FanDuel Daily Fantasy Football Helper: Week 1

We are here, folks. Week 1 of the NFL kicks off in two days, and with that, we officially have real football back in our lives for the next five months.

We are ready to rock and roll with a full slate of daily fantasy football. Week 1 is always a different animal compared to other weeks due to player salaries being released super early during training camp. There have been some minor injuries and some big-time holdouts from Ezekiel Elliott and Melvin Gordon that will have a strong impact on the slate. As of Tuesday morning, both of those guys are still holding out, and if they miss Week 1, players like Tony Pollard, Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson -- none of whom are mentioned in this piece -- will be super valuable.

The plan here is to dive in to the weekly main slate and touch on guys at each position to help get you started on your weekly research. As always, we recommend checking out all of our premium tools. Specifically, the heat map is a great way to get a general overview of the slate’s implied team totals as well as the strengths and weaknesses for each team. We also offer weekly projections to help you decide between players as well as providing you with the slate’s top values.

Week 1 shouldn’t bring many surprises in terms of inactives, but make sure to pay attention to the news if anything does happen. With salaries being released nearly a month ago, there are plenty of values across all positions on this slate, which should make it interesting in terms of player ownership.

Let’s break down Week 1 and some of the players who stand out on the FanDuel main slate.

Quarterbacks

Carson Wentz ($7,600): In his 24 regular season games over the past two seasons, Wentz has averaged 20.4 FanDuel points per game and has tossed multiple touchdowns in 18 outings, something he has done in all three of his games against Washington. Since Doug Pederson became the head coach in 2016, 69.2% of the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive touchdowns have been passing touchdowns. If we throw out the first year, that number increases to 76.1%. The Eagles have the second-highest implied total on the main slate and face a Washington defense that projects to finish in the middle of the pack this season, according to numberFire’s metrics. Our models rank Wentz as the fourth-best quarterback on the slate.