Although it’s too early to take a definitive stance on any player’s long-term outlook after Week 1, there are plenty of takeaways to make use of. A player’s usage in Week 1 can be as telling, or more so, than their performance. We shouldn’t overreact to either one just yet, but it’s important to be aware of usage, performance, and where a player is trending. Here are all of our risers and fallers from Week 1. And below we dive into a few players.
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Dynasty Fantasy Football Fallers
Many pegged Rachaad White as a breakout player this season, but I had him as one of my overvalued running backs. White was wildly inefficient last season, a trend that continued Sunday. He finished with 39 yards on 17 carries and negative 38 rushing yards over expectation, adding in two catches for 10 yards.
The only path to Rachaad White finishing as an RB2 is an unlimited amount of dump-off passes from Baker Mayfield. Still, Sean Tucker saw the same number of targets on Sunday and may take away passing work as the season continues.
There was some optimism that Antonio Gibson would operate as Washington’s receiving back this season and that we may even see a split backfield between him and Brian Robinson. That was not the way it played out on Sunday, with Gibson toting the rock 19 times compared to Gibson’s three, which was the same amount as Chris Rodriguez. Not only that, Gibson saw one target while Robinson saw two, and Gibson’s playing time was limited following his fumble.
Gibson has been disappointing for those who were very high on him entering the NFL, and it seems that ever-elusive breakout may still be out of reach.
It’s only one game, so no need to fully panic when it comes to Drake London’s one-target, zero-catch game in Week 1. The one target is concerning, however, particularly considering the Falcons threw just 18 passes. With two good running backs in Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, the team is built to run the football. Robinson will command his share of targets, and Kyle Pitts is a weapon himself, which is a lot to ask Desmond Ridder to support in the passing game on that kind of volume. We are likely in store for an up and down season for London.
You could include Kadarius Toney on this list, who I’ve admittedly been high on, but at least he was banged up and limited in action. Skyy Moore found himself with zero catches after seeing three targets on Thursday night, adding one rush for four yards. In a game with no Travis Kelce, a banged-up Toney, and Patrick Mahomes practically begging a receiver to step up, you’d hope that Moore could have done something positive to kickstart his second NFL season.
Until another receiver or two get going in this offense, Moore will have a chance to make a mark, but it’s a tough start to the season after an underwhelming rookie year.
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