Let’s Ride!
JD (0-0) vs. Katon (0-0)
Super Bowl Champion JD! All Hail! Battle of two men who could crush me with their pinky fingers. JD has Daniel Jones against Dallas on Sunday Night Football and Katon has Patrick Mahomes on Thursday Night Football against Detroit. Mahomes plays like a God in Week 1. Him and Jared Goff had that epic Mexico City game that ended 54-51 or something crazy like that. Could this be another lightning and explosive game? Jones didn’t do great against Dallas last season so I give the advantage to Katon. At Running back JD has Barkley also against the Dallas Cowboys on SNF and Rachaad White vs. Minnesota. White is a volume play but the offensive line is bad and Baker Mayfield is the Qb. Katon has Joe Mixon against the Browns and James Conner against the Commanders. Mixon should perform well. Conner is a volume play but the offensive line is bad and Clayton Tune might be the Qb? Gross. At Wide Receiver JD has Davante Adams and DeVonta Smith. Love the combo. Adams plays Denver and Smith is @ New England. Katon has Ja’Marr Chase @ Cleveland and he currently has Terry McLaurin in at WR2, but I don’t know if he’s going to be ready to go with that turf toe injury he suffered in the preseason. At TE JD has George Kittle, but rumor is he won’t be able to play in Week 1 due to injury. JD does not have a backup TE, so he might have to move Kittle to IR and pick up a free agent to start in Week 1. Katon has TJ Hockenson who just signed a massive contract to become the highest paid tight end in the league. Target monster post trade last season, look for him to pick up where he left off while Jordan Addison is getting acclimated to the NFL. I don’t know if they’ll have to throw a lot against Tampa Bay though. In the Flex JD has Kenneth Walker against the Rams. Last year he got hurt in the first game against the Rams. In the second game he rushed 29 times for 114 yards. Katon has Isiah Pacheco against Detroit. Detroit’s run defense was actually pretty good to end the season last year. Let’s see what they can do against the Chiefs. JD has Bill’s D/ST and Tyler Bass playing on Monday Night Football against Aaron Rodgers’ Jets. Katon has Ravens D/ST against CJ Stroud who bombed the S2 Cognitive Test and plays on one of the worst rosters in the NFL. Ravens have injuries to their secondary so this could be a shootout, but I see Baltimore smashing the Texans in Week 1. Katon has Matt Gay against Jacksonville in the Dome.
Mike (0-0) vs. Jen (0-0)
Battle of the 0 Super Bowls! (Sorry guys). I love this matchup. Mike has Justin Herbert in a shootout against Miami. Herbert regressed last year in Season 3 due to rib and cartilage injuries. His rushing stats dropped tremendously, and his touchdowns went down. I like them to shoot back up this year with Kellen Moore as OC. Look for his big arm to be highlighted on Sportscenter consistently and I think he starts off big with 3 touchdowns in week 1. Jen has Deshaun Watson against division rival Cincy. Watson has looked a little shaky this offseason, so I’m curious to see how he performs Week 1. Mike has Derrick Henry against New Orleans and Jahymr Gibbs vs. Kansas City. Will be interesting to see how the Lions backfield shakes out as it has a huge implication on Mike and I’s RB2 spot this season. Henry should do his normal thing unless the Saints go up early and game script Henry out of the game. (Could happen with Tennessee’s defense being hot garbage). Jen has Travis Etienner Jr. against Indy and Javonte Williams vs. Las Vegas. Jacksonville should beat Indy easily in Week 1 because they are the better team. Etienne should be used to run out the clock, but I won’t be surprised if he’s pulled late in the game. For Williams it will be interesting to see how much work he gets. He had major knee surgery last year. I don’t see Denver opening the season and giving him the ball 30 times, so what’ll it be? 10 touches? 15? 20? We’ll find out. Mike has Garret Wilson on MNF against the Bills and Keenan Allen in that Miami shootout game. Jen has JJ versus Tampa Bay and Tee Higgins vs. Cleveland. Love all these wideouts and look for all of them to have above average games in Week 1. At TE Mike has Pat Freiermuth and Jen has Darren “The Baller” Waller. Pat usually gets a few catches per game, but I’m concerned that his TD total might stay low with the addition of Darnell Washington. They could throw him and Pickens on the same side and just throw the ball up and see what happens. For Jen Darren Waller is a smash start on Sunday Night Football. Tough matchup against a good Dallas defense, but I still like Waller to get 7-8 targets in Week 1. Mike has Pats D/ST against the Eagles (good luck with that) and Jen has Packers D/ST against the Bears. They got exactly 10 points in each games last year against the Bears, so I predict they get 10 points for Jen. Mike has Eagles kicker Jake Elliot and Jen has Daniel Carlson at altitude. Advantage Jen. Should be a great game, but I have a feeling Jen gets the Week 1 W.
