Fantasy has no middle ground, no moral victories (especially not for injuries) and no predictability. You are either walking on a cloud or dying a death of 1000 wounds, but either way you are living! Fantasy Football is probably taken too seriously but if you aren’t in it to win, you are essentially just giving away money so have some self-respect. With that being said, here are a couple takeaways from Week 1.
1. Matchups aren’t over until Monday Nighter(s) are over
Just ask AJ Brown, Saquon Barkley or James Conner owners. In one matchup I went up against all three with a 27 point lead and won. How? I have no idea but I won by 0.2 so my opponent demanded a recount. It was nice to be on this side of the coin for a change, as I have been on the losing end of Monday Nighters more often than I can count, but that may just be self-serving bias. Regardless, before getting tilted on Sunday night, it is important remember that in the immortal words of Kevin Garnett:
2. Inuries happen
If you’re roster is already depleted welcome to Fantasy. If you’re roster is being exposed because of a Michael Thomas injury then that’s what you get for drafting a Wide Receiver in the first round. Not trying to make light of Thomas’ injury, you hate to see it, but this is a part of fantasy so you probably should’ve planned for this by drafting some depth. If you didn’t, #3 will help.
3. Week 1 Waiver Wire is the most important one of the year
If your league uses a Free Agency Acquisition Budget (FAAB) then you know what I am talking about. Week 1 is always the highest spending week by far, it is the ultimate double edged sword because it can either save your season or propel you further into the abyss. League winning players are often picked up off the waiver wire in Week 1 but it will come at a cost. It is not uncommon to see a team drop 60% or more of their budget in Week 1.
4. Continuity is king early on
This was very apparent in the Saints vs Buccaneers game. Obviously you can go across the league to see this trend, but these were two teams that are expected to compete for the NFC South Division as well as the Super Bowl and this game wasn’t even close. The good news is that teams will work out the kinks and get on track. With no pre-season it was hard to get a real grasp on what some of these new look offenses would be, but a slow start out of the gate was to be expected so no need to sound the alarm just yet.
5. Gardiner Minshew is everything we wanted Baker Mayfield to be
This man is directly responsible for roughly 40% of lost Survivor pool picks, including mine. Minshew seems to be constantly overlooked in the Fantasy Football realm. This season he is finally given full control of the team and he comes out with a 19/20 for 173/3/0 (yards/TDs/INTs). He is most certainly bound to regress to the mean, but if the Jaguars decided to unleash him, he is more than capable of handling the workload after his time at Washington State. All of this is ignoring the fact that he is easily one of the most entertaining players off the field. He calls himself Gardiner Minsher the 2nd and his dad’s name is Flint! This guy loves life, loves football, and loves that his life is about playing football.
BONUS
Since there was a lot to take in this week, here are a couple other takeaways from Week 1
6. The Kyler Murray/DeAndre Hopkins stack will be the most productive in the NFL (health nonwithstanding)
7. Russ is cooking, just pray he does not repeat last year’s hibernation in the second half of the season
8. Legends never die, just ask Adrian Peterson
9. Is Dak more important than his Offensive Line?
10. People who are already proclaiming Bill the winner against Brady should pump the brakes
As my close this out, I will leave you with one tip, take a deep breath and don’t get tilted. Chip away over the next 12 weeks, because throwing up a Hail Mary in Week 1 is often how you end up in the loser bowl.