Fantasy Football Friday: Start/sit for Week 1 of 2018 NFL

season Start/sit is a big thing for Fantasy Football. Decisions like these always need to be made and it’s always better to get advice. But I’m not particularly a fan of generic start/sit columns because there’s so much unknown — what scoring your league has Color Rush Nate Solder Jersey , roster size, do you have any other options? Unfortunately there’s really no way to personally cater this column to you, so we get these columns that list a few players that might have a sizable group of people on the fence. At the same time, I want to cater this to you. You’re who I’m trying to help. Trying emphasized. If you like the column as it is, awesome! At the end of this post, I’ll put a poll to whether you’d like start/sit to keep appearing like this or if you’d like something that could be more personalized, like maybe an hour or so Sunday morning on Twitter or through the Questions feature on Instagram stories. Please let your opinion be known.With that out of the way, here’s start/sit for Week 1.Running backStart: Jamaal Williams, Green Bay PackersJamaal Williams is currently Green Bay’s starting running back, at least until Aaron Jones returns from suspension and maybe after. Williams didn’t put up overly impressive numbers last season, but there is some reason to believe in improvement. Per Next Gen Stats. Williams was ninth in running back Efficiency last season, which I found was more predictive year-to-year than just yards per carry. The Packers are favored by over a touchdown, which could lead to some increased work on the ground at the end of the game.Start: Marshawn Lynch, Oakland RaidersIt’s an easy joke to make, but Jon Gruden’s coaching philosophy might not have evolved from the last time he was a head coach. Considering all he’s said and done throughout the offseason, it’s hard to imagine he’s not a firm believer in running the ball and running it often — even if it is straight into Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh. However, the Rams did give up the second most fantasy points per game to running backs last season and Lynch is sure to see volume on Sunday.Sit: Chris Carson, Seattle SeahawksPeople might not remember how good Chris Carson was last season when he was healthy. Unfortunately that might not help him in the Week 1 matchup against the Denver Broncos. For the bit the Broncos defense slipped last season, the run defense was still one of the best in the league — third in DVOA, sixth-fewest fantasy points allowed per game to running backs. The Seahawks appear to have a new commitment to the run game, but that might not find success early in the season in Denver.Sit: Adrian Peterson, Washington RedskinsWe’ve talked a bit this offseason about how running into stacked boxes instantly decreases the chance of a running play being successful. Adrian’s Peterson’s running style calls for defenses to stack the box against him because of the heavy formations his team rolls out for him. He usually needs a fullback and can’t really run from shotgun. He’s going against defense that was the best run defense by DVOA last season and allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points per game to running backs. That defense is now coached by the guy who led the No. 5 rush defense by DVOA and allowed the third-fewest fantasy points per game to running backs. Wide receiverStart: Juju Smith-Schuster, Pittsburgh SteelersSince 2014 in games without Le’Veon Bell, Ben Roethlisberger has averaged two more pass attempts and 43 more passing yards per game than with Bell in the lineup. The short passes typically reserved for Bell turn into longer passes to wide receivers. Last year no team ran base defense more than the Cleveland Browns, which is asking for the Steelers to come out with three wide receivers and sling the ball around. Smith-Schuster is a big play waiting to happen against a defense that tied for the sixth-most passing touchdowns of 20 or more yards allowed last season.Start: Keelan Cole, Jacksonville JaguarsKeelan Cole is the latest in a now long line of acquired and developed Jaguars receivers that don’t get enough attention because of the quarterback situation. But Cole, a former undrafted free agent, is quite good. From Week 9 through the end of the regular season, Cole had the 13th-most fantasy points among wide receivers and only Marvin Jones (19.8) had a higher yards per reception than Cole (18.7) among wide receivers with at least 30 catches in that span. If Cole gets a bunch of Eli Apple on Sunday, he could have a nice day.Sit: Robby Anderson Youth Evan Engram Jersey , New York JetsRobby Anderson is the Jets’ No. 1 receiver and last year he played that role quite well with Josh McCown. On Monday night, though, the Jets will face the Detroit Lions and that means Anderson is likely to see a good amount of Darius Slay, one of the league’s most underrated cornerbacks. Last season the Lions were third in DVOA against opposing No. 1 receivers and Slay followed top receivers most weeks. Between the tough matchup and the first start for a rookie quarterback, it might be better to wait and see with Anderson before using him later in the season.Sit: Sterling Shepard, New York GiantsAll the talk about Odell Beckham and Jalen Ramsey kind of overshadows that Jacksonville has another really really good