Fantasy Football Player Notes

Ford should be the every-down do-it-all back for Cleveland to open the season. Last season, in Weeks 3-17, when Ford was the starter, he averaged 14.9 touches and 66.6 total yards as the RB20 in fantasy. Ford played well, ranking 13th in missed tackles forced per attempt and 16th in yards after contact per attempt. He faces a confounding Dallas Cowboys run defense, depending on what metric you look at from last year. On one hand, they allowed the second-lowest missed tackles per attempt and the 10th-lowest yards after contact per attempt. Those are frightening stats, but this run defense also had the 12th-lowest stuff rate while allowing the fourth-highest success rate to gap runs and ranking 17th in yards per carry permitted to gap runs (Ford 56.9% gap). Ford is best viewed as a volume-based RB2/3.

Njoku took flight with Joe Flacco last year as the TE7 in fantasy. The worry is what he did with Cleveland's current starting quarterback. In the five games Watson played a full-time role, Njoku had a 15% target share with 1.23 yards per route run, 35.2 receiving yards per game, only one end zone target, and 0.035 first downs per route run. His 8.5 PPR points per game would have landed him as the TE17 last year. No matter how you slice it, that's nightmare fuel for Njoku. Sadly, it could be a quiet opener for Njoku against a defense that allowed the 12th-fewest fantasy points per game and the third-fewest receiving yards to tight ends last year.

Jeudy has been all hope and hype to this point in his career and has little on-field production to justify it. Yes, he had a 2022 campaign, but the other three years of his career have been lackluster. Last season, he was the WR55 in fantasy points per game. Among 81 qualifying receivers, he was 40th in target share, 42nd in YPRR, 46th in receiving yards per game, and 64th in FD/RR. He draws a tough matchup in Week 1 against a Dallas secondary that allowed the fourth-fewest receiving yards and PPR points per target to slot receivers last year. Jeudy will have to contend with Jourdan Lewis (67.6% catch rate and 105.1 passer rating) all day.