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My Favorite Burrow is Cincinnati: Week 1 Fantasy Football Recap

September 12, 2022 | Fantasy Football Daily Notes, FEATURED | 44 Comments

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For the next 18 weeks, I have the excruciating enviable duty of summarizing your Sunday NFL games for your fantasy football pleasure. If you’ve been here before: How ya doing? Grab a frappucino (on your own dime) and then sit down and listen to my tales of football glory. If you’ve never been here before: Hey! I’m EverywhereBlair, internet celebrity fantasy sportser and occasional watcher of spooky shows. OK, that’s a truth and a lie — I watch spooky shows every day. 

The purpose of this article is to recap the fantasy football action and give you some early ideas for add/drops/starts/sits/whatever you want to do in fantasy football. If you have questions, drop them down in the comments. 

First, the news! DonkeyTeeth won some money doing something with football and NFTs. You can ask him and his friends! Don’t ask me because I have my fungible tokens in the form of very physical objects clogging up my garage thank you very much. 

New for 2022! Our best friends Jordan Loupe and JB Barry will take over the Razzball YouTube channel on Monday night to give their reactions to Week 1 Fantasy Football. Can’t tolerate my writing? Then tolerate Jordan and JB! Check out the Razzball homepage for the article link, subscribe to the Razzball YouTube channel, or follow Grey on Twitter @Razzball for more information.

For everybody else, let’s jump into the Week 1 Fantasy Football action! 

Joe Burrow: 7 months ago, Burrow led the Bengals to the Super Bowl. He smoked cigars, bounced to rap music, and wore coats that possibly cost animals their lives. He was masculinity defined. Flash forward to Week 1 of 2022 Fantasy Football, and Burrow tossed 4 INT, many of which were his fault. Burrow effectively had 2 INT on consecutive passes (the first was overturned by penalty), demonstrating that even top QB have rough games. Enter the concept of variance: sometimes the game doesn’t go your way. Burrow finished strong with nearly 340 yards passing and effectively 3 TDs to Jamar Chase in the last 2 minutes of regulation, except only one of those TDs counted. In 2020, Patrick Mahomes finished the second half of the season well outside the top 12 quarterbacks, and nobody seemed to care. Burrow’s kind of in that same boat — Week 1 is not the totality of the season, and the ugly performance was surpassed by Burrow’s clear sense of leadership and ownership that he would get the team out of the hole that he dug. Write off the Week 1 jitters for now and consider Joe Burrow a top 5-10 QB until he shows us longitudinal data to make us worry. 

D’Andre Swift: Variance, right? An Eagles/Lions matchup would be awesome in an episode of Wild Planet narrated by CM Punk. Alas, you’re here to learn about football, and the NFL Eagles/Lions game was supposed to be a 48.5 Over/Under. 73 combined points later, Swift emerged with 144 yards on the ground with a TD, and 3 catches for 31 yards. I was willing to push Swift up to 4th overall in early season drafts and Bobby LaMarco had him in the top 5 running backs, and now we’re seeing the evidence already. Swift’s diminutive frame lends itself to injuries, so fingers crossed that he remains healthy in a better-looking Lions offense. Too bad we’re also seeing evidence that Jamaal Williams will be a touchdown vulture. Eagles>Lions>Vultures. Eeeew. 

Dak Prescott: Something something you play with the hand you’re dealt. Wait. Hand. Surgery. Dak Prescott is having hand surgery? Late Sunday night, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told media that DP will undergo hand surgery and miss several weeks of playing time. Sigh. Guess its time for you to ride the Jameis Winston train? 

Tee Higgins: Suffered a concussion and left Sunday’s game. We all know a concussion should be treated by some time off and hopefully the Bengals give their #2 receiver a bit of a break. Mike Thomas stepped up in Higgins’ absence and was thoroughly unimpressive. Tyler Boyd, if healthy, could see some more targets, and Hayden Hurst certainly got some extra play in overtime to show off his receiving skills. I’d be hesitant about starting Higgins next week if he’s active because Higgins already had questionable health coming into week 1 and now he’s dealing with an injury that usually keeps players out a week or more. 

Jameis Winston: Did Dan Marino ever get benched? What about Peyton Manning? Manning was pretty awful sometimes, especially early in his career. The trouble with landing on those “Comps to the greats” lists — as Winston has often done — is that eventually there’s regression to the norm and 97% of players look human. Winston’s first three quarters of 2022 NFL football looked like he had just earned himself a clipboard and headphones for the next 17 games. But in the 4th quarter? Over 200 yards and the TDs started raining. Michael Thomas  — the one we know and love and not the guy on the Bengals — took in 5 receptions on 8 targets and claimed 2 of those TDs. Winston remains a volatile QB streaming option, but if the “click” that finally arrived in the fourth quarter is any indication, we could be in for a very exciting year from the Saints QB/WR battery. 