Tommy (0-0) vs. Scotty (0-0)
Tommy is coming off his Super Bowl hangover after losing to JD last season. So close, yet so far away. Scotty is happy to roster a team that he drafted. Both are looking to start off 2023 with a W. Tommy will be starting Captain Kirk at Qb against Tampa Bay. I like Kirk to throw his normal amount and score about 18 fantasy points. He’s capped by his lack of rushing ability and Tampa Bay’s secondary is healthy, which wasn’t the case a year ago when they had become a pass funnel. For Scotty he has Dak Prescott on Sunday Night Football against the division rival G Men. Dak missed the first matchup last year due to injury but played decent in the second matchup with 14.8 fantasy points. I like the addition of Brandin Cooks and I think Prescott does a bit better. Of course, Scotty could start one of his other 2 Qbs he has rostered in Tua who looks to be in a shootout in LA and Derek Carr with a juicy matchup against the Titans whose secondary was God-awful last year. The Running Back story in this matchup is intriguing. Both teams loaded up in running backs in the draft. Tommy took Jacobs. Scotty JT. Jacobs ended his holdout and signed. He’ll look to play in Week 1, but might not get a full workload since he hasn’t been training with the team all summer. JT is on IR and will miss the first 4 weeks of the regular season. Tommy will have Austin Ekeler in that shootout against Miami. Look for Ekeler’s normal high fantasy scoring game of 20ish points. For Scotty he’ll have Rhamondre Stevenson against Philly and Miles Sanders vs. Atlanta (hopefully). Scotty is also without Alvin Kamara for the 3 divisional games to start the year. At WR Tommy has DeAndre Hopkins matched up against Marshon Lattimore and the Saints defense. At WR2 he’ll most likely start Mike Williams in the Miami game. The over under is set at 51 as of this writing. Jalen Ramsey is on IR. Jerry Juedy is hurt. For Scotty he’ll have Tyreek Hill against LA. Hill has been adamant this offseason that he wants to hit 2000 yards. I think the Crazy Cheetah might just be able to do it too. Look for him to start off with a bang as I’m predicting over 150 receiving yards in this matchup. Don’t sleep on Scotty’s WR2 either. Christian Watson was a manimal his rookie year. Love looked decent in preseason action. Once Watson established himself as the #1 WR for the packers he faced the Bears in Week 13 and caught 3 balls for 48 yards and a touchdown and also took a run 46 yards to the house. 22.9 fantasy points. At Tight End Tommy has Evan Engram and Scotty has Dallas Goedert. Engram scored most of his fantasy points in 3 games last season and this offseason they added Calvin Ridley. Against Indy last year he was peppered with targets and caught 7 and 6 receptions, but failed to find the endzone. For Goedert I like him to put up his average numbers against the Pats. In the Flex Tommy has Najee Harris against the 49ers and Scotty has Marquise Brown against the Commanders. I have low expectations for both in Week 1. As of this writing Tommy has Dolphins D/ST in and Scotty has Steelers D/ST. I don’t expect much from either. Kickers don’t matter, but for Scotty he has Butker on the NFL Kickoff game on Thursday, so at least he has that. Best of luck gentlemen.
