Week 1 has officially passed us by in the NFL, and that means the second week of college football has gone also. It’s fantasy football time, and today we are going to be talking about weekly strategies, player insights, rankings, and projections. The main premise here is that you should be taking into account all of your player analysis, but also combining it with insights, rankings, and projections. You never want to leave out information in favor of another, just take it all in and make the best-educated decisions you can make on each roster choice. Let’s get right into it by starting with something that many fantasy managers use these days, rankings, and not just generic rankings, but rankings for the season opener.
Weekly Rankings
Weekly rankings are awfully important to figure out the correct rosters to play each week in fantasy football, especially a Campus to Canton league.
College And NFL Rankings
College:
- Ashton Jeanty – Running Back
- Tetairoa McMillan– Wide Receiver
- Haynes King – Quarterback
- Oronde Gadsden – Tight End
NFL:
- Saquon Barkley – Running Back
- CeeDee Lamb – Wide Receiver
- Sam LaPorta – Tight End
- Josh Allen – Quarterback
Strategic Insights
For the second week in a row, I think it’s hard to put anybody else here but Ashton Jeanty. Jeanty backed up his six-touchdown performance last week with an equally impressive one, somehow. He ran 25 times and turned it into 192 rushing yards with three touchdowns. He continues to be one of the best running backs in the nation, he’s racking up tons of volume, and capitalizing on that volume with long rushing strikes.
Our first major change here comes with Saquon Barkley getting a mention. Barkley had an unbelievable afternoon in his debut with the Philadelphia Eagles. He scored three touchdowns, rushed for over 100 yards, and got some work in the passing game as well. Given how Philadelphia’s offensive line is one of the best in the league, and their offense is one of the most explosive, Barkley (if healthy) can consistently be one of the best running backs in the league this season.
Next comes Tetairoa McMillan. It was very tough to keep him here on this list after he had just two receptions for 11 yards in last week’s win over Northern Arizona. However, despite the massive disappointment, McMillan hasn’t had a game this bad since Week 4 of last year against Stanford. These types of games are far and few in between, which is why I believe he’ll snap right back to the number one receiving weapon that we’ve all come to know him as lately.
Most might assume we’d have a change here, but I’m sticking with CeeDee Lamb in the rankings over Tyreek Hill. Hill had a great Week 1 game, but over 50 percent of his yards came on just one play, which might not happen every week. Meanwhile, Lamb did exactly what we expected him to do, dominating targets and receptions. He had five receptions on 10 targets for 61 yards without a touchdown, but he also ran three times for 25 more yards. It’s not the performance that stood out, it was the fact that he’s the unquestioned top dog in the offense, and he’ll be a consistently great player in fantasy.
It’s time to mention Haynes King. The quarterback for Georgia Tech has had a phenomenal season so far. This past week, he completed 29 of his 39 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown, while adding six rush attempts for 67 yards and two more touchdowns. King doesn’t just provide value through the air; he’s also getting it done on the ground. He’s got three rushing touchdowns in the last two weeks, and three passing touchdowns. As long as he continues to put up consistent performances like he has in 2024, then he’ll be a top quarterback option in fantasy.
As for the tight-end positions, we have a bit of a change, with it now being Oronde Gadsden. The Syracuse tight end has been great this season. In the opener, he had seven receptions on 12 targets, turning that into 108 yards and a touchdown. This past weekend, he had six receptions on eight targets, turning that into 93 yards and two touchdowns. He’s been consistent through two weeks and is putting up numbers, unlike the rest of the position in college football at the moment.
For the NFL, that top tight end is still Sam LaPorta. The Detroit Lions offense as a whole didn’t really have a great day, and yet LaPorta still put up decent numbers (compared to the rest of the tight ends). He ended the day with five targets and four receptions for 45 scoreless yards. The positive is that he’s out there almost every down and will continue to be a dominant player all season long.
Finally, adding a quarterback to the list, it’s Josh Allen. Nobody was sure what we’d get from Allen, considering that he lost both Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis in the offseason. Instead of buckling under the pressure of a new receiving core, he thrived. He completed 18 of his 23 pass attempts for 232 yards and two touchdowns without a turnover, while also rushing nine times for 39 yards and two more touchdowns. Allen will keep on getting the job done through the air and on the ground, regardless of who is catching passes for him in this offense.
Jersey And Bench (Start/Sit)
You all know the drill here, each week there will be players that you want to start, and players that you want to sit. Below are a couple of options and some background information on why you should do either of the following.
Jersey/Bench Picks
Jersey:
- Tucker Gleason
- Gus Edwards
- Chris Olave
- Kaleb Johnson
- Andrew Armstrong
Bench:
- Wayshawn Parker
- Josh Jacobs
- Justin Herbert
- Skyler Bell
- Mark Andrews
Strategic Insights:
Let’s start with the jersey picks and begin with Tucker Gleason. Gleason had had back-to-back games now where he’s scored at least 27 fantasy points, and he’s thrown three touchdowns in each of those contests. He’s beginning to heat up, and he’s going up against a Mississippi State defense that has the possibility of getting exploited. If everything goes well, Gleason will have another consecutive week with a strong game.
Next is Gus Edwards. Edwards took the same number of touches (almost) as JK Dobbins in the season opener for the Los Angeles Chargers. While it was Dobbins who took the credit, he only had two or three runs that separated him. Edwards was the physical rusher who took most of the dirty work and is likely to get a ton of extra goal-line opportunities when the Chargers meet with one of the worst teams in the league in Week 2, the Carolina Panthers.
