Top Fantasy Football Stories for Week 1: Jordan Love, Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Fields and More
These are all the top stories around the league as we head into the first Sunday of the NFL season.
Top Stories
Love Injures his Leg in Opener
We start with a still-developing story that stems from Friday night's game in Brazil. With seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love took a shot to his leg and stayed down on the field for a considerable amount of time before eventually being helped to the sideline.
The extent of his injury is not yet clear, but whatever news we get will have a significant role on your fantasy decisions moving forward if you roster any Packers. This was a scary scene and we hope for the best outcome possible. If Love were to miss any time, Malik Willis is expected to step into the starting role for Green Bay. That would be a massive hit to every fantasy option in that offense. We will continue to update you throughout the week with any news that breaks.
The Bengals could be Without Both Top Wideouts
Joe Burrow may be without both of his top options at wide receiver when the Cincinnati Bengals take the field in their season opener on Sunday. On Friday, Tee Higgins was officially listed as doubtful on the injury report, which all but rules him out for this week's game. He has been struggling with a hamstring injury which has been a reoccurring theme throughout his career. His status for next week must also now be called into question as well. This is already a big blow to the Cincy offense, but the news could get even worse.
Ja'Marr Chase has been holding out for a new contract this summer - a new contract that never ended up coming. Because of this holdout, he didn't start practicing in full with the team until just a few days ago this week. This has caused him to be listed as questionable for this week's game and no one is committing to him being able to play.
While Chase did say he'd play out the season whether a new deal gets done by Sunday or not, he sounds very unsure about his status for Week 1. He described himself as a "game-time" call and stated that even if he does suit up he may be limited.
When asked about Chase playing in Sunday's game, head coach Zac Taylor simply said, "We'll see." None of that instills much confidence in his potential game-day status. The worst case of all may be if he is active but is on a significant snap count. Fantasy owners are going to have to cross their fingers that he's out there in a full time role.
If Higgins and Chase are both sidelined for this game, Andrei Iosivas is expected to serve as the WR1 for the Bengals. Despite great reports out of camp over the summer he'd be a very risky option being that he is virtually unproven. We will have to see how this all plays out on Sunday morning.
Fields may be Week 1 Starter in Pittsburgh
It looks like we may get to see Justin Fields start for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1 after all. After recently being named the Week 1 starter over Fields, Russell Wilson is now looking very questionable this week due to a reaggravated calf injury. Reports are that the expectation in Pittsburgh is that they will be rolling with Fields this week. Even if Wilson is active, he could be limited to an emergency reserve role. This is a potential game-changer for fantasy owners even if it's worrisome for Steelers' fans.
Fields has a much higher upside than Wilson and will be ranked significantly higher than Wilson was should he be named the starter. While it usually doesn't look pretty in real life, his game is exciting and littered with electric plays. The issue is those electric plays are matched only by his multitude of head-scratching plays. Still, he's worth considering as a fantasy option if he does play. That's more than we can say for Wilson.
Top Tight Ends Disappear on Thursday Night Football
Fantasy owners are sounding the alarm and smashing the panic button after top tight ends Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews kicked the season off with massive duds. Usually we would say don't overreact to one game, and we are saying that to an extent, but we can't say there aren't some valid reasons to be really concerned.
We'll start with Kelce, who managed just three receptions for 34 yards on four targets. Of the two, we are less concerned with him, nevertheless, we still see the red flags. He will turn 35 years old in less than a month and is coming off a down year in which he fell off a cliff in the second half of the season.
Age could be a big reason for that. However, his decline also correlated with the emergence of Rashee Rice. On Thursday night, we saw Rice dominate the shorter passes and the middle of the field. This is an area that has been owned by Kelce for years. The combination of an aging vet with an upcoming star who can do almost everything you do but better is alarming for Kelce and his outlook for the remainder of not just this season but his career. Still, he has earned the benefit of the doubt and we aren't throwing in the towel on him yet.
Andrews was even worse than Kelce catching both of his uncommonly low two targets for just 14 yards. What makes this so concerning for him is that Isaiah Likely was the clear top target on the team. This is a role that Andrews has dominated for years.
Now a younger and more explosive tight end may have stole the job right away from him. Likely saw 12 targets and turned them into nine receptions for 111 yards and a TD while coming less than an inch away from another potential TD reception in crunch time.
Andrews is now 29 years old and coming off of a significant injury. It remains to be seen how this would play out, but the alarms are starting to sound. With that said, we still aren't ready to consider dropping Andrews for Likely. When that happens it will be full blown panic mode for Andrews' owners.
Chargers to take "Hot Hand" Approach to their Backfield
One last quick story that has flown a bit under the radar this week but has a lot fantasy relevance.
Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman came out and directly said that the team is going to take a hot-hot approach with their running backs. Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins are essentially being viewed as co-starters and whoever is running better at the moment will be fed the bulk of the carries.
This is a backfield fantasy owners have been trying to figure out all offseason. Unfortunately, the answer we received didn't do much to clear anything up for us or make our decisions any easier when it comes to this backfield.
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