🏆️Best New Way to Play Fantasy Football?

I think this could be it. I helped design a new fantasy football One-and-Done contest and excited for all of you to check it out. I explained a bit in this tweet and can share the rules below. Join the contest here.

Splash Sports has also sweetened the pot! And it’s not just for the first 50 to have signed up but extending it to any new sign-ups! If you sign up with promo code HERZIG and join either the One-and-Done or Survivor contest, you’ll get $10 in site credit after the contest goes live (if you already signed up this week and joined, don’t worry, you’ll also get a $10 credit automatically).

📝 News & Notes

As we officially enter Week 1, we saw many teams release their latest depth charts. While most of them are rather worthless, occasionally we can find actionable nuggets. The trick is often looking for something that goes against veteran deference. If a rookie is low on the depth chart, there is not much we can really take from that. But in the situation a rookie is higher than expected, that’s when it’s worth noting. Some examples below:

• Commanders: Austin Ekeler RB1, Jeremy McNichols RB2, Chris Rodriguez RB3, and Jacory (Bill) Croskey Merritt RB4. Nothing actionable here beyond what we already know.

• Titans: Elic Ayomanor listed as starting WR ahead of Van Jefferson. This is quite noteworthy and should give us more confidence in the early impact Ayomanor can make.

• Steelers: Jaylen Warren RB1, Kenneth Gainwell RB2, Kaleb Johnson RB3. Likely veteran deference though it also likely aligns to their expected usage in Week 1. Will take time for Johnson to earn a larger role.

• Giants: Jaxson Dart listed as #2 QB (ahead of Jameis Winston). Noteworthy as we occasionally see rookie QBs behind the veteran back-up in the case the team needed an immediate fill-in. This hints towards trust in Dart and a potentially earlier than expected move to QB1.

• Patriots: Rhamondre Stevenson RB1, Antonio Gibson RB2, TreVeyon Henderson RB3. Classic veteran deference and nothing that should change our priors.

📊 Poll of the Day

Yesterday’s poll: Who is your favorite Survivor pick for Week 1?

I usually like to play Week 1 pretty safe as we know the least about the teams (and likely have more confidence in lopsided games later on). Quick thoughts on each game:

PHI vs DAL: home game vs divisional opponent, tied for highest spread, thinking market will overrate DAL and thus make this a less popular choice than it should be
DEN vs TEN: strong DEN defense vs rookie QB’s first game, tied for highest spread, expecting this to be most popular choice
ARI @ NO: this game feels like the biggest trap to me when considering expected number of people picking it vs likelihood of ARI not winning, ARI is on the road vs new coach, ARI clearly better team but not a great team
WSH vs NYG: this feels like it should be a wider spread than -6, another possible trap?
CIN @ CLE: before being too confident in CIN, look at how they’ve started last two years…