cornerback in A.J. Bouye. If Shepard plays outside, he’ll likely get Bouye on most of his routes — or he’ll get Ramsey if the two stick to sides. Even in the slot, Shepard won’t have a an easy matchup. If you have a better option at receiver, it might be the right place to go and avoid the Jacksonville matchup with the Giants figure out their offense to open season.Tight endStart: Delanie Walker, Tennessee TitansNo team gave up more fantasy points to tight ends last season than the Miami Dolphins — they narrowly beat the New York Giants (10.2 to 10.1). The Dolphins upgraded at safety and linebacker in the draft with the selections of Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jerome Baker, but there’s still plenty of places for a veteran like Walker to exploit the defense. If he’s healthy — he had been out of practice but did not appear on the injury report this week — he should be a big part of a Titans’ passing game that is still working things out with the wide receivers.Sit: Tyler Eifert, Cincinnati BengalsTyler Eifert is healthy at the moment, but the Bengals want to preserve that health for as long as they can. It looks like that will involve a limited snap count, at least in the early part of the season. While some of those limited snaps should take place in the red zone — somewhere Eifert has been great — it’s safer to see what this looks like in a game before hoping Eifert can become and Antonio Gates-like red zone specialist. Tight end is always deep and there will be plenty of options to fill in like Tyler Higbee against the Raiders or Ben Watson against the Buccaneers this week if you need a streamer.Post-game quotebook: What the Giants were saying following late loss in Carolina The New York Giants fell in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday afternoon, dropping their fourth loss of the season to the Carolina Panthers 33-31. Panthers kicker Graham Gano hit a 63-yard field goal to win the game. Let’s take a look at what the players are saying following the tough loss. Landon Collins on how the Giants locker room is dealing with Odell Beckham’s comments from earlier this week...“I don’t know what comments you guys are talking about,” Collins said. “I didn’t hear about them, but when Odell [Beckham] came to talk to us, he spoke from the heart, he talked gratefully, and we knew where he was coming from. We knew he was coming from the heart, so you know he’s a great teammate, a great guy, a great person and a leader. This offense, this team, we have to look up to him, so we knew where he was coming from.”Panthers quarterback Cam Newton on Gano’s game-winning kick...“I am happy that we got a kicker like that,” Newton said. “A wise man once told me that a great quarterback is only as good as his kicker. Over the years you see so many quarterbacks get bailed out by the kickers. I shouldn’t say bailed out, I’ll just say helped out and Graham put the whole team on his back today. Well, on his toe today.”Gano on the reaction on the field following his game-winning kick...“That was madness,” Gano said. “That’s the only word I can use to explain it. I just don’t think it’s hit me yet. I was going nuts. I think the first thing I saw was Mike (Palardy) reacting that it went in because I couldn’t really see over those giants in front of us – not the other team Youth Will Hernandez Jersey , just our offensive lineman. But I just have no words for it.”Saquon Barkley on the on the go-ahead touchdown...“At the moment, it felt great,” Barkley said. “We wanted to go down and find a way to score and put seven on the board. We needed seven on the board. Coach, the offensive coordinator and the whole offensive staff called great plays and put us in great positions to get into the end zone. We found a way to get into the end zone. Like I said, Carolina came up with a 63-yard field goal. I don’t know what else you can say about that. We played our butt off and you have to give credit where credit is due. They made a 63-yard field goal and won the game.“Beckham on regretting any comments criticizing head coach, Pat Shurmur and teammates...“I don’t regret anything, I don’t regret anything that I said,” Beckham said. “If it took that for us to come together as a team like we did today, I can take that every single time. I spoke to the team just to kind of relay the message that sometimes stuff comes off the wrong way. Words can be portrayed in any kind of light. The conversation is between us. But the way we responded as a team to what was said, I felt like it would’ve been too easy after what was said, and after what I said to them for us to come in here and have heart, energy and all that stuff. Grit, whatever the words you want to use for that. We had it today, and we came up short, but I’m proud of this team, and this is the team that we are going to be for the rest of the season. Like I said, if it took that to get us going, I can take that. I’m trying to be a leader, I’m in a position I’ve never been in. I’m trying to grow, I’m learning on the way, on the fly, but I’m proud of where we went today. We gave it our all, we came against adversity, calls here and there. We can never rely on the referees to win the game, but there was calls here and there that were questionable or this and that, but we kept fighting, kept fighting, and kept fighting. That’s all I could ask for.”