Frey’s Fantasy Focus: Week One Free Agents

Now that the majority of fantasy football drafts are completed, you might be looking at your roster and nervously thinking, “Oh, HE plays THEM week one?”. For example, if you ended up with Baker Mayfield at quarterback, you’re realizing he plays Baltimore this week. Yeah, might not be a bad idea to go in a different direction for a week. Here are a few players to check out while you scour your league’s free agents list. 

Note: parentheses contain the roster percentage of each player in ESPN fantasy leagues.

Tyrod Taylor-LAC Quarterback (3.1%)

Going into this season, we knew one thing involving LA’s quarterback situation. Week one will be the first time in 236 games that the Chargers have a starting quarterback not named Philip Rivers. We just weren’t sure who it would be yet. Last week, Anthony Lynn gave us the answer and announced Tyrod Taylor is starting against the Cincinnati Bengals. 

That means now is the time to jump on this quarterback in fantasy, especially in two quarterback leagues. As you can see, Taylor a free agent in virtually all ESPN fantasy football leagues right now, so he’s an easy pickup. Cincy’s defense gave up the most yards per play in 2019, and they were bottom five in takeaways. For a defense that doesn’t seem much better in 2020, this means a lot of big play opportunities. Combine that with a healthy Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler, and this should be a great fantasy week for Taylor.

Sammy Watkins-KC Wide Receiver (44.2%)

In week one last year, Watkins put up absolutely massive numbers. He grabbed nine receptions for 198 yards and three touchdowns vs. the Jags before falling back down to earth. Can he do something like that again? It may not be a sure thing given the number of weapons on Kansas City’s offense, but Patrick Mahomes is still the quarterback. Lightning could strike twice with this week’s promising matchup against the Houston Texans’ secondary.

Tennessee Titans D/ST (18.2%)

Tennessee added a weapon to their defensive line in Jadeveon Clowney, which hopefully adds to last year’s lackluster pass rush. They also get to begin this season against the Denver Broncos and second year quarterback Drew Lock. 

Given the circumstances of this offseason, I think it is safe to say that with new acquisition Melvin Gordon, a bunch of new wide receivers including draft picks Jerry Jeudy and K.J. Hamler, and a new offensive coordinator in Pat Shurmur, it will take a few weeks for the young QB to feel comfortable in this revamped offense. Now is also a good time to mention that Lock probably won’t be making many big plays with his arm. Lock averaged just 6.5 yards per pass attempt in his five starts last year. Where does that put him? He would have been third lowest had he thrown enough passes to qualify, ranking just ahead of Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky.

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