Week 1 of Fantasy Football; booms, busts, and waiver wire

Week one of the NFL season has been completed and there were a lot of surprising outcomes, not only in games, but also in fantasy football performances. There were a lot of big names who did not put up points like they were expected to do, and there were a lot of lesser-known names who balled out.

Coming into week one there are always a lot of question marks regarding players rebounding from injuries. A few big ones we kept our eyes on: Christian McCaffery and Saquon Barkley. 

These two running backs have been first-round picks in fantasy football drafts across all fantasy platforms, but injuries riddled both last season. The season started off strong for McCaffery, but Barkley did not have an impressive start.

McCaffery put up 27.7 points in PPR formats while Barkley put up 3.7. McCaffery did this without putting up a touchdown in week one, which should be promising for all McCaffery fantasy owners this season. 

Although Barkley’s performance was sub-par, fantasy owners should have nothing to worry about this early in the season. Barkley and the Giants went up against one of the toughest defenses in the league this past week in the Denver Broncos, and their schedule only gets easier.

Barkley is coming back from an ACL tear, which takes many players significant time to completely recover from. It is important to hold on to him for now and not panic early.

The NFL did see some amazing performances by some players that we may not have been expecting. Amari Cooper, Deebo Samuel, and Adam Thielen all tallied over 30 points in PPR formats in week one.

They all ranked outside of the top 36 season rankings heading into week one, but all managed to be top six performers this week. They each got ten or more targets this week, so look for more weeks with great performances as long as they are getting volume. 

Week one also produced many necessary waiver wire pickups heading into week two. Some favorites include Jamaal Williams of the Detroit Lions, Jameis Winston of the New Orleans Saints, Sterling Shepard of the New York Giants, and the Arizona Cardinals defense. Make sure you are snagging these players before anyone else does in your league.