Week 1 Recap

Sep 11, 2017

With Week 1 in the books, we can all be thankful that daily fantasy sports have come back into our lives. If you’re one of the many David Johnson owners who just watched your first round pick go down for an extended amount of time, you’re stuck looking at a tough road ahead. DFS gives us all a chance to move on and start fresh the next week. Whether you had a great Week 1 or a terrible one, the next lineup is always ready to be set. But before we move forward with recommendations for Week 2, let’s check in with our Week 1 targets.

Carson Wentz

Carson was a standout on Sunday against WAS and put together a very respectable 23.88 points in DraftKings, more than quadrupling his price. He was a great place to start building a team and helped lots of people finish in the money. Moving forward he’s someone to watch, as he looked poised in the pocket and seemed to really click with Nelson Agholor operating in Jordan Matthews’ old slot position, and continuing to lean on Zach Ertz. If Wentz can stay consistent with his mechanics and decision making he has the physical tools to be a top QB.

Cam Newton

Cam still seemed to be in recovery from his rotator cuff surgery, but was effective in his game against the 49ers. His line doesn’t pop on paper, but this was a game that Carolina did enough to win and move on. He did have a nice deep connection with Russell Shepard on a 40 yard TD, but overall looked a bit rusty. It was also tough to judge whether Newton’s lack of rushing numbers is indicative of a more cautious approach by Cam or just a bit of self preservation to protect his shoulder; either way this is a situation worth watching closely as we might be entering a phase of his career where the rushing numbers aren’t going to be there moving forward.

Larry Fitzgerald

Fitz certainly didn’t live up to the lofty expectations that many had for him heading into the day, especially given his nice match up with Quandre Diggs that everyone was looking to exploit. He did, however, lead the team in targets (13) on a day where Carson Palmer looked every bit his age and the Cards lost their top offensive weapon in the first half. While the volume was nice, he wasn’t able to do much with it and finished the day with 6 catches and 74 yards. Not a disaster, but not the line most DFS players were hoping for.

Sterling Shepard

It was a tough game for the Giants’ offense without Odell Beckham Jr. to pull coverage and stretch the field, but it looked like Shepard was going to be a busy man, especially right after the half. After being shut out in the first half, NY mounted a drive and Shepard was targeted 5 times during it. Unfortunately, he was a non-factor in the game after that. His low price helped offset his lack of production and his final line of 7 catches for 44 yards was still helpful in DFS games as he was able almost triple up his DraftKings price. Moving forward, the Giants offense is something to avoid outside of OBJ, as they have not scored more than 19 points since Week 12 of last year.

LeSean McCoy

A lot of people had to choose between Bell, Johnson, and McCoy as their high end RB play of the week. We recommended McCoy because of his great matchup against the Jets and opportunity for significant volume. McCoy had a solid day and out performed Bell and Johnson. McCoy would have a had a huge day if it wasn’t for getting a TD vultured from the 1 yard line by Tolbert after McCoy tweaked his hand on the previous play.

Alvin Kamara

Another tantalizing talent that came cheap, Kamara seemed to have a nice role carved out for himself in an New Orleans offense that was missing starting slot receiver Willie Snead due to a suspension and traded away Brandin Cooks to New England. Unfortunately, the NO offense seemed lost most of the game against the Vikings Monday night and it seemed like they especially were struggling with how to utilize their three backs, Adrian Peterson, Mark Ingram, and Kamara. Despite that, I liked the usage I saw out of Kamara and think he’s still a player that will be a big factor this year, both in regular fantasy and DFS formats.

Zach Ertz

The Ertz and Wentz stack was by far the best call of the week from our Week 1 targets. Ertz had 8 catches on 8 targets for 93 yards and was a big part of Wentz’ day. He continues to show a very nice chemistry with Wentz and has already seen a big increase in price in daily formats. This might be the year that Ertz finally breaks out and enters the top tier of TEs.

Overall, not a bad first week, with Wentz, Ertz, McCoy, Shepard performing well, Fitzgerald a push, and Cam and being the only guy that hurt your lineup. We’ll see you again soon for Week 2.

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