Chris Olave had a very disappointing week on a night when the New Orleans Saints scored just under 50 points. However, the reason for this was because the team got so far ahead early on, that they just reverted to a run-heavy unit. In Week 2 against a very talented Dallas Cowboys team, the Saints are likely going to be tasked with airing it out a lot more. Olave is their best wideout, and there’s no question that he’ll get the targets to have a nice game.
Next is Kaleb Johnson. Johnson has been great in 2024 so far, he’s rushed for 306 yards, averaged just under nine yards per carry, and scored four touchdowns. In both games that he has played this year, he’s been a focal point of the offense, and it’s hard to imagine that this just randomly stops moving forward. Especially with Iowa having to face off against Troy next week, which is one of those matchups that he should take advantage of, at least on paper.
And the last of the jersey picks is Andrew Armstrong. Armstrong missed a game due to an injury, then showed the world that he was worth a start in some fantasy leagues this past weekend. He had 10 receptions for 164 yards and displayed a type of usage that could allow him to make a house call at any moment. If he continues to be used this way, he will consistently be a good option to score a random long touchdown, and if he doesn’t, he could still be used as a number one target in an offense that looks completely different compared to last season.
Flipping over to the bench picks now, the first is Wayshawn Parker. Parker hasn’t eclipsed 100 rushing yards in either of his first two starts, though he did surpass 69 yards in each of those games. He also has three total touchdowns. The reason you might bench him this week is because their quarterback John Mateer ran for 200 yards last week and might be in line to steal a lot of the work again. Plus, Parker had eight carries in the opener and 11 this weekend, the volume isn’t there, and he needs to break a long rush to be viable in fantasy.
Then we got Josh Jacobs. Jacobs didn’t have a great start in the season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, but as the game progressed, he started to rip off bigger and bigger runs. However, quarterback Jordan Love will be out for the next few weeks, meaning that Jacobs is going to be homed in on by opposing defenses with Malik Willis as the possible next starter under center. Jacobs will get his carries, but he can only do so much as the only real threat.
Justin Herbert also falls on this list. Herbert didn’t have a great opening week because, well, the Chargers are going to be a run-heavy offense under new head coach Jim Harbaugh. In Week 1, Herbert was just handing the ball off until he needed to pick up a big conversion, and that’s what he’s going to do against the Panthers. The same Panthers that struggled against the run in the opener. Herbert probably won’t put up many points this weekend, the matchup is a little too good.
We also should mention Skyler Bell. Bell had 141 yards in the opener and 105 yards this past weekend. The reason why he might be better on the bench this week is because, in both games, he had one long reception over 37 yards. This weekend, he had just two catches for 105 yards and a touchdown. Without the 60-yard bomb for a scorer, he finishes with a terrible afternoon. Plus, he will be going up against Duke, a team that was ranked in the top 50 across the nation when facing the pass a season ago.
Lastly, we got Mark Andrews. I think we just need to wait and see with Andrews. In the opener, he had just two receptions for a minimal number of yards, while backup tight end Isaiah Likely rocked the stat sheet with a huge performance. In Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Andrews is probably going to continue trying to find a groove in the offense again, but the team will be too focused on running the ball to notice him often. I don’t see Andrews having a big bounce back this week, though he’ll find a rhythm soon enough.
Projections
Projections are numbers that estimate how many fantasy points a specific player might get in a given week. They can vary depending on the situation or matchup and need to be monitored weekly to get a good understanding of what experts think of them.
Weekly Projections
College:
- QB – Kaidon Salter – 37.24 points
- RB – Ollie Gordon – 33.84 points
- WR – Tetairoa McMillan – 15.92 points
- TE – Colston Loveland – 11.70 points
NFL:
- QB – Josh Allen – 22.2 points
- RB – Saquon Barkley – 16.3 points
- WR – Tyreek Hill – 13.80 points
- TE – Sam LaPorta – 8.8 points
Strategic Insights
These are the players who are projected to garner the most fantasy points at their position in both college and the NFL. These numbers are calculated by basically estimating the stats that a player might have given their track record and upcoming matchup. If they have an easier matchup and are historically good against that specific team, the projections will be a little higher. If it might be a blowout, the projection might be even higher than that. The reason why it is important to understand these projections is that if you’re ever stuck wondering what to do, they could give you an idea of how a player might perform. Let’s say you can’t decide who to start between two wide receivers, but one is estimated to be 10 points more than the other. That number alone can indicate that the higher projected receiver could be in line for a significantly better day, and you can feel comfortable starting them over your other option. They aren’t guaranteed to be accurate every week, and they do change quite often, because, at the end of the day, they are simply projections, but it’s a good place to start making lineup decisions.
Conclusion
With all of that being said, it is critical to stay on top of your weekly strategies and pay close attention to rankings, and player insights. You never know when you might be caught up between two players and need to figure out how to break the tie in your mind. That is exactly where rankings and projected points play a factor, in helping lay all of the information out for you in an easy-to-read format. Each week is going to be an exciting time for everybody, so before we get ahead of ourselves, just remember to double-check your starting lineups and make sure that you’re happy with the players you have locked in at the moment. I heavily recommend you take some of our listed rankings into consideration, and also for you to check out other projections and rankings as well to get a clear vision of how each week might play out in both college and the NFL.