Saturday
Evening Edition
September
6th, 2014
David’s
Daily Digest
MY WEEK 1 FAVORITES
No Sleep for the Wicked
So here we are less than
24 hours away from the first Sunday of NFL Week 1 and so begins the season long
marathon we all love called fantasy football!
The season officially
kicked off on Thursday night with the Packers and Seattle, but the fantasy
season will actually kick into high gear Sunday morning. With that, many
fantasy owners will be checking the wires for injury updates, taking to
social media for line-up advice and searching for the week one sleepers.
Playing in many leagues
this season, I am no different always trying to read between the lines, looking
for deeper insight for the best plays on Sunday. After conducting my own quick
research I have found a hand-full of Sunday wicked plays that I am in great favor of
and leaning toward. Okay, maybe they are no wicked, but let's just say I like them.
Running back Steven Jackson nearly fell off the edge
of the fantasy world during some fantasy drafts I participated in, going in the
10th round and later. He’s being overlooked and greatly underrated
due to his injury history, with running backs like Joique Bell, Toby Gerhart,
and Lamar Miller going off the board in front of him.
The Falcons runner is
healthy and sounds like he’s ready to go this week. His matchup against the
Saints 19th ranked run defense does not necessarily spell big day,
but playing at home with the return of wide receiver Julio Jones and a healthy Roddy
White should open up plenty of holes for the run game. Jackson played in
both matchups last season averaging 17 plus touches and 16 fantasy points (standard
one point per reception PPR leagues) per contest. The Falcons don’t figure to
lean on Jackson too heavily in week 1, but he should see plenty of action and
could post solid numbers as a low-end RB2 or flex start.
It’s no secret that
Vikings wide receiver Cordarrelle
Patterson is a great talent, but now in the Norv Turner system he could
quickly blossom into fantasy stud. Last season Patterson came on late in the
season scoring at least one touchdown in each of his final five games averaging
17 fantasy points per game (standard one point per reception PPR leagues). Patterson
also showed his ceiling potential with two of those contests with more than 20
fantasy points. Patterson would appear to be the favorite in Norv’s passing
game plan and could elevate his fantasy stock to top shelf. Although he has a tough
matchup on Sunday against the Rams defense, he’s facing a secondary that
allowed the 8th most pass receptions to receivers last season; he’s
get his.
One more fantasy nugget
for week 1 is wide receiver Torrey Smith.
It’s funny to me that his last name is Smith, because the last time Kubiak was
calling plays for an offense in Denver (quite a few years ago) he had a pretty
good receiver there named (Rod) Smith. The Ravens wideout is the go-to
receiver; he has great speed and nice hands, if he can add some crisp route
running to his repertoire with Kubiak calling plays he could suddenly become a
fantasy favorite well beyond week 1. At home last season against the Bengals,
Smith posted 15 fantasy points (standard one point per reception PPR), so in
the new system under Kubiak fantasy owners can expect to Smith featured even
more with greater results.
That’s my take for Week 1.
~David Ortega
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