A.J. Brown: Former first-round draft pick goes to a new team with a sexy young QB and suddenly everybody lost faith. Week 1 A.J. Brown on the Eagles: 10 catches on 13 targets and 155 yards. Fantasy football is easy: take the good players early and stop listening to trash takes. 

Miles Sanders: Speaking of trash takes, apparently Miles Sanders is good now. It’s not outside the realm of belief that Sanders will boom/bust — the Eagles system lends itself to guys like Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell, and Darren Sproles. Wait. Sproles! ENYWHEY. 96 yards and a TD for Sanders, and that’s evidence of life. Now we just need to see that happen, you know…every week instead of once every 6 weeks as has been the norm. What does FantasyPros think? 

O.J. Howard: I mean, I’d perform poorly in front of Tom Brady too. The man is just so flexible! O.J. Howard’s career got to the point that he’s the starting TE for the Texans, and he managed a 2-TD performance against the Colts. Sometimes, you just need a change of scenery. We’re way too early in the season to say anything meaningful about Howard because he only had 2 targets on the entire game, but with fantasy-productive TEs being somewhat rare, Howard becomes a streaming consideration for next week. 

Dameon Pierce: Remember how this dude surged to like round 3 in late-season drafts? This provides evidence to those critics who say “Why do we need fantasy football experts, I have my own dart board.” I told you to bench Pierce this week, and Pierce returned an uninspiring 33 yards on 11 carries and one reception for 6 yards. Also, Pierce trailed Rex Burkhead on the Texans’ carry count. Also also, Rex Burkhead is 80% as old as I am. Yeesh. Obviously, Pierce is an “upside” play because nobody is a star in their first game and he can only get “better,” but don’t get too excited about Pierce for 2022. 

Greg Dortch: In the game we all wanted to target for random wide receiver glory, and in that glorious game that went 11 points above its already spectacular 54 Over/Under…this Greg Dortch guy led the Cardinals in receiving. Hang on a minute. Hey Siri, who is Greg Dortch? 5’7″…OK. Undrafted free agent. All right. Has failed to make the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, LA Rams, and Atlanta Falcons. Well. Congratulations if you had Greg Dortch on your week 1 bingo card. Let’s be fair — his 9 target, 6 catch, 73-yard performance probably won’t happen again in 2022, and if he outpaces a healthy Rondale Moore and A.J. Green, I’ll eat my shoes on the podcast. 

Curtis Samuel: Remember this guy? We loved Samuel as a WR2 in 2021 and then he got injured right off the bat. Now it’s 2022 and Carson Wentz is in Washington DC and the Commanders have like zero actual talent. Samuel got 11 targets and caught 8 passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. Let’s not forget that our favorite gadget player from 2020 also ran for 17 yards! If Samuel is available in your league, race to the waiver wire and snag him before Razzball alumni Boof grabs him: 

Elijah Mitchell: The beginning of the 49ers/Bears game looked like the Noachian Flood and our Chicago-ites Keelin and Donkey Teeth (they’re not married, I swear!) were, I kid you not, tasked with directing the Grizzlies from the Chicago Zoo onto a barge. OK, that’s a complete lie — how did you know? Regardless, the conditions were less than ideal for any running back who wasn’t named “Deebo Samuel” (also Deebo is a running back now because I said so). Mitchell’s knee injury isn’t fully defined at this time, but the 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has never shied away from playing the “running back by committee” game. Elephant-minded readers will recall that Shanahan deployed Elijah Mitchell, Trey Sermon, Jeff Wilson, Deebo Samuel, and the ghost of Roger Craig in 2021. If Mitchell misses time…let’s be fair, Deebo Samuel will probably be RB1. Stay tuned for my Saturday update next week to hear more about Mitchell’s health. 

James Robinson: Let’s recap some history. In 2020, James Robinson was handed the RB1/2 duties in Jacksonville because the management was inept and released Leonard Fournette for some un-nameable reason. JRob then claimed sole RB1 duties when Devine Ozigbo contracted Covid and ended up with Long Covid. JRob, an undrafted rookie, made a name for himself in 2020, but the new Jaguars regime in 2021 drafted Travis Etienne to be their true RB1. Then Etienne got injured, and JRob did his RB1 thing again before tearing an Achilles tendon. Going into 2022, Etienne was supposed to be the guy. Robinson wasn’t even wanted when he was the only running back in town. And now, JRob steps up in week 1 and absolutely stole the RB1 role. OK, 11 rushes and 66 yards and a rushing TD with 1 catch for 3 yards and a receiving TD isn’t really stealing from an opportunity standpoint, but compared to ETN’s 4 attempts for 47 yards…that’s kind of striking. We’re probably looking at a 1A/1B RB by committee, to be honest, but JRob seems to have the “prove it” tag to start the year. This could be strategic — the Jags know that ETN hasn’t seen actual NFL action, and while they acclimate their future RB1 to NFL action, they’ll burn JRob’s legs. So, let’s make the collective pivot on JRob and start him for now. He’ll likely be discounted in DFS in Week 2 still, and I’d put a 60/40 split on the RB committee in Jacksonville in Week 2. That said, it’s been the worst year for the 60/40 portfolio since the 1930s and JAX isn’t a great team — don’t go overboard on this stable of RBs.  

