NFL Fantasy Football Week 1

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I just wanted to remind everyone that with the start of the NFL season today it’s the perfect time to give FanDuel a chance and try a weekly NFL fantasy game using a salary cap format. They have free games to try out as well as games with prizes with entry fees starting as low as $1 and best of all no commitments so if you dont have the time in a week there is no need to enter.

I know there was some interest in doing an OTC fantasy league this year and unfortunately with the heavy volume of NFL transactions that kind of fell through on my end, but if enough people would like to try out FanDuel in the future we’ll see up a low cost weekly contest on their site. I’d imagine it would be open to the public, but we can keep our own standings on the site for everyone who lets me know their username for the games.

Since I didn’t get to finalize all the positions (you can read my overview of QB’s and RB’s here and here) I wanted to go over one of my week 1 rosters to give an idea of my thought process on building a team.

QB- Joe Flacco, $6,600. Flacco is the model of NFL week 1 consistency averaging just over 20 ppg over the last three years. He doesn’t have the upside of a Drew Brees or Peyton Manning but hes a fraction of the cost and I don’t want to spend a great deal on this position. If I did want to spend a fortune I would have gone with Brees, Manning or Matt Ryan.

RB1- Adrian Peterson, $9,300. Not a position you can cheap out on at all.  There are players who are more consistent than Peterson but I like the matchup this week, I like the fact that he knows hes likely playing for a contract this year, and I like the way he usually starts the season.

RB2- Reggie Bush, $7,800. Over the last three years Bush has been a top 5 performer in opening weeks and I cant imagine playing against the Giants changing that this week. I really wanted to take a Patriots running back as RB2, but Im just a little too worried about guessing wrong as to who gets the most looks. That’s a team that can change up their plans in a game too.

WR1- Demaryius Thomas, $8,700. Thomas is playing for free agency, is the best option on the team, which no longer has Eric Decker and Wes Welker, and should have a shootout environment against the Colts. Vontae Davis played well against him last year, but I expect a huge game. My other choice here was Brandon Marshall

WR2- Anquan Boldin, $6,000– Boldin is a rock star to start the NFL season and against the Cowboys defense should be a solid reasonable cost option. Always plays with a chip on his shoulder and has a good connection with his QB

WR3- Reggie Wayne, $6,200. While coming off major injury is a concern I simply can not overlook three years in a row right around 20 points per opener at this cost. I think its worth the potential risk since it lets me go higher on the RB and WR1 position.

TE- Jared Cook $5,700. This is another spot where I don’t want to waste much money for a one week game. Essentially the position boils down to matchups and in many cases surprising scores. The big guys have never been so dominant in week 1 to consider the cost so I went with Cook who may be the best option on his team matching up against a mediocre defense. My second option was Scott Chandler, who I would have used if I wanted a few more dollars to spend.

K- Sebastian Janikowski, $4,300– I don’t expect the Raiders to score many points against the Jets, but the points that they do score should come via field goal and maybe some longer ones.

Def- Jets, $5,000. Not a lot of difference in price here so I want a team with a matchup that has the upside to hold a team to low point outputs, create some turnovers, and get to a QB that has never played in an NFL.

So if you want to sign up for FanDuel simply follow the link below or click on some of the banners on the site. And circle back during the week if you want to let us know how you did in the comments either this week or next and maybe we’ll start putting some scores online. Ill let everyone know how bad my team turned out next week. Good luck playing this week.  Its certainly great to have football back.

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