As I write this early on Monday morning, all but one Week 1 game is comfortably in the books, and as is always the case on opening weekend, we encountered a slew of surprises. Some promising, others concerning and many that may have affected our outlook on a player or an offense. We’re all doing our best not to overreact to one Sunday (and one Thursday and one Friday), but some of these shifting perspectives are bound to have permanent ramifications.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled the (first) full weekly fantasy stock report. These are the most notable risers and fallers heading into Week 2.
After a weekend of fantasy-community chaos over Christian McCaffrey’s calf, the San Francisco star was healthy and dominant on Sunday afternoon, racking up 142 scrimmage yards on 22 carries and nine receptions. The nine catches were McCaffrey’s most as a 49er, with his last nine-catch game coming nearly three years ago with Carolina. He played 75% of the snaps, while Brian Robinson Jr. played the other 25% which felt like just enough to keep CMC fresh without threatening his RB1-overall upside. Despite all the concern entering Week 1, McCaffrey clearly belongs in the “best in the business” tier, which currently includes Bijan Robinson and the ageless Derrick Henry. The stock could not be much higher (pending health).
After months of consternation over what was perhaps the murkiest backfield in the league, Travis Etienne Jr. answered a whole lot of questions in Week 1. He handled 19 of the team’s 29 running back touches, on 62% of the snaps, and totaled 156 scrimmage yards while averaging 8.9 yards per carry. While 71 of those yards came on a single breakaway run, Etienne was the only Jacksonville back to flash that big-play ability … and averaged 4.8 yards on his other 15 carries. So far, only Derrick Henry (182) sits above Etienne on the scrimmage yards leaderboard. Oh, and Tank Bigsby and Bhayshul Tuten combined for just 23 yards on their eight carries. For now, this looks like Etienne’s backfield to lose.
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Hearkening back to Thursday night, we cannot forget about Javonte Williams, who shocked just about everybody with his 15-carry, two-TD performance against the Eagles. Williams and Henry are the only backs with multiple rushing touchdowns entering Monday night. And while explosive rookie Jaydon Blue was inactive, and Williams did not manage a single run over 11 yards, it seems quite clear he’ll be the clock-grinder and goal-line back for Dallas this season. At worst, that should make him a sort of “poor man’s David Montgomery” in this offense, which is still a major boost in stock from his 10th-round ADP. At best, Williams finds some of his pre-injury explosiveness and attains consistent RB2 upside throughout the 2025 season.
We knew Tony Pollard would see an extra share of the workload with Tyjae Spears on injured reserve … but 19 of 21 running back touches was particularly impressive. The only reason Pollard isn’t among the most exciting risers of the week is that the Titans offense and rookie QB Cam Ward looked abysmal against the Broncos defense. But that’s the Broncos defense. Ward and Tennessee should have better games in the future, and Pollard’s whopping 49% of the team’s scrimmage yards should matter a little more in those games.
Things evened up over the course of the game, but there was a stretch early in Sunday’s action where Zach Charbonnet looked like a bell cow for Seattle. Specifically, he saw seven of the first nine running back touches. In the end, he saw 12 carries to Kenneth Walker III’s 10, and 29 snaps to Walker’s 20. That’s not enough to suggest a dominant workload, or even clear-cut “RB1A” status … but it does suggest Charbonnet is an important piece of a committee with Walker, rather than a backup.
Ricky Pearsall did not take long to justify all the “2025 breakout” predictions. While both George Kittle (hamstring) and Jauan Jennings (shoulder) exited Sunday’s action, the second-year wideout totaled a team-high 108 receiving yards on seven targets, including a 45-yard bomb. He led the team in routes (32) and saw a monstrous 54.3% share of the team’s air yards, averaging 19.8 air yards per target. Through Sunday night, he trails only CeeDee Lamb (173), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (166) and Keon Coleman (144) in total air yards across the league. Like teammate McCaffrey, Pearsall was dominant without finding the end zone and was a Riq Woolen fingertip away from doing so. When the touchdowns come, it might be tough to keep him out of WR1 territory in fantasy.
