We finally made it, football season is officially here. We are no longer trying to predict the future and project out what we think is going to happen. There is finally real-life game film to analyze and try to learn from, which means we have already seen a few dynasty football risers and fallers.
While patience should be practiced heavily in the early season, especially in dynasty leagues, it’s never too early to acknowledge the early season risers and fallers in value. While it’s important to not overreact to every little thing after one game, you also don’t want to bury your head in the sand and completely ignore it. Sometimes the early season moves you make that look questionable today, end up being the league-winners when you look back on them six months later.
With all that said, let’s dive into the biggest risers and fallers in dynasty football value after Week 1.
Week 1 Dynasty Football Risers and Fallers
Dynasty Risers
Jordan Mason, RB, 49ers
The absolute biggest winner of the first week of the season was Jordan Mason. In a late surprise, Christian McCaffrey was ruled out a few hours before game time and Mason put on a show in his first start in prime time. He was a true workhorse for the 49ers, racking up 28 carries for 147 yards and a TD. Not only did he prove he’s more than capable of entering into your fantasy lineups while CMC is out, it might be hard to put the cat bag in the bag after a performance like this so I’m inclined to believe he will still be involved after he returns.
Michael Penix Jr., QB, Falcons
The Kirk Cousins Era in Atlanta got off to a rocky start as he very much looked the part of a quarterback in his mid-30s trying to recover from an Achilles tear in his first action back. While the Falcons won’t make any drastic decisions for at least a handful of starts, if we don’t see improvement quickly out of Cousins they don’t have much incentive not to see what they have in their 1st round pick Michael Penix Jr. down the stretch. Penix was an older prospect coming into the draft and has already shown that he’s able to lead a high-powered offense with multiple high-end skill players in college. In recent seasons we have seen teams show more of a willingness to make the tough decision to cut their losses and move on early from a bad contact, and I’m buying in on Penix Jr. now just in case that exact situation plays out over the next 12 months.
Jameson Williams, WR, Lions
Jameson Williams is another guy whose huge performance happened to come during a prime-time game with everyone’s attention on it. He put on a show with five catches for 121 yards and a score. The talent has never been a question for the explosive WR. After being robbed of valuable playing time due to one of the weirdest two first seasons a player can experience, he finally appears primed for a third-year breakout across from Amon-Ra St. Brown in what should be a legitimate Super Bowl Contender in Detroit.
Isaiah Likely, TE, Baltimore Ravens
Isaiah Likely was one of the most popular late-round picks in dynasty drafts this past offseason and his usage in the offense during week 1 has to have fantasy GMs feeling good about their investment. Better days are ahead for Mark Andrews and Likely won’t be the overall TE1 every single week, but I think the heavier usage we saw from Likely is here to stay. The Ravens came out in 12 personnel in over half of their offensive plays, and each of the talented tight ends saw over 50 snaps in the game. At this point in their careers Likely clearly looks like the more dynamic option to stretch the field for bigger chunk plays and he’s shown he’s earned the trust of Lamar Jackson in the red zone. Full-on breakout season is incoming here.
Jaleel McLaughlin, RB, Broncos
Jaleel McLaughlin has been one of my favorite RBs to target in the late rounds of dynasty drafts these past two seasons and if Sunday’s usage is a sign of things to come he may very well end up being the best RB out of the Denver backfield. The overall box score numbers weren’t great, but he forced seven missed tackles and caught a handful of passes as a safety valve option for Bo Nix. The Broncos have a good chance of playing from behind this season which means McLaughlin could see a lot of game scripts that benefit his skill set and role in the offense.
Check out all of our Week 2 Rankings: QB | RB | WR | TE | Flex
Dynasty Fallers
Christian McCaffrey, RB, 49ers
While I know anyone reading this may feel like this is a slight overreaction to the recently discovered devasting news that Christian McCaffrey is dealing with an Achilles injury, if the emergence of Jordan Mason is real it puts the 49ers in a position where they will be in no rush to get CMC back on the field before he is 100% healthy. The 49ers care a lot more about the real playoffs than our fantasy playoffs so this year could very well be a bit of a down one for us on that side of things. Looking down the road, that means McCaffrey will be staring down his age-29 season in 2025 after a year where he possibly struggled to stay healthy. The window to cash out on CMC for a godfather offer has very likely slammed shut, and at this point, he may be a guy whose on-field performance never matches his trade value again so he may be best suited to retire on your dynasty rosters.
Bryce Young, QB, Panthers
Bryce Young is about six more bad starts away from officially falling into bust territory. You never want to make too much out of one bad game to open the season, but the fact there was not one single visible improvement out of Young or the Panthers’ offense under a head coach that has recently gotten the best out of two QBs is troubling. If it wasn’t for a late rushing TD his day would have been a complete dud for fantasy. I don’t want to sell him for 50 cents on the dollar, but it is getting close to the time when I consider trying to get out on a player any decent value a year early versus a year late after their value has completely cratered.
Deshaun Watson, QB, Browns
A lot of what I just said about Bryce Young could be copy-and-pasted right here for Deshaun Watson. The only difference is Watson has the excuse of playing against what should be a top-5 defensive unit without a good portion of his offensive line. We’re now going on three straight seasons of poor performance out of Watson, and his best ability appears to be escaping a sack and turning it into a monster two-yard gain. There has been a lot going wrong off the field for Watson (understatement of the century) compounded with family matters this past weekend, but I am only one more poor start away from hitting the territory I mentioned previously on Bryce Young where I’m trying to get any solid value in return I can get for him, even if it means I take the sunken cost of whatever it took to acquire him over these past few seasons.
Raheem Mostert, RB, Dolphins
It’s only week 2 and Raheem Mostert, a guy who has historically struggled to stay healthy for a full season, is on the injury report and in danger of missing time. Add this to the fact that the Dolphins have invested decent draft capital into the young explosive tandem of De’Von Achane and Jaylen Wright and there is a very real chance that this could be Mostert’s last season of heavy fantasy relevance. He’s already over 32 years old and needed a monster 18-touchdown season to vault himself into RB1 territory last season. Unless he’s my RB4 on a truly contending team I’m looking to cash out on him in dynasty leagues after he has one more explosive game that has people excited about what he can do in the Dolphins’ offense.
Javon Baker, WR, Patriots
While it’s still very early in his career it’s not ideal that Javon Baker was a healthy scratch in the first week of the season. Baker was a very popular pick in rookie drafts and it sounds like the immaturity issues he was labeled with in college have already started to rear their head in New England. I want to make it very clear I don’t believe Baker is a drop candidate or anything like that, but I don’t think he’s going to have the immediate fantasy impact dynasty GMs were hoping for when they reached for him in rookie drafts this past summer. Adding to this, if they choose to keep rolling out Jacoby Brissett it could very well mean that every single Patriot pass catcher is unstartable in fantasy regardless of playing time.
Make sure to check out all of our Week 2 Fantasy Football Rankings and Analysis!