Expensive Disappointments
Well, what a week 1 we had. I've said it before in these writeups, but NFL success and fantasy success don't always go hand in hand. There are terrible NFL players that are pretty nice for scoring fantasy points (Justin Fields) and amazing NFL players who just don't translate to fantasy (Kyle Juszczyk).
This week though, things were mostly in lock step. The most expensive QBs in the league were all very expensive fantasy investments, and were all similarly bad in week 1.
- Joe Burrow
- $55M/year
- 84 yards passing, 0TD
- Lost 24-3
- Fantasy draft: Round 4
- Justin Herbert
- $52.5M/year
- 229 yards, 1 TD
- Lost 36-34
- Fantasy Draft: Round 6
- Lamar Jackson
- $52M/year
- 169 yards passing, 0TD/1INT
- Fantasy Draft: Round 3
- Jalen Hurts
- $51M/year
- 170 yards passing, 1TD
- Fantasy Draft: Round 5
- Aaron Rodgers
- $50.3M/year
- RIP dude. It was a great career
I remember writing last season that every single team to make the semifinals had a top 5 QB, so it's way too early to call these bad draft picks, but if you counted on any of these superstars (or the underpaid Josh Allen) carrying you through week 1 you had a rough time.
Matchups
Kuppheads 94.85 vs Ja'Mario Kart 120.70
CMC put up 30 points dominating the Steelers but that wasn't nearly enough for Kuppheads in this matchup, as Aaron Jones nearly kept pace in the Packers route of the Bears.
Kuppheads were let down by Dak, who simply didn't need to do anything in the Cowboys 40-0 crushing of the Giants, and Drake London, who apparently plays on a team that's no longer interested in passing the ball. Ja'Mario picked the better sophmore WR, getting a solid 112 yard game from Chris Olave.
Ja'Mario survives down week 1's from Ja'Marr Chase and George Kittle with 32 combined K/DST points.
I talked about this in slack already, but this was a devastating week for Kuppheads (me) losing Dobbins, Kupp, and Garret Wilson's season long upside as he's now saddled with Zach Wilson the rest of the year.
TJ Hock’s Pro Skater 97.95 vs B ROB1NSZN^2 161.65
Week 1 was overall very weak in total points, unless you happen to be B ROB1NSZN, who absolutely torched Pro Skater. Tyreek Hill scored an unbelievable 45 points, and Robinson could have benched him and still come out ahead in this matchup.
From his namesake RB to his kicker to WRs, almost everyone showed up big.
On the other side of the ball, there's really nothing Pro Skater could have done to position themselves better, scoring a total of just 3 points on their bench. Sometimes you make all the right start/sit decisions and it just doesn't matter.
Diggs Dug 108.30 vs DK King of Swing 85.35
RBs? meh. WRs? alright, nothing to cheer about. QB? bad. None of that mattered to Diggs Dug when they got 37 points from the Dallas Defense. This team underperformed at most of their other positions but ends up with a comfortable 20+ point win.
DK just had an overall lackluster week from their squad. Only two players met projections, and they did so just barely, beating their projected scores by less than 1 point each. With 0 bench players breaking the 10 point mark there were no better decisions to make here, some weeks an insane special teams performance takes the win away from you.
Praise the Sun 99.05 vs Lockett League 123.60
Oof. One week after writing about this being the best rivalry in the league, Praise the Sun loses in painful fashion. Losing Kelce in the 2 days between draft and kickoff, benching the QB1 in Tua, and watching Lockett League rack up 21 kicker points for a 24 point loss.
If Praise the Sun had the bravery to start both Tua and Tyler Algiere he still could have won this matchup but alas.
Aside from his kicker, Lockett was lifted by the return of former gambler Calvin Ridley, who is somehow still on his rookie contract.
Allen Wake 100.20 vs Bass Hunter 64 100.10
Wow wow wow. How are we not talking more about this matchup? Allen Wake had an extremely comfortable lead through the Sunday games thanks to great WR performances from Justin Jefferson and Michael Pittman Jr. only to have things tighten to a crazy degree on Monday night.
In a game where the Jets lost their QB for the season, the defense showed up and prevented Josh Allen from doing anything except getting in range for field goals. The result: Buffalo's kicker outscores his own superstar qb by 2 points to bring Bass Hunter all the back to...a 0.1 point loss.
I highly doubt we'll have a closer matchup all season, and I hope at least some of you watched MNF with these two in mind.
Pollard's Gate III 106.80 vs momo 70.75
Finally, we have our lowest scoring matchup of the week, largely thanks to momo's squad. When Burrow throws for sub 100 yards you know it's going to be a rough week for his pass catchers, but a 0 from Higgins is still quite surprising. Adding to the misery was Mark Andrews being unready to go in week 1, and momo being unable to get any more points out of Chig than his injured star TE.
Pollard's Gate easily overcame Joe Burrow's disaster game thanks to his namesake RB, as well as the shockingly great game the Jets defense pitched against Buffalo. I would have never started this defense in week 1 but now they look like an every week play.
Shameful Benching of the Week
Praise the Sun: Tua. With 466 yards and 3 TDs, Tua diced up the Chargers defense in their high scoring shootout. This is actually the only team on the week who had a meaningful chance to win their matchup with start sit decisions.
Pickup of the Week
B ROB1NSZN^2 : Sam LaPorta. There was very little pre-season waiver action as we drafted just 2 days before the season kickoff, but LaPorta looked the part in his first ever game catching 5 passes from Goff. There's rookie breakout potential here in a landscape of mostly worthless TEs
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