Welcome to Week 1 of The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview, by Rich Hribar.

Months and months of fantasy preparation were poured in over the summer and all that work is about to be put to the test as Week 1 of the NFL football season is finally upon us.

The NFL is inherently a fluid game, with things in constant motion. What was yesterday is not always tomorrow and then will be different in the middle of the season. There is always a lot of ambiguity in the first week of a new NFL season.  

So with a fresh start to a new season, taking an evidence-based approach is easier said than done. 

Especially following up another unique season that was significantly impacted by the pandemic. 

While the crux of this article thrives on diagnosing players that will outproduce their expectations, these opening few weeks will be about establishing the groundwork in being able to accurately do that. You will see some peppered “Trusts” in for players I feel strongly about early, but they will be far lighter early on as we are learning what we can apply to this season accurately since those are more due to feel than mountains of objective data this early in the season.

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 in conjunction with the player rankings that will be available every week this season each Wednesday and enjoy the games.

Click the matchups below for the individual game previews.

Week 1 Matchups

BUF at LAR: Thursday, Sep 8 – 8:20pm ET (unlocked)
NO at ATL: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
CLE at CAR: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
SF at CHI: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
PIT at CIN: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
PHI at DET: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
IND at HOU: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
NE at MIA: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
BAL at NYJ: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
JAX at WAS: Sunday, Sep 11 – 1pm ET
KC at ARI: Sunday, Sep 11 – 4:25pm ET
GB at MIN: Sunday, Sep 11 – 4:25pm ET (unlocked)
NYG at TEN: Sunday, Sep 11 – 4:25pm ET
LVR at LAC: Sunday, Sep 11 – 4:25pm ET
TB at DAL: Sunday, Sep 11 – 8:20pm ET
DEN at SEA: Monday, Sep 12 – 8:15pm ET