Browns vs. Bengals Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 1

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 1 matchup between the Browns and Bengals.

Find a breakdown of every Week 1 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Joe Burrow: Burrow did his best to carry the Bengals and a lackluster defense last season, leading the NFL in completions (460), attempts (652), passing yards (4,918), and passing touchdowns (43).

While all the counting stats were impressive and inflated by the frequent shootouts Cincinnati was involved in, Burrow made some significant underlying strides.

His 1.4% interception rate was his lowest since his rookie season.

He had a career-low 6.7% inaccuracy rate on his throws.

Although it was still right on the league average, Burrow was sacked on 20.8% of his pressures (18th), a career low.

Sack avoidance has been his longest ongoing bugaboo on an otherwise clean resume, but getting to the league’s base rate is a considerable development.

He has improved in that department in each of the past three seasons.

Last season, the Bengals scored a touchdown on 36% of their drives without a sack (5th) compared to 9.5% with a sack (17th).

Burrow did run hot in the touchdown department, especially at the end of the season.

He threw 11.6 touchdowns over expectations, which was the third-most in the league.

His 6.6% touchdown rate was a career high.

He threw 3 or more touchdown passes in each of the final eight games of the fantasy regular season.

In the history of the NFL, there has only been one longer streak with 3 or more touchdown passes, which was Tom Brady in 2007.

Still, even if the number of passing touchdowns decreases, the surrounding environment for the Bengals remains broadly similar to what it was at the end of the 2024 season.

The Cincinnati defense is full of question marks, and this offense will rely heavily on the passing game.

Paired with the top pass catcher in the league, Ja’Marr Chase, and the extension of Tee Higgins, Burrow has access to front-end passing volume and targets for that volume.

Chase is the main attraction, but don’t discount the importance of bringing Higgins back.

The team averaged 8.2 yards per passing play with Higgins on the field compared to 6.5 yards per passing play without him.

That is the difference between finishing fourth in the NFL over the entire season and finishing 27th.

Burrow completed 72.8% of his passes for 8.2 Y/A and a 7.2% touchdown rate with Higgins on the field (441 dropbacks) compared to completing 66.9% of his passes for 6.5 Y/A and a 5.6% touchdown rate with Higgins off the field (280 dropbacks).

Burrow opens the year as a fantasy QB1; we have only slight reservations about his full ceiling potential here.

The Browns may not have a good enough offense to push this defense.

We also have the notorious slow-starting offense the Bengals have fielded.

Burrow will be looking to snap that here.

There is a reason the Cincinnati starters logged mote time this preseason.

Burrow took 25 dropbacks this preseason after logging just eight over the previous three seasons.

The Bengals are more than aware that they need to start faster this season, especially in these weeks as favorites.

He has never finished higher than QB12 in weekly scoring in a season opener, averaging 207.6 yards per game with 4 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in five Week 1 starts.

The Browns also still have a defense that is not a complete pushover. They were just put in terrible spots by their offense in 2024.

Cleveland still led the NFL in pressure rate last year (41.3%) and was eighth in sack rate (7.7%).

Jim Schwartz has made Burrow work for his fantasy points.

In three games against Schwartz-led Cleveland defenses, Burrow has finished those games as QB30 (3.2 points), QB15 (14.9 points), and QB9 (22 points), throwing for 82, 181, and 252 yards, respectively.

That said, Cleveland did allow a 5.1% touchdown rate in 2024, which was 24th in the league, which was Burrow’s calling card in 2024.

Joe Flacco: Flacco draws another lifeline as a starting quarterback, rejoining the Browns.

Flacco turned 40 this January.

He made six starts with the Colts last season, throwing 12 touchdowns with 7 interceptions.

With the Browns in 2023, Flacco was 4-1 in the regular season, throwing 13 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.

While he had issues with ball protection, those can create upside game environments for fantasy purposes.

We have seen this in the past with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston.

The same was true for those Flacco-led Cleveland games.

In his five starts with the Browns in 2023, Flacco averaged 323.2 passing yards per game.

He finished QB15 or higher in all five starts, averaging 20.2 fantasy points per game.

Flacco opens the year as a matchup-based streamer with added upside. He will surely draw interest in DFS.

The Bengals allowed 14.9 passing points per game in 2024, 25th in the league.

That came against the league’s most manageable quarterback schedule.

The Bengals faced Jacoby Brissett, Andy Dalton, Daniel Jones, Gardner Minshew, Will Levis, Cooper Rush, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Deshaun Watson as starters last year and still only managed to allow 7.0 Y/A (14th) and a 5.2% touchdown rate (26th).

Is Flacco above that tier of passers at this stage?

We could go either way, but this is as good a layout Flacco will have to open the year if you grabbed him in 2QB formats.

The Bengals have hired Al Golden as defensive coordinator, but their personnel remains a question mark.

Running Back

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