This past weekend marked the start of the 2015 NFL season. We are all thrilled to get back to the sacrificial Sunday experience of jumping from game to game in a perpetual state of homework avoidance. But football fans can further rejoice as the arguably more important fantasy football season kicks off. As I sit through lectures watching people tinker with their line-ups, scour free agency and think of ever more creative ways to trash-talk their friends, I figured I may give some of my insight.
Injuries were a major part of the week-one story, with some big names like Dez Bryant and Andre Ellington hitting the injured reserve and even Terrell Suggs out for the season. But in the world of fantasy football, with great injury comes great opportunity. I face an extreme moral dilemma when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys. As a die-hard Giants fan, I hate “Dem Boys” with a burning passion, and I’ve yet to include any on my roster for the entirety of my fantasy career…until now. It was simply too hard to resist Terrance Williams with Dez out anywhere from four to eight weeks. The Cowboys are going to be relying more on Romo and his receiving core with DeMarco shipped off to Philly. Also, considering Williams is an established red-zone presence, who will see a dramatic increase in targets, it is looking like a great waiver wire snag.
Due to the Andre Ellington injury, some may be inclined to pick up backup Chris Johnson. While this is not necessarily a bad move, I’d focus more attention on QB Carson Palmer. After putting up a 300+ yard, three touchdown performance in his season debut, Palmer has an extremely favorable opportunity against a dismal Chicago defense (particularly the secondary) and are down their top back. He is poised to put up another strong showing.
Other potential opportunities are DeAngelo Williams, fighting in his last week of fantasy relevance, and Danny Woodhead, who exploded into the picture with a two touchdown season opener. DeAngelo Williams would obviously be an extremely short-term investment, losing all value with the soon-coming return of Le’Veon Bell, but he ran hard versus the Pats and will do all he can to continue that momentum against San Francisco. On the other hand, Woodhead presents a more intricate conundrum. Following an impressive preseason performance, Woodhead beat rookie running back Melvin Gordon in number of carries against Detroit. He also got many of the late-down touches, providing a more complex relationship for the San Diego backfield. Woodhead could easily be a touchdown vulture, but if he continues at current pace there, the primary back position is anything but secure for Gordon.
These are merely a few of the exciting options that fantasy owners have at their disposal (always subject to the will of the waiver wire). So put the research in, crunch the numbers and always check the injury report. This early, there are no guarantees for how your team will fare, but we can confirm that it is awfully nice to have fantasy back.
Eber is a member of the class of 2017.