Joe (0-0) vs. Kenny (0-0)
Joe versus K-Dub! These two have well-rounded and robust lineups for this week. Joe has Joe Burrow @ Cleveland. He wasn’t great in either game last year against them. Kenny has Jalen Hurts @ New England. Patriots defense is usually good, but nobody could stop Jalen last year. He was averaging about 30 points per game when I lost him to injury. My replacement Qb scored 15 in the fantasy playoffs and I lost by 15. Jalen was the key. In addition to these two stud Qbs both teams feature Top 5 RBs in Joe’s CMC and Kenny’s Nick Chubb. CMC plays @ Pittsburgh which should be a good game. Chubb plays Cincy. Last year Chubb has one boom game (27.9) and one bust game (6.9) versus the Bengals. Not sure what to expect there. At RB2 Joe has Aaron Jones against Chicago and Kenny has Cam Akers vs. Seattle. Jones had one boom game (33.5) and one bust game (7.5) against the Bears last season. Not sure what to expect there. Akers versus Seattle last year had two solid outings of 18.5 and 17.3 fantasy points. At WR the advantage is clearly Kenny. Joe has a banged up Jaylen Waddle versus LA Chargers and Christian Kirk vs. Indy. If Waddle plays he would be in a shootout potential matchup and be a smash play. If. Kirk had one boom game (22.8) and one bust game (8.8) vs. Indy. Not sure what to expect there. I do know that the Jaguars had Ridley and Zay Jones on the field in two wide receiver sets this preseason, so if Kirk is solely the slot guy it’ll be something to pay attention to as that could definitely cap his ceiling this year. For Kenny he has Stefon Diggs against Sauce Gardner on Monday Night Football. Last year the Jets did a good job containing Diggs with games of 5 catches for 93 yards and 3 catches for 37 yards, neither of which included a touchdown. Diggs is an elite talent, so you aren’t sitting him, but expectations should be limited. Deebo Samuel is at WR2 against Pittsburgh. Like I said in my draft grades I have no clue what Deebo is going to do this year. I do know that he can take a slant from Brock Purdy to the house at any moment. Pittsburgh is tough though. At Tight End Joe has Kyle Pitts against Carolina and Kenny has David Njoku against Cincy. I like Njoku out of those two. The Falcons are going to run the ball and only throw when they need to. Njoku was pretty good last year prior to injury. He started 2022 with 4/7 games with 5+ catches. In the flex Joe has Alexander Mattison and Kenny has Mike Evans vs. Minnesota. I love both of these flexes this week. Mattison has the volume, but faces a tough defense. Evans has the talent, but the average Qb against one of the worst offensive lines in football. The Vikings defense isn’t that great though, so could be a good matchup. Joe has Bengals D/ST against Cleveland and Kenny has Dallas D/ST against the Giants. Last season the Bengals D/ST scored 8 and 9 against the Browns. Last season the Dallas D/ST scored 14 and 5 against the Giants. Joe has Justin Tucker against Houston, so look for him to have 6 extra point tries at least. For Kenny he has Graham Gano on SNF. Gano had two games of double digit fantasy points against the Cowgirls last season. Looking at this game one thing I know for sure. I’m not sure what to expect here.
Chase (0-0) vs. Moose (0-0)
7/14 Titles in this league belong to these two teams here. (Insert gif of the Joker saying “Half”). Both teams dropped their kickers to add a player onto their bench prior to kickoff. Look for them to add a kicker once they look at whatever the hell they are looking at. O/U? Weather? Wind? Waiting for kickers to finish being cut or traded? They both have studs at Quarterback. Josh Allen for Chase against the NY Jets in a potential shootout on Monday Night Football. Last season he averaged 22.65 points in his two games against the Jets securing 3 rushing touchdowns in those matchups. For Moose he gets Lamar Jackson who Brad passed on like a dumb fuck. Jackson gets Houston, so look for him to sit in the 4th quarter. Last year Jackson started off en fuego with games of 20.1, 50.5, and 42.3 fantasy points. Add in OBJ, Zay Flowers, and Todd Monken at OC and Jackson might set some records in Week 1. At RB Chase has James Cook in the MNF matchup and Khalil Herbert against the Bears. Cook looked explosive in spurts last season, Devin Singletary is gone, Zach Moss is gone, and Nyheim Hines got injured in a jet ski accident. All Cook needs to do is beat out Damien Harris and Latavius Murray and Josh Allen to secure big running back numbers. He should secure (at the very least) the 2 minute offense, hurry-up offense, and third down work. I think he gets a bit more that that, but goal line carries are the main concern. For Herbert we didn’t get a good sense of what he can do against the Packers last season as the first time they played he was still second fiddle to David Montgomery and he was hurt for the second matchup. Herbert is good and grades highly in PFF. For Moose he has Tony Pollard against the Giants and either Breece Hall, Devon Achane, or Jerick McKinnon at RB2. I’m sure the preference is Breece Hall, but we’ll see if they ease him back into the lineup coming back from that big knee injury. For Moose it’ll be interesting to see how he plays it as McKinnon plays TNF and Hall doesn’t play until MNF. At WR Chase has Amari Cooper vs. Cincinnati and Courtland Sutton vs. Las Vegas. Cooper was the #10 WR last year and has had more time to build rapport with Deshaun Watson. Last season he had one boom game and one bust game against Cincy. Sutton did well against Vegas last season scoring 13.7 and 10.5 in his two games against the division foe. For Moose he’ll most likely be without Cooper Kupp who reaggravated his hamstring so he’ll turn to Diontae Johnson against San Fran, Jordan Addison against Tampa Bay, and Michael Thomas against the Titans. Two juggernauts at Tight End with Chase having Travis Kelce against Detroit and Moose having Mandrews against Houston. Chase has Jaguars D/ST against rookie Anthony Richardson and Moose has Saints D/ST against Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, and DeAndre Hopkins. Should be a great matchup!