Zay Flowers set a career high with 143 receiving yards on Sunday Night Football and was essentially the entire passing attack for Baltimore. He accounted for 47% of Lamar Jackson’s targets, 50% of his completions, 68% of his yards and one of his two touchdown passes. Flowers’ 54.3% air yards share ranks fifth in the league entering Monday night, and he is the only player in the league to catch at least seven passes and average 20+ yards per reception. Flowers had a couple games like this over the latter half of last season and still finished as just the WR24, so we’re not crowning him as an elite WR1 just yet. But it was an awfully good start.
While some had tagged Keon Coleman for a breakout in his second year, his Sunday Night Football performance went above and beyond. Coleman caught eight of 11 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown, but perhaps more importantly, he totaled 144 air yards on the night, third-most in Week 1 behind Lamb and Smith-Njigba. Coleman won’t see double-digit targets on the regular as Buffalo won’t be playing catch-up like this most weeks but as long as he remains among Josh Allen’s first few looks, and averages anywhere close to 13 air yards per target, he should have consistently high upside.
It was vintage (odd-year) Deebo Samuel Sr. once again on Sunday, as the versatile All-Pro “receiver” led his new team in targets (10), catches (7) and receiving yards (77), while adding a highlight-reel 19-yard rushing touchdown. Quarterback Jayden Daniels threw just 30 passes and one touchdown in a game Washington controlled from start to finish, so things could get even more exciting when the Commanders aren’t facing the hapless Giants and have to air the ball out a bit more. The ceiling for Samuel is high as a potentially key cog in an excellent offense.
Entering Monday night, Justin Fields is your No. 2 scorer in fantasy football, behind reigning MVP Josh Allen (and his 38.76 points). Fields was extremely impressive against his former team on Sunday, completing 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for 48 yards and two TDs on the ground. The rushing scores were obviously nice for anyone who started him, but the way the ball was coming out of Fields’ hands was even more encouraging for his long-term outlook. Pro Football Focus gave him the second-highest passing grade on the week (90.4), behind only Matthew Stafford (93.8). If Fields throws anything like he did in Week 1 over the course of the season, on top of his elite rushing ability, he won’t just be a QB1, but a top-tier QB1, in the conversation with Allen, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts.
Since at least the NFL merger (in 1970), only two rookie tight ends have logged seven or more receptions in their Week 1 debut. One was Tyler Warren on Sunday (and the other, incredibly, was Browns TE Harold Fannin Jr., also on Sunday). Despite my call to fade the rookie in his very first game (based on historical precedent and a questionable QB), Warren bucked all the precedent and looked absolutely dominant (and so did Daniel Jones). Warren led the team with nine targets and those seven catches, and also logged a three-yard carry, flashing some of the usage versatility he had at Penn State. While we should temper our excitement a bit, there’s little question that Warren is going to be a valuable fantasy asset and has truly elite tight end upside in his very near future.
For fantasy managers who drafted Ashton Jeanty in the first round, a goal-line rushing touchdown was not quite enough to make up for an ugly 2.0 yards per carry and 1.0 yard per reception in his debut performance. Despite 21 touches on the day (encouraging), Jeanty is the RB22 entering Monday night (not so encouraging) and recorded a “long play” of just nine yards (straight up discouraging). He was minimally involved in the passing game two targets, two catches, two yards and the Raiders did not reach the red zone enough to offer confidence in a TD-heavy fantasy season (they made just one trip). A side-by-side comparison of Jeanty and Javonte Williams through Week 1 is not recommended for Jeanty’s managers or the squeamish. It’s nowhere near time to give up on the sixth-overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but his stock is headed the wrong direction to start the season.
