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:
| Week 1 DFS Picks |
|---|
| Core Plays |
| Tournament Picks |
| Team & Game Stacks |
It is not that tournament players cannot be used in cash games.
If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.
These are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk, but are the primary players that I still want to be ahead of the field on, compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.
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
Drake Maye ($6,600/$5,500)
Maye’s expected 18.1 points per game average over his full games last season was good for QB10.
The team has four new starters on the offensive line and a low bar for improvement up front.
Maye will also have an improved set of pass catchers in Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams, and TreVeyon Henderson.
We should also consider the return of Josh McDaniels as a potential upgrade; he will surely want to put up some points against his former organization.
Maye also comes with some rushing upside.
Even in his limited sample, Maye was second among quarterbacks with 407 yards scrambling.
His scrambling could come down in a better offense, but Maye scrambled on 13.3% of his dropbacks in the preseason, so perhaps it will just be something static.
The moving parts could take some time to gel, but Maye gets to open the year at home as a favorite against a defense with several questions.
Pete Carroll retained defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
Las Vegas ranked below the fold in pass defense a year ago, allowing 7.1 yards per pass attempt (19th) and a 5.2% touchdown rate (25th).
Despite having Maxx Crosby, they ranked 27th in pressure rate (30.3%).
When they failed to get pressure, they allowed 7.6 yards per attempt (21st).
Las Vegas also has nearly an entirely new secondary, which Pro Football Focus ranked as the worst in the league this offseason.
We also ranked them last in the league.
Kyler Murray ($7,700/$6,400)
I get it.
Nobody loves clicking Kyler’s name after a disappointing 2024 season.
However, he makes sense from a tournament standpoint based on the projected ownership for James Conner.
If Conner is tracking to be a top-five play, there is potential leverage here as a pivot to the passing game.
We are also catching Murray in a spot to play as a front-runner.
When Murray played with a lead last season, he completed 72.2% of his passes (third) and was seventh in EPA per play (0.22).
New Orleans has some moving parts on defense this season.
They hired Brandon Staley as defensive coordinator.
Staley’s defenses with the Chargers ranked in the back half of the league in passing touchdowns allowed in all three seasons.
Joe Flacco ($6,600/$4,900)
Flacco draws another lifeline as a starting quarterback, rejoining the Browns.
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.
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).
The Bengals have hired Al Golden as defensive coordinator, but their personnel remains a question mark.
Running Back
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