Takeaways from Week 1 as told by the tweets of the Fantasy Stronghold.
Heading into the season, it was pretty easy to see that this class of rookie running backs was as deep as any we've seen in recent memory. Things got off to a roaring start with Kareem Hunt's electric opening on Thursday night. But the biggest scene stealer of the weekend might be Tarik Cohen. "The Human Joystick" logged 16 touches on 27 offensive snaps and made the most of them with 113 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. It's crazy early but I'm willing to dub this the #YearOfTheRookieRB -- and we haven't even seen Dalvin Cook play yet.
For the second time in three years, Bill O'Brien talked up a starting quarterback before the season. And for the second time in three years, Bill O'Brien pulled that starting quarterback before the end of the first game. Pardon me if I'm not buying into everything The Notorious B.O.B. says about his signal-callers for awhile. But there's little doubt that things looked different (better?) with Watson under center. If the Texans offensive line was as poor as they showed today, it will help having a quarterback with some mobility to buy time to throw open things up downfield for DeAndre Hopkins. After what we saw from Savage today, it's worth a shot.
I'm far from ready to say that it's all over for Eddie Lacy ... but he's definitely on the clock. On a day in which Thomas Rawls was inactive and Lacy was facing his former club, the ex-Packer played just seven offensive snaps compared to 15 for C.J. Prosise and 27 for rookie Chris Carson. The Seahawks offensive line was atrocious which isn't the best news for a running back not exactly known for making tacklers miss. There might also have been a little extra motivation for the Packers defense to not be shown up by their former teammate. That doesn't mean that we necessarily have a ton of clarity in the Seattle backfield since there are still three other players there to share snaps and touches. But for the moment, I'm not sure that Lacy is a major threat steal from any of them.
Fantasy Twitter lighting up after Golladay's first touchdown was as inevitable as traffic on the 405 freeway at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday (or 5:30 a.m. on a Thursday, or 10 p.m. on a Saturday ... you get the point). But I'm willing to admit I was too quick to deny Golladay a chance to shine in the Lions offense. Right now, if I'm Marvin Jones I might be looking around and wondering exactly what my role is in this team's passing game. Matthew Stafford had 41 pass attempts and Jones only had two targets compared to Golladay's seven. After Jones' late-season fade in 2016, his Week 1 debut suggests the door is open for a new face to suck up additional targets. Golladay could be that guy.
For the past couple of seasons, we've been begging for Amari Cooper to get more looks from his quarterback near the goal line. Today it happened. Now maybe we should start asking for him to catch those targets. The upside is that Cooper did score a red zone touchdown, though it took a Herculean effort to drag defenders into the end zone. The downside is that later on, the Raiders went back to their old ways and tossed a red zone score to Seth Roberts. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It's not often we talk about defenses but a pair of lesser-discussed units made statements on Sunday. Yes, both the Jags and Rams had the benefit of facing poor opposing quarterback play but it's hard to deny that both the Jags and Rams forced the issue and made plays defensively. Both defenses are young and loaded with talent and could be dominant for the foreseeable future. Considering both are still available in a ton of NFL.com fantasy leagues, it might be time to think about scooping one of them up.
"Wait...what?"
- Injuries suck. Allen Robinson and Kevin White have already been lost for the season. David Johnson could potentially miss a significant amount of time. I repeat, injuries suck.
- Leonard Fournette faced eight or more defenders in the box on 57.7 percent of his attempts. With Robinson gone for the year, that number might go up.
- Chris Hogan and Brandin Cooks both averaged 20.3 air yards per target (tied for second behind Marqise Goodwin). The Patriots might be a vertical passing offense this season. If so, Tom Brady will need to be better than 2-of-12 on throws beyond 20 yards.
- Some of the tight ends among the top 10 scorers at their position in Week 1 (as of this writing): Austin Hooper, Jesse James, Demetrius Harris and C.J. Fiedorowicz. Just like we drew it up.
- Heading into Sunday Night Football, Kareem Hunt and Mike Gillislee were the only non-quarterbacks to score more than 20 fantasy points. The highest-scoring skill position player from Sunday's day games? Kenny Golladay.
And one for the road...
Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com. He's finishing up a 12-hour day in the office and is heading home to fire up NFL Game Pass to watch the games he didn't get to see in full. Don't feel bad for him though, because he's probably going to make a Guinness float with rocky road ice cream. He's not even sure that it'll be good. But it's not going to stop him. Send him your questionable dessert ideas on Twitter @MarcasG. If you read all of that, congrats. He also dishes out fantasy advice -- and life shenanigans -- on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (marcasg9)
