Every Sunday in the weekly fantasy chats, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is my player pool that weekend for DFS.
This article series covers exactly that.
I will go through the players I am targeting as core plays for all formats and will cover tournament plays and games to target for stacks in other posts.
The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.
Week 1 DFS Content:
Our core players are the players that we will have the most exposure to at their 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 2023 season.
The other element playing here is that DFS player pricing was set several weeks ago as opposed to the several days it will be moving forward.
With the pricing being released so early, we have a plethora of discounted options compared to a normal week.
Week 1 almost always has too many plays.
I usually do 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
Jalen Hurts ($7,800 DraftKings/$9,000 FanDuel)
We are kicking things off with the best quarterback per game in 2022, who is tracking to be in sub-10% of rosters in Week 1 due to all of the pricing.
Hurts climbed up to 14.9 passing points per game last season (10th) while still popping for 10.3 rushing points per game (second).
We know that the Eagles want to be aggressive when the game is in neutral script.
Philadelphia dropped back on 64.8% of their first-half plays last season (eighth). In the third quarter, that dropback rate for the Eagles fell to 14th (58.9%) and then down to dead last in the fourth quarter (38.6%) since the Eagles put games away early.
It will also be curious to see how New England approaches defending the Eagles.
New England was an aggressive man-to-man defense in 2022, playing man coverage on 33.4% of passing plays. That was the sixth-highest rate in the league.
In the preseason, they were once again man-coverage heavy, playing man coverage on 43.8% of passing plays, which was fourth in the league.
Hurts led the NFL in yards per pass attempt against man coverage (8.5 Y/A) in 2022 with 11 touchdowns and one interception.