Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 1: Not Many Big-Time Performances, but Fairly Injury-Free

The first Sunday of the NFL season is in the books now. It’s nearly time to start preparing for week 2, but before we move on to waiver wire pickups and final start/sit decisions for the Monday night game, we need to go over some fantasy football takeaways.

We’ll cover some big performances, trends and much more in these takeaway stories, which we plan to do every Monday the entire season, so keep checking back!

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Only 2 QBs Reach 300 Passing Yards

FantasySP’s Daniel Hepner wrote up a story on how NFL quarterbacks struggled to throw in week 1. Just two quarterbacks have reached 300 passing yards so far.

Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa threw for 338 yards and is the top passer so far. But at the same time, he only threw for one touchdown and completed just 62.2% of his passes, so it’s not like it was a monster fantasy outing.

Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford threw for 317 yards in a losing effort. He completed a respectable 69.4% of his passes, but also just one touchdown - he also threw a pick. 

When tallying fantasy totals up, Tagovailoa barely finished inside the top 10, and Stafford was outside it.

Running quarterbacks were all over the top 10 though - Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, Anthony Richardson, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts. The only pocket passers inside the top 10 were Baker Mayfield (289 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions), Derek Carr (200 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions), C.J. Stroud (234 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) and Tagovailoa. Geno Smith (171 yards, one touchdown, one interception) is more of a pocket passer, but rushed for a touchdown to bump his fantasy total up.

What Daniel and I are getting at is that fantasy quarterbacks had a rough go of things in week 1. Another thing we both are saying is that rushing quarterbacks are more valuable in fantasy nowadays because weeks like this can happen.

Unlikely Names at Top of Rushing List

There’s still two great backs (Christian McCaffrey and Breece Hall) yet to play, but the current names atop the rushing yard leader list is not who you’d expect.

Joe Mixon is a popular running back, but many thought his best days were behind him. Not so fast, because Mixon is atop the league with 159 rushing yards so far. He also scored a touchdown and caught three passes for 19 yards to sit as the No. 2 back in PPR formats.

The top PPR back so far is Saquon Barkley, and that’s more because he scored three times - he did rush for 109 yards (fifth most so far). Barkley rushed 24 times and scored twice, while adding two receptions for 23 yards and his other score.

J.K. Dobbins is the No. 2 rusher in the league at 135 yards. He attempted just 10 rushes, had a long run of 61 and scored once on the ground. He added three receptions for four yards.

Rhamondre Stevenson rushed for 120 yards. He scored once on the ground. Stevenson had three grabs for six yards as a pass catcher.

Kenneth Walker III is the only other RB with over 100 rushing yards, sitting at 103. He scored once and added six receiving yards on two catches.

Alvin Kamara isn’t as much of a surprise as some of these guys, and you can probably guess that his pass-catching ability is what has him among the fantasy leaders. He had 83 rushing yards and a score on 15 attempts, while catching five passes for an additional 27 yards.

So much like the quarterback position, it’s been a pretty weak showing for fantasy backs so far.

More Unfamiliar Names Atop WR Leaders

Jayden Reed is still the top PPR wide receiver after his big Friday night performance. He’s the only one over 20 points so far.

Jameson Williams had a big Sunday night game and sits near the top of the PPR WR fantasy leaderboard. He had five catches for 121 yards and a score, along with a 13-yard rush.

Tyreek Hill is one of the few big names that really delivered in the opening week. He had seven receptions for 130 yards and a touchdown in week 1, and that was after an eventful drive to the stadium.

Xavier Worthy is another surprise name near the top of the leaderboard. We covered him in depth after Thursday’s game.

Alec Pierce also had a monster game and is maybe was the most surprising fantasy wideout near the top of the leaderboard. He had just three receptions, but for 125 yards and a touchdown.

The rest of the top 10 (Mike Evans, Cooper Kupp, A.J. Brown, Stefon Diggs, Chris Godwin) are more recognizable players, but the odd week 1 of fantasy football definitely continued near the top of the receiver list.

Tight Ends Really Disappoint

After Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews were lackluster on Thursday night, we really shouldn’t be that surprised that fantasy tight ends struggled in week 1. But only five guys have over 10 PPR points so far.

Isaiah Likely still is the top performer after his standout showing on Thursday.

Then of course is weekly fantasy star Foster Moreau at 10.3 PPR points and No. 2 at the TE position so far. If I wouldn’t have written up the Saints’ fantasy preview earlier this fall, I’d honestly have no clue what team he was on. His stat line? Four catches, 43 receiving yards, one touchdown. 

Yikes. The fantasy TE position might be a struggle for owners this season if past standouts don’t step up.

Rookie Brock Bowers had a nice showing in his NFL debut, and did it without a score. He had six catches for 58 yards.

Kyle Pitts is the No. 4 PPR TE and is the most recognizable fantasy player in the top five. You can guess how he made the top five though - yup, a touchdown. Pitts had three grabs for 26 yards to accompany his score.

Oddly enough, another Saints TE is the No. 5 PPR TE. Juwan Johnson caught two passes for 26 yards and one score. Again, not a great fantasy line outside the touchdown.

Chigoziem Okonkwo also scored a touchdown to land in the top six. He had two catches for 15 yards.

Maybe Tyler Conklin or George Kittle can redeem the TE position on Monday night, but even if they do, not many TEs looked good in week 1.

Final Thoughts

It was great to have the NFL and fantasy football back, but I’m sure many fantasy owners are frustrated after their star players let them down.

The season is young and we’re just talking about one week here. With so few players participating in preseason games nowadays, these week 1 poor showings are going to become more and more likely. Don’t fret too much over things and keep positive.

There were no big injuries to quarterbacks (knock on wood), and only Walker was banged up at the RB spot (he looks to be OK moving forward though).

At wide receiver, Puka Nacua was injured, which would obviously be a major blow to fantasy teams as he was picked most often inside the top 15-20 picks. Jordan Addison injured his ankle, but he’s reported to not have suffered a major injury. Joshua Palmer was the only other somewhat big fantasy WR to not play a full game, and that’s because he was ejected for fighting.

Tight ends weren’t so lucky on the injury front, and the couple of injuries explains why the top end of the fantasy position was lacking. David Njoku and Jake Ferguson both left their games early and could be facing multi-week absences. 

Overall, it’s been a pretty good week from an injury standpoint (again, knocking on wood), which makes the lack of big-time performances pretty odd. I’d expect things to even out as the season rolls along.