2016 NFL Fantasy Football Week 1: Start Em’ or Sit Em’

Welcome to the Week 1 of the 2016 NFL season!

Every week, I will pick some players who I think will overachieve and underachieve based on ESPN’s weekly rankings. Please feel free to ask any lineup questions here or on Twitter.

Let’s get to it.

Overachievers

QBs

• Buffalo Bills QB Tyrod Taylor - QB 12: The Baltimore Ravens’ pass defense does not looked improved. When healthy, Tygod was a top 10 fantasy QB last year.
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston - QB 15: This is another easy defensive-adjusted play. He is in the best shape of his life with all his weapons healthy.
• Cleveland Browns QB Robert Griffin III - QB 22: The Browns will be playing behind most of the season with their horrific defense and minimal running game.

RBs

• New York Jets RB Matt Forte - RB 20: He is slated to get the lion’s share of the touches in Week 1 when he will be the freshest.
• New York Giants RB Rashad Jennings - RB 21: He is another back who will dominate the carries. Plus, he gets the awful Dallas Cowboys running defense.
• Seattle Seahawks RB Christine Michael - RB 22: Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll came out and said that RB Thomas Rawls will not get many carries. This is an easy overachiever play.

WRs

• Green Bay Packers WR Randall Cobb - WR 18: He is back to his comfortable place in the slot and should excel all season.
• Indianapolis Colts WR Donte Moncrief - WR 22: I see him having a bigger year than teammate WR T.Y. Hilton. The Colts should need to throw as their defense leaves a lot to be desired.
• Detroit Lions WR Marvin Jones - WR 26: He is my breakout star at WR this year. It starts this week.

TEs

• Indianapolis Colts TE Dwayne Allen - TE 14: Ride him while he can play in what looks to be a shootout against the Lions.

K

• Washington Redskins K Dustin Hopkins-K 18: I am expecting a shootout.

Defense

• Philadelphia Eagles D-12: Jim Schwartz is a guru and I expect them to be a top 10 defense all season and grabbed them in all my leagues.

Underachievers

QBs

• Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger - QB 5: I want to see how he plays without RB Le’Veon Bell (suspended for the first three games) and WR Martavis Bryant (suspended for the entire 2016 season). Roethlisberger’s stats without them last year were not in the top 5 QB range.
• Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton - QB 10: On the road? Against the NFL’s best defense in the Denver Broncos? Coming off of a Super Bowl loss? No thank you.
• Arizona Cardinals QB Carson Palmer - QB 11: He still looked shell-shocked from last year’s playoffs in the preseason this last month. The New England Patriots had a whole offseason to game plan.

RBs

• Philadelphia Eagles RB Ryan Mathews - RB 15: This offense could be a dumpster fire even against a very bad Cleveland Browns defense.
• Indianapolis Colts RB Frank Gore - RB 16: Gore’s facing a Detroit Lions team who were pretty stout versus the run last year.
• Carolina Panthers RB Jonathan Stewart - RB 23: I want no part in facing the Denver Broncos defense at home.

WRs

• Green Bay Packers WR Jordy Nelson - WR 8: He didn’t play a single game in the preseason. The Pack will monitor his snaps, so he may be more of a decoy in Week 1.
• Denver Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas - WR 17: This is going to be a low-scoring slugfest in a Super Bowl rematch against the Panthers. I am skeptical about the second -year, 7th-round QB Trevor Siemian helming the Broncos’ offense.
• New England Patriots WR Julian Edelman - WR 23: He is another WR who barely played at all in the preseason. With a new QB in Jimmy Garoppolo (at least while Tom Brady serves out his four-game Deflategate suspension), I need to see one game before I plug and play Edelman.

TE

• New Orleans Saints TE Coby Fleener - TE 6: He recently admitted he is still “adjusting” to the playbook. That is a red flag in my world. The kind that matters

K

• New England Patriots K Stephen Gostkowski - K 4: I expect a low scoring game on the road.

D

• Green Bay Packers D 5: I would not want to go against a healthy Jacksonville Jaguars offense at home.

Thank you for reading and hit me up on Twitter.