The first Sunday of the NFL season is in the books! On the latest SI Fantasy podcast, we broke down some of the top headlines of the week as the fantasy season kicked off.
Top Performances from Week 1
Aaron Rodgers turned back the hands of time and looked just as good as he ever has. Rodgers dominated the Vikings defense, throwing for 364 yards and four touchdowns. The Vikings had no answers for Rodgers or his top target Davante Adams, who caught 14 passes for 156 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Cam Newton made his New England Patriots debut. While his passing number weren’t great, Newton still lead the Patriots in rushing yards with 75 and also scored two rushing touchdowns.
Second-year quarterback Kyler Murray had a huge game in the Arizona Cardinals upset victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Murray threw a touchdown pass and ran for one as well. His new offseason addition, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught 14 passes for 151 yards in the upset victory on the road.
Lastly, the crew spoke about the big games from Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, and the Lions debut of walking Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson.
Week 1 Fantasy Injury News
The guys recapped the injury news from Week 1, headlined by Jets RB Le’Veon Bell who existed the game late in the first half with a hamstring issue.
“Fantasy managers could be in for a long season,” said Dr. Roto on the latest podcast. “If I had 147 fantasy teams I would have 147 fantasy teams without Le’Veon Bell!”
In Indianapolis, running back Marlon Mack’s injury could be beneficial to Colts rookie running back Jonathan Taylor, but Nyheim Hines after scoring two touchdowns could be the waiver wire pick up of the week.
In Buffalo, we discussed rookie RB Zack Moss splitting work with Devin Singletary, but Moss just looked like the better player.
Additionally, in the Sunday night game, Rams RB Malcolm Brown put himself squarely in the mix as a key waiver wire pickup ahead of Week 2.
Lastly, we closed out with us talking about the debut of this year’s rookie class. Top draft pick Joe Burrow led his Cincinnati Bengals to a game-winning touchdown drive, only for it to be called off by pass interference and then a missed field goal to send the game to overtime. Also in that game, Chargers RB Joshua Kelley is someone fantasy managers will be paying up for this week on the waiver wire
