Week 1 DFS Picks: Core Players and Best Plays

Since it is Week 1, a refresher on what these DFS articles will entail.

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

Week 1 DFS Content:

Our core players are the ones we will have the most exposure to at their respective positions.

They can be played in cash games and tournaments.

Week 1 is always a unique week for NFL DFS.

We have a clean slate for teams.

Players and coaches have changed teams.

What was yesterday is not today, and we have yet to build up a sample on the 2025 season.

The other factor at play is that DFS player pricing was set several weeks ago, as opposed to the several days it will be adjusted moving forward.

With the pricing being released so early, we have a plethora of options that have softer pricing compared to a normal week.

Every Week 1 almost always has too many plays.

I usually put less in play during Week 1, but even if you do not, focus on keeping a tight core that you will roster more than the market and then build out your tournament plays around those players.

I will have some analysis on the player selections and game writeups, but check out the Week 1 Worksheet for a fully detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

Jayden Daniels ($8,500 FanDuel/$7,000 DraftKings)

Daniels finds himself as the lone Tier 1 quarterback in the player pool for the main slate on Sunday.

Jalen Hurts already played on Thursday.

Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen face off on Sunday Night (which is no longer a part of the FanDuel main slate this year).

By default, Daniels finds himself as the top profile we look to spend up for.

With the softer pricing in Week 1, it is not hard to get him into lineups at his salary.

In his complete games played (including the postseason), Daniels averaged 23.3 fantasy points per game as a rookie.

He became only the eighth quarterback to have over 700 rushing yards and still have 25 or more passing touchdowns in a season.

None of the other seasons were by a rookie quarterback.

The Giants did what they could against Daniels during his rookie season.

In his two starts against them, Daniels finished as QB15 (13.4 points) and QB9 (19.9 points).

Daniels may not have broken the bank in terms of fantasy points in those outings, but he did complete 74.5% of his passes for 8.5 yards per pass attempt.

Trevor Lawrence ($7,000/$5,300)

Jacksonville hopes to turn things around and spark Lawrence under a new regime led by Liam Coen as head coach.

The short and quick area passing game is going to rise for Lawrence under Coen.

We saw evidence of this during the preseason.

Lawrence only averaged 5.6 air yards per attempt.

This environment could be one of the better shootout potential games of Week 1.

Both teams have made changes defensively in terms of personnel, but these were two of the defensive units that had a lot of work to do coming off historically awful 2024 seasons.

Carolina was dead last in the NFL in pressure rate (25.4%) last season and was taken advantage of through the air.

The Panthers allowed passers to complete 67.9% of their passes (29th) for 7.6 yards per attempt (28th) and a league-worst 6.6% touchdown rate.

They allowed 16.7 passing points per game, 31st in the league.

The Panthers retained defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero this offseason.

Under Evero, Carolina played man coverage at a rate of only 19.5% (26th) and ran Cover 3 at the third-highest rate in the league (48.3%).

Even with his struggles last year, Lawrence performed well against Cover 3, completing 73.4% of his passes (7th) for 9.2 yards per attempt (6th).

Coen also comes with familiarity against Evero’s scheme, since he faced them twice a year ago, scoring 48 and 26 points against them.

Running Back