Fantasy Football Weekly: Start Leonard Fournette in Season Debut

(Bloomberg) -- The NFL season kicks off tonight with 32 teams vying for a chance to play in Super Bowl 54 -- and hundreds of thousands of fanboys clamoring to one-up their friends and strangers in fantasy football.

This will be my 30th straight season drafting a fantasy squad, and I’m pretty good. I’ve won more championships than the New York Jets, but not quite as many as the New England Patriots.

Since there’s a robust market that revels in fantasy information, we’re writing about it. I’ll be here every Thursday giving my thoughts on the best value plays for that week’s games. That means I won’t be picking the obvious FAANG Stocks of Fantasy, such as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes or Giants running back Saquon Barkley. My picks will be based on a PPR (points per reception) league.

Value Starts: Week One

QB: Tom Brady. The Patriots quarterback usually picks apart the Steelers secondary. Expect the home opener at Foxborough to be much of the same, and look for a couple of scores and more than 300 yards passing.

QB: Drew Brees: The Saints quarterback had 21 touchdowns and one interception at home last season. The Texans traded defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, which can only help the New Orleans leader.

RB: Leonard Fournette: The Jaguars will be a much improved football team this season. That means playing good defense and running the ball. I’m picking the Jags to upset the Chiefs with Fournette playing a key role in the victory.

RB: Duke Johnson. The former Brown is now the Texans starting running back after the injury to Lamar Miller. Johnson should be catching a lot of balls out of the backfield this weekend.

RB: Josh Jacobs: Expect the Raiders to ride their first rounder out of Alabama often. The Broncos were 21st against the run last season. Watch for Jon Gruden to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible.

RB: Dalvin Cook: The Vikings are a much better home team than road team and the Falcons don’t play as well away from Atlanta. Look for Cook, who was injured most of last season, to break a few long ones and have a handful of catches out of the backfield.

WR: Allen Robinson: If I asked you to guess which wide receiver had 10 catches and 143 yards with a TD in his lone playoff game last year, you probably wouldn’t have picked Robinson. Expect the Bears receiver to pick up where he left off and have a big game against the Packers.

WR: Michael Gallup: Another strong playoff performer last season. In their loss to the Rams, the Cowboys wide receiver had 6 catches for 119 yards. While Amari Cooper gets a lot of attention, he may get a lot of one-on-one coverage against a weak Giants defense. Gallup has had a strong exhibition season.

WR: Stefon Diggs: See above with Atlanta not being a strong road team. They were 3-and-5 outside Georgia, giving up 28 or more points five times.

TE: Evan Engram: No Odell Beckham. No Golden Tate. So who else will get the ball when Eli Manning isn’t handing off or dumping the ball to Saquon Barkley? You could make a case for Sterling Shepard, but Engram averaged 80 yards receiving in his last 4 games last year when Beckham was out of the lineup.

TE: Jack Doyle: Doyle might be a big security blanket for new Colts starter Jacoby Brissett, who took helm for Indianapolis after Andrew Luck retired. Also, the Colts may be playing from behind this week and need to throw the ball to catch up.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Trueman in New York at rtrueman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net

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