Last season, post-Week 1, going into Week 2 waiver wire, was one of the most impactful waiver wire runs. Elijah Mitchell, Cordarrelle Patterson, Hunter Renfrow, Christian Kirk, and Dalton Schultz were added in most leagues. Mitchell was the clear running back to roster in a good offense with a path to yearly usage. Other players went under the radar and could be picked up with reasonable faab bids and waiver priorities.
All in all it was a strong week for our roster making transactions rather difficult. The brightest star is of course Darrell Henderson. The former Memphis Tiger played 82-percent of his team’s snaps and dominated usage in all situations. While he was not able to punch in a score or provide much in terms of efficiency, his usage profile was that of an RB1.
Buffalo, this year’s Super Bowl favorite, opened the 2022 season as road favorites against the defending Super Bowl Champion Rams. They lived up to the advanced billing, crushing the defending champs 31-10, and it wasn’t even that close.
Last year, the Bills stopped teams by preventing big plays. This year, it seems they’re going to prevent little plays, too. They completely stomped on the Rams’ revamped offensive line. The Bills defense sacked Matthew Stafford seven times. Last year, he didn’t see his seventh sack until Week 8.
The worst part of our beloved game is the frequency of injuries. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of such a fast-paced, contact-heavy sport. It’s something that is important to remember as we approach the first full week of the preseason. Luckily for the NFL players, they have access to some of the best doctors in the world and can usually return to form at least by the next season. Unfortunately for us fantasy players, it’s not always easy to know when a player will get hurt. To another degree, sometimes your roster isn’t big enough to plan ahead for an injury. This series, the Infirmary Report, will give you advice on the injuries that have happened every week during the season. Without further ado, here are the injuries from the first week of regular season action.
The Broncos have been one quarterback away from competitiveness since Peyton Manning’s retirement. They fill this much needed void with Russell Wilson. Though his 2021 season was marred with injury, Wilson was still chucking the rock when healthy. Wilson’s 5.5 Deep Ball Attempts Per Game (No. 1) and 10 Air Yards Per Attempt (No. 6) support this.
Football is back! It’s been a minute, but we finally made it through. Now, we all begin our journeys of winning our leagues, watching some good ball, and maybe winning a few bets along the way. That’s where I come in. Betting the spread in the NFL can be tough, but it is not impossible. Over the season, for PlayerProfiler EDGE, I’ll be making picks against the spread for each game of the NFL season. Last year, I was well above .500, so hopefully that continues in 2022. Let’s get off to a great start to the 2022 season. Welcome back football!
We made it! Football season is finally here and so is the ability to take advantage of overreactions reflected in player prop lines. The pain of seeing players designated as out, and the anticipation of them being questionable or active on Fridays is finally here to stay for a few months. In this article series, I’ll follow up Friday practices with Saturday morning selections of my favorite player props and pick ‘ems on the DFS pages of Underdog Fantasy and Sleeper.
A.J. Terrell finished 2021 ranked No. 1 in Coverage Rating, Catch Rate Allowed, Passer Rating Allowed, and Fantasy Points Allowed Per Target. Meanwhile, Michael Thomas has gone on to play in one game since their Week 13 matchup in 2020.
Amari Cooper had three top-10 scoring weeks last season. Two of those cornerbacks primarily tasked to guard him are out of the NFL. Outside of those games, Cooper had ZERO top-24 performances in 2021.
Josh Allen attempts to lead the Bills prolific offense to an opening night victory against the defending champs. He has at his disposal a duo of Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis who’ve compiled 31 touchdowns over the last two seasons. They patched arguably their only offensive hole this offseason with the drafting of James Cook, who will immediately see a fantasy relevant role.
The defending champs are undefeated on opening day under head coach Sean McVay. With Allen Robinson now in Matthew Stafford’s arsenal, this offense is not going to skip a beat from 2021. In fact, they’ll only be sharper. Cam Akers returns to the lineup fully recovered. With a rejuvenated offense and an undermanned Bills secondary, the Rams are in a great spot to keep the streak alive.
Sony Michel was cut before the season, giving Chase Edmonds more touches to handle at the head of the Miami backfield. Edmonds had over 40 receptions each of the last two seasons, and now joins Mike McDaniel’s RB-friendly offense. He projects to get most of the passing-down work and brings elusiveness, with a 29.6-percent (No. 12) Juke Rate and a 10.86 (96th-percentile) Agility Score.
Last season, the Bills allowed the lowest completion percentage in the league, snagging 19 interceptions to allowing 12 passing touchdowns. Tre’Davious White will be out, but rookie first-rounder Kaiir Elam comes in with Micah Hyde anchoring the secondary. With Von Miller coming off the edge, the Rams offense will have its hands full against a powerful Bills defense. Stafford does not have a favorable matchup this week.
