The Worksheet: NFL Fantasy Football Game Previews, Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of The Worksheet, Rich Hribar's comprehensive fantasy football preview.

What is The Worksheet from Rich Hribar?

The Worksheet is a comprehensive weekly fantasy football preview for each NFL game. Rich Hribar analyzes matchups for every notable fantasy player in every game, every week of the NFL season.

Week 2 Fantasy Football Matchups

Hopefully everyone had a great Week 1 and started the new season off on the right foot.

The 2026 season got off to a roaring start.

Well, after the first two midweek games.

After opening the season with two unders and lackluster fantasy games, Sunday was a blitzkrieg of fantasy points.

By the time the dust settled, teams averaged 24.7 points per game, the most of any Week 1 since 2012.

Teams scored 2.18 points per possession, the most since per-drive tracking began.

After last season's 2.04 points per drive in Week 1, this was the first time offenses averaged over 2.0 points per drive in back-to-back Week 1s since 2020 and 2021.

Scoring rates per drive in Week 1 this season (39.4%) were slightly lower than last year's first weekend (40.2%), but teams scored a touchdown on 25.5% of drives, the highest rate in the 2000s.

That led to 12 players (9 skill players) posting 30-plus PPR points in Week 1.

Last season, only one did.

In 2024, four did it.

In 2023, there were two.

In 2022, there were six.

It was a hot start for fantasy points, which spiked due to touchdowns.

A few interesting nuggets.

Although scoring was up, yardage did not spike with the points.

The new kickoff rules are still affecting yardage totals, but after 30.9 yards per drive in Week 1 of 2025, Week 1 of this season was at 29.8 yards per drive.

Two primary culprits limited point production early this season: turnovers and penalties.

Offenses turned the ball over on 11.9% of possessions, up from 8.7% in 2025 and 10.6% in 2024.

There were also 61.2 penalty yards per game, the most in Week 1 since 2019.

While those two components may not remain static, one thing we discussed this offseason showed up in Week 1.

We have spent a lot of space highlighting the movement NFL offenses have made to play heavier personnel and get under center more often, forcing defenses to come out of sub packages and play the running game more.

If they didn't, those offenses ran the ball in those lighter looks.

That movement continued at the start of this season.

13 personnel was up to 8.1% in Week 1 this season, the highest rate to open a season in the 2000s.

Two or more tight ends were on the field for 20.8 offensive snaps per game in Week 1, the most since 2012.

Defenses played sub packages on 32% of offensive snaps with multiple tight ends on the field, just below last year's rate.

Just three years ago, in 2023, defenses matched those sets in sub personnel 44.3% of the time.

That is a significant change.

When offenses got defenses to match those sets with base personnel in Week 1, passers completed 65.4% of their passes for 7.8 yards per attempt, 11.9 yards per completion, 17 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions (122.7 rating).

They posted a 12.5% touchdown rate and a 1.5% interception rate on those plays.

When teams were forced to throw the ball on hard mode against sub packages outside of heavy sets, passers completed 65.8% of their passes for 7.3 yards per pass attempt, a 4.4% touchdown rate, and a 1.9% interception rate (94.2 rating).

When the defense remained in sub packages against those multiple tight end sets, offenses rushed for a robust 5.1 yards per attempt with a run of 10 or more yards on 17.9% of runs.

In 2023, teams were under center for 27.7% of snaps in Week 1.

In 2024, that was 30.1%.

In 2025, it was still in the ballpark at 30.4%.

In Week 1 this year, teams were under center for 42.5% of snaps.

12 different quarterbacks were under center for 50% or more of snaps in Week 1.

Last year in Week 1, that number was three.

It is still far too early to run wild with what happened in one week as something that will continue this season, but this has been the ongoing trend gaining the most traction.

With only one week in the books, you still need to take major grains of salt when applying an evidence-based approach early in the year.

We are still working with small samples, even if that sample right now is 100% of the product.

If last week occurred in, say, Week 9, after we built up half a year of evidence and operation, a number of things that occurred in Week 1 will look just like happenstance.

But since that is all we have now, we will see a sea of overreactions and underreactions when taking a 10,000-foot view back at this past weekend.

Do not run wild with anything we just experienced in Week 1.

For the most part, early on, we focus on initial usage so we can diagnose spots where players let down expectations or exceeded them.

If you have been following this post for the past few seasons, you'll notice that tangible information has built up, and this post keeps growing.

This is my 13th year doing this series, writing up every game.

I have always gotten stronger as the season presses on.

This article will be updated throughout the week to reflect major news or injury implications.

I encourage you to use the game-by-game tables and data points here alongside the player rankings available every Wednesday.

Enjoy the games!

Click the matchups below for the individual game previews.

Week 2 Fantasy Football Matchups