual results except for the Baltimore Ravens’ tight end, Andrews, who was out performed by his teammate Isaiah Likely. This is threatening to Andrews’ stock and may continue happening throughout this season.
Furthermore, there were many other high draft picks that performed poorly on Sunday. These players include Amon-Ra St. Brown (4.3 points), Marvin Harrison, Jr. (1.4 points), Chris Olave (3.1 points), Drake London (3.5 points), and Brandon Aiyuk (4.8 points). Similar to Andrews, Olave and London are not projected to perform well for the rest of the year.
“I really needed St. Brown and Kelce to do well this week, but they let me down and caused my teams to not perform as well as they should have. I do believe that these players will step up and help me win matchups later on this year,” said junior Zach Nash.
On the other hand, there were many players that started strong and outperformed expectations. Some of these players include J.K. Dobbins (22.9 points), Isaiah Likely (26.1 points), Jayden Reed (33.1pts), Cooper Kupp (32.0 points), Jordan Mason (22.2 points), Joe Mixon (26.8 points), Jaden Daniels (28.16 points), Jameson Williams (24.4 points), and Baker Mayfield (29.66 points).
“Jayden Reed was surprisingly good Week One, but I do not think this will continue because of the fact that he only has four receptions which is not a good amount of volume, and now that Jordan Love is hurt he won’t be getting enough targets to be a good fantasy wide receiver,” said freshman Nathan Schiffer.
Going into drafts this season, some of the top fantasy players were Christian McCaffrey, Tyreek Hill, Ceedee Lamb, Breece Hall, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Bijan Robinson, Ja’marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, and Garrett Wilson. Some of them had disappointing weeks, such as Cedee Lamb (13.6pts), Ja’marr Chase (12.2pts), Garrett Wilson (12.0pts), Jonathan Taylor (10.8pts), and Amon-Ra S.t Brown (4.3pts).
There are many players projected to have great seasons, but still on the waiver wire in many leagues, including Likely, Dobbins, Jordan Mason, Allen Lazard, Rashid Shaheed, Khail Shakir, Wan’Dale Robinson, Greg Dortch, Alexander Mattison, and Justice Hill. These players will continue to shine with the current situation they are in. If you are able to pick up these guys in the waiver wire, they could become league winners later on in the season.
“I picked up Isaiah Likely in fantasy this week because of his stellar week against the Chiefs, who have a really good defense,” said freshman Drew Engel.
During drafts, there was a group of players whose average draft position (ADP) was a lot higher than it should have been. In their current situations, these players will underperform this season.
The first player is Amari Cooper, whose quarterback is the struggling Deshaun Watson. Because of the Browns’ lack of receiver talent outside of Cooper, he will be covered by opposing teams’ best cornerbacks and won’t be able to find much success.
Next is the Atlanta Falcons’ Kyle Pitts and Pittsburgh Steelers’ Najee Harris, who have disappointed and underperformed in the past few years. Both teams have players in their offenses who will take away usage from them. For the Falcons, Bijan Robinson will be extremely active in the passing game. The Steelers’ Jaylen Warren will also take carries and targets from Harris.
However, there are many consistent players such as Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara, and Mike Evans. In previous years, Barkley and Kamara were the undisputed starting running backs on their team. Even though these players have had below average offensive lines, they have put up outstanding numbers to solidify themselves as being among the most consistent running backs in the league. Mike Evans is one of the most consistent receivers in the league by coming into the 2024-25 season nine consecutive 1,000 yard seasons; one short of tying the NFL record for consecutive seasons with 1,000 receiving yards.