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Welcome, RotoBallers, to my official tiered rankings for week 1 of this NFL season! You can find my core plays at RB and WR each week in my Anchors column as well as the rest of my favorites plays in our premium cheat sheet.
The concept behind these rankings is to give you an idea of how to approach lineup building for this week's slate. I will rank all relevant players based on their point-per-dollar value in one of five tiers and then provide notes on each tier explaining how I plan to utilize each tier this week.
Tier 1 is going to have most of my favorite plays and likely a good bit of chalk, but you're not likely going to be able to build too many lineups ONLY using players from Tier 1.
Tiers 2 and 3 are going to have some players you will want to mix and match in lineups, likely at lower ownership than Tier 1.
Tiers 4 and 5 are players that I likely won't have much exposure to that week and are players that you should only consider in large field GPPs if you are going to be mass multi-entering a large number of lineups.
NFL Week 1 - Premium DFS Rankings
- Rankings are based primarily on DK pricing and are based on points-per-dollar value, not raw points.
- Core plays are highlighted in green boxes.
- Bold black font indicates the player is useable in all formats - tournaments and cash games.
- Bold blue font indicates the player is preferred for tournaments. These are usually lower-owned pivot plays.
- Red font indicates that I am fading that player, and wouldn't suggest any exposure to them even if you are making multiple builds.
- If a player is not on the chart, it's likely because they are only a part-time player on offense. I will attempt to update the rankings and notes each week on Saturday or Sunday morning once injury news becomes more concrete.
Tier 1 Notes:
Tier 1 is where I am going to be pulling my cash game running backs with Cook and Kamara being my cash game locks. C-Mac and Henry are guys I want exposure to as high-volume players in good spots and C-Mac is certainly cash-game worthy as well. You'll notice I am not paying up for QBs in cash, but there are some elite GPP options here with Kyler, Allen, and Tanny being my favorite three.
High-priced receivers this week could go under-owned as there is more value at WR than RB. I have Ridley, Nuk, and Diggs as my top receivers and Julio is going to be someone I have a ton of exposure to especially if AJ Brown misses this game. Callaway-Pittman-Higgins are the cash game cheap plays here, but be ready to pivot onto some other guys in their price ranges in tourneys.
At TE, Kelce is in a class of his own, but Pitts is the best option on a point-per-dollar basis and I want to have a lot of him in cash and GPPs.
Tier 2 Notes:
This is my favorite tier for QBs in cash and GPPs with Matt Ryan and Joe Burrow being my two favorites. Hurts should be popular in cash and Sammy D's price on FD is very appealing. There are a nice chunk of RBs here as well with Mixon, Mostert, and J-Rob being my favorites. Tier 2 is loaded at the receiver position and a lot of these guys are REALLY cheap (E. Moore, Waddle, Gage, etc).
At TE, I really like both guys from the SF-DET game as pivots off Kelce and Pitts chalk. And then it gets ugly really fast.
Tier 3 Notes:
This is where things start to dry up, but there are plenty of players here worth some exposure if you are building multiple lineups this week. Jameis Winston, Mike Davis, Corey Davis, Parris Campbell, and Anthony Firkser are all worth a look in GPPs and I have even flirted with the idea of some Tyrod Taylor exposure.
Some of these backs could be sneaky and very low owned - especially CEH and Jonathan Taylor - who a lot of the industry is split on as far as their potential this season.
If you're paying down at TE, there are some other guys here worth consideration like Ertz (as a pivot off Goedert) and Noah Fant.
Tier 4 Notes:
Give me some Teddy B this week as he makes his Denver debut. He has some talented receivers and we've seen him play at a pretty high level the last few seasons. At RB, Damien Harris could have a nice week if New England decides to feed him the rock and keep Mac Jones from throwing too much in his debut. Chase Edmonds is a good player and is a low-owned play from a popular game. I'm really not touching Pittsburgh this week or some of the Eagles' receivers as you can see.
Tier 5 Notes:
NOT MUCH TO SEE HERE! This is where we see the most all-out fades. A lot of these players are from the SD-WAS game that I am avoiding like the plague. I'm also steering clear of the Denver-NYG game for the most part, especially the Giants side of things. Javonte Williams does intrigue me a bit with his talent as does Jerry Jeudy. Some of these tight ends aren't even starting themselves in their own fantasy leagues this week.
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