The entire Cincinnati offense looked completely lost on Sunday against the Browns. The offensive line earned PFF’s lowest overall grade on the entire week (49.2), Joe Burrow completed just 14 passes for 113 yards, Chase Brown averaged 2.0 yards per carry and no Bengals receiver topped 35 receiving yards. Burrow’s yardage total was the second-lowest in a full game in his career … behind another Week 1 dud against the Browns, back in 2023. The offensive line is arguably the biggest concern, as it bleeds into everything else, and does not come with the same “talent guarantee” that Burrow or Ja’Marr Chase do, appearing at or near the bottom of most rankings lists entering the year. Still, the line hasn’t been great for most of Burrow’s career, and he’s usually managed to overcome. This might end up being Cincy’s worst offensive outing of the year it will almost certainly be Chase’s but it’s concerning that things can go this bad.
Speaking of messy outings by offenses with big cat mascots and struggling offensive lines. The post-Ben Johnson era in Detroit started with an absolute stinker on Sunday. While Jared Goff dink-and-dunked his way into 31 completions for 225 yards (1 TD, 1 INT), neither Amon-Ra St. Brown nor Jameson Williams managed double-digit fantasy points, and the run game totaled just 46 yards (their fewest in a game since October of 2023). Goff’s average time to throw clocked in at 3.09 seconds, but he hit just 4.5 air yards per attempt. Since Week 1 last year, the only other qualified QB to go over 3.0 seconds and under 5.0 AY/A in a loss was Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the 24-6 loss to the Bengals in Week 16. That’s not good company. The offensive line down two Pro Bowlers after this offseason earned PFF’s third-lowest grade on the week, behind only the Bengals and Titans. If we weren’t expecting regression for this squad, Sunday would be easier to write off as a fluke. For now, it’s a real worry.
Let’s continue our run through the bottom of the PFF offensive line grades, shall we? The Texans ranked fourth-lowest in Week 1, and it showed for C.J. Stroud, who posted a 74.3 passer rating with no touchdowns and one interception. As with the Bengals, no Texans receiver topped 35 yards, and while Nick Chubb looked pretty decent 60 yards on 13 carries the lack of receiving involvement or touchdown potential made his day a dud as well. The Texans were one of five teams with just a single red-zone drive in Week 1, and on that one drive, they made it to the 15-yard line before a 12-yard sack took them back out (resulting in a field goal). Stroud took 52 sacks last season and is already on pace for that range again. If their new-look O-line can’t get on the same page very quickly, it might be a rough year for everyone including Nico Collins, who started his season with three catches for 25 yards.
Unfortunately, if we’re just being honest, Tua Tagovailoa looked terrible on Sunday. He completed 61% of his passes, averaged just 5.0 yards per attempt, threw two interceptions and led just one scoring drive. Zach Wilson had a better passer rating on his one drive in relief (70.8) than Tagovailoa did the rest of the game (51.7). And as a result, both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle were held to four catches and 40 or fewer yards. The optimistic outlook is that the Colts defense is better than expected and that Tagoviloa and Co. will get back on track in the coming weeks. The pessimistic outlook is that Tagovailoa has been through too many injuries and has lost his highly efficient edge. The realistic outlook should be somewhere in between, but it might not get much easier against the Patriots in Week 2, the Bills in Week 3 and the Jets in Week 4.
In inverse correlation to Zach Charbonnet’s rise above, Kenneth Walker III saw a precipitous dip in his stock after an ugly Week 1 with just 24 scrimmage yards on 13 touches. Walker’s 1.8 yards per touch was the lowest by any player with double-digit touches in Week 1. And, as noted in the Charbonnet blurb, Walker ceded the majority of the RB rush attempts to Charbonnet, especially early in the game. There is still hope that KWIII unleashes his patented explosiveness, leads the backfield more weeks than not and thrives as the primary pass-catching back. But for now, his stock is much lower heading into Week 2 than it was heading into the season.