Aaron Rodgers: So weird that people kept drafting ARog as a top 12 QB when he had no receivers. After week 1, we have little clue about who will be WR1 in GB, other than Robert Tonyan once he heals up. Christian Watson may never get another target in a Packers uniform after he dropped a wide-open touchdown to start the game. Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon combined for nearly 25 looks despite the Pack being down most of the game, which bodes well for this RB-tandem in fantasy. Oh, did I mention that Jordan Love came in at the end of the game and went 4-for-5 for 65 yards? Perhaps ARog’s Ayahuasca excursion allowed him to see another future where he was a full-time podcast guest. 

Isiah Pacheco: 12 carries for 62 yards and a TD, already surpassed Clyde Edwards-Helaire as RB1. How do you like them apples? [slams clipboard across your head]

Christian Kirk: Sure, he led the Jags with 6 catches and 117 yards, but he also only converted 50% of his targets into catches. One of these things isn’t sustainable. I’m not saying Marvin Jones and Zay Jones are the Jonas Brothers to snag, but we’re likely looking at a 1A/1B/1C situation to open the year. 

Justin Jefferson: Fantasy writing pro-tip: start your write-up after the first batch of games. My beloved Minnesota Vikings are up 17-0 at the half, and Justin Jefferson is already the led receiver on the week and he’s only played 2 quarters. Should I update this entry at the end of the game? Probably. [End of game update: J^2 is good]

T.J. Watt: I’m not an IDP guy, but even the most casual fantasy footballer knows T.J. Watt. Watt has been in the top 3 of the Associated Press’ Defensive Players of the Year for the past three years, including taking the #1 honors in 2021 after a 22.5 sack season. Initial reports indicate that Watt tore his pectoral muscle in week 1 and will undergo additional testing on Monday to confirm the injury. Watt — a top 10 IDP selection in 2022 fantasy football — stands to miss significant time and likely visit the IR.

Taysom Hill: Of course, the part-time TE who has a QB-incentive-laden contract is a top 10 rusher in Week 1. Fantasy football is easy! Whatever. Taysom is fun in the real-life NFL, but extremely tough to deploy in fantasy. Let’s put it this way: in 4 years, Hill has never topped 32 rushing yards per game on average. Yeesh. That’s fine for a QB but useless for a FLEX option. 

Pat Freiermuth: Steelers’ QB Mitch Trubisky can’t throw very well, so TE Freiermuth becomes a top TE streamer. 5 catches on 10 targets for 75 yards. Grab our favorite Friar Tuck if you did the TE free fall. 

Chase Claypool: The Steelers were definitely running out of ideas to capitalize on their 5 turnover lead, but what was really surprising was Chase Claypool’s 6 rushes for 36 yards. Claypool averaged a carry per game over his first two years, but for week 1, CC out-rushed Christian McCaffrey. That’s something worthy of attention, and should definitely elevate Claypool in your start/sit rankings. Could we be seeing Deebo Samuel 2.0 in Chase Claypool? Stay tuned!

Christian McCaffrey: I’m not the one who told you to be fearless in drafting McCaffrey between 1.01-1.03. Variance and all that jazz, but CMC averaged 3 yards per carry and added 4 catches for a total of 50ish yards from scrimmage. Yawn. 

Trey Lance: What do we say to the God of the Chin? Not today, Jimmy Garoppolo! Trey Lance put up an uninspiring 210ish yards total but the weather was awful, George Kittle sat,  and his RB1 Elijah Mitchell missed most of the game. I mean the top receiver on the Bears was Dante Pettis and the top receiver for the Niners was Jauan Jennings. Too early to say anything actionable, and fingers crossed Lance rights the ship in Week 2. 

Donovan Peoples-Jones: Footballers clamored after this guy last year when Baker Mayfield was QB and now Jacoby Brissett is QB and nobody wants DPJ. Come on! DPJ gathered 6 catches for 60 yards, which is a perfectly fine FLEX play. Snag DPJ for your deeper WR-based teams, just don’t celebrate later in the year if Watson passes to him. 

All right fam, jump in the comments and let me know how your teams did in week 1!

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