Trey (0-0) vs. Brad (0-0)
T-Money opens the season against 2-Time Champion Brad in a battle of Coast to Coast! Trey features the dual threat phenom Justin Fields at Qb against the GB Packers. Last season Fields played them in Week 2 and went for 7/11 passing for 70 yards, 1 Int, 20 yards rushing a rushing touchdown or 8.8 fantasy points. After he got settled into the season he played them again in Week 13 with much better results throwing 20/25 passes 254 yards, 2 INT, 71 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown or 21.1 fantasy points. I like Fields for 20+ points to start the season off right. For Brad’s Trevor Lawrence he scored 18.5 and 24.9 fantasy points in his two matchups against the Colts. Their defense hasn’t gotten much better… At RB Trey has rookie phenom Bijan Robinson against the Carolina Panthers. Panthers were middle of the pack in run defense last season. Look for Bijan to enter the league in style. I like Atlanta to win this game in a blowout and for Bijan to not have to play much going into the 4th quarter. Trey also has JK Dobbins who Brad passed on in the draft for David Montgomery. Dobbins has a juicy matchup against Houston. Brad will have Dameon Pierce against Baltimore and David Montgomery against the Chiefs. Pierce’s volume potential is massive, but Baltimore was top ten against the run last year and have a couple of hurt cornerbacks. Look for CJ Stroud to throw a lot in his first NFL regular season game. For David Montgomery the big question is how are the Lions going to divide up the running back carries. Will it be Montgomery taking the Jamaal Williams role and Gibbs taking the D’Andre Swift role? Or will they establish new roles? Brad is certainly hoping for the former. At Wide Receiver Trey has Chris Olave in a juicy ass matchup against the Titans. He also has DK Metcalf against the Rams. Last season DK went off in Week 13 against the division foe with 8 catches on 8 targets for 127 yards and a touchdown. JSN might miss week 1 with a broken bone in his wrist and Jalen Ramsey is a Miami Dolphin. In the Flex Trey has Jamaal Williams who looks to take the lion share of the work in Week 1 given Kendre Miller hurt his hammy and Kamara is suspended for the first 3 weeks. Look for a BIG week for Williams against the Titans. For Brad he is starting his trio of Wideouts in Amon-Ra St. Brown, AJ Brown, and Calvin Ridley. Ridley against the Colts. Look for the Jags to get him a score to boost his confidence in his first game action in almost two years. He will be emotional. Amon-Ra look for him to get pepper with 10-12 targets and 7-8 catches as the only other weapons are aging Marvin Jones Jr. and rookie Sam LaPorta. AJB faces New England who has a knack of taking away a teams best player. Only problem is who do you take away for the Eagles? They have too many weapons. This will be AJ Brown’s first time facing the Patriots since his rookie season where he played 95% of snaps in a playoff game and only came away with 1 reception on 1 target for 4 yards. At Tight End Trey is going with Trip Saints Juwan Johnson. Brad is looking at Greg Dulcich against the Raiders with all of the injuries to the Denver wideouts. Trey has 49ers D/ST against Pittsburgh and Brad has Eagles D/ST against New England.
As always best of luck to all of you!
-Commish aka B-Razzle Dazzle aka Fantasy Football Brad
fantasyfootballbrad 