Week 1 Fantasy Football Sneaky Starts & Sleepers
All but the luckiest fantasy owners at some point need to find the proverbial diamond in the rough—a waiver wire or bench player capable of putting up some points in a pinch. This weekly feature is dedicated to that part of fantasy football. It's not pretty, but it's part of the game.
I’ll put the defense’s aFPA rank in parentheses below, though users should exercise caution in putting too much stock into last year’s strength-of-schedule. The higher the number, the better the matchup. We will update aFPA for 2024 starting with Week 4 of this season.
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff, Lions (vs. LAR, 28)
The Goff Gambit begins. For those who didn’t read my Draft Day Strategery opus, the Goff Gambit is simply drafting Goff and starting him whenever he plays at home. In 17 home games over the last two seasons, Goff has averaged 277 passing yards, 2.5 touchdowns, and 0.5 interceptions, or 21.3 fantasy points per game. That’s a higher average than Lamar Jackson’s 20.7, which made him the fantasy QB3 last season. Managers can stream another quarterback whenever Goff goes on the road–13.9 PPG in all road games, 14.5 PPG in all indoor road games–though I would consider Goff on the road if he’s indoors in a great matchup.
Matthew Stafford, Rams (@ DET, 31)
Stafford finished as the fantasy QB15 last season and gets a tasty matchup against his old team. The Lions yielded the sixth-most passing yards (4,205) and the sixth-most passing touchdowns (28) last season. Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp are good to go, which certainly helps.
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