This is what I learned about each fantasy relevant player in the NFL after week one of the preseason.

Bengals

Andy Dalton isn’t going to be a great fantasy qb every week, but he will be streamable, as long as AJ Green is on the field.

AJ Green is the face of the Bengals to me, not Dalton. He is an extreme talent that can take anything you give him to the house on any given play.

Tyler Boyd might be the WR2 that’s talented enough to make it work, but John Ross might eat into those targets too because he’s fast, and should get the deep balls thrown his way, which may make him the better draft pick because he’s more likely to get a touchdown than Boyd.

Bears

Not much happened for the regular season starters in this game. Trubisky had a few snaps and looked disorganized. Otherwise, no other starter played much, if at all.

The Bears offense has a long way to go, but their Defense was solid.

Steelers

JuJu Smith-Schuster’s Touchdown was nice, even though it was a blown play. I have been down on JuJu since they drafted James Washington.

Washington didn’t get involved too much, but it was his first NFL action, and I liked what I saw, which was a talented mans skills being eased into action because he’s going to get a lot of usage this season.

More impressive, though, was Damoun Patterson in his first NFL game. He may not have Fantasy implications, yet, but being on a team with Ben and AB has to have its potential advantages, right?

Eagles

I like Clement more than I like Ajayi. Am I alone in that?

Ajayi looked good, but I am worried about his usage in this offense. Meaning, there are a lot of other talented guys who are going to get the ball, like clement, like Sproles. Maybe add Smallwood to that list. On a team that spreads the ball, I’d rather take Clement late in drafts, than Ajayi, even in the 4th round in 12 team leagues.

Buccaneers

Fitzpatrick is either going to be a great replacement or a terrible one for 4 games. I lean the former. He’s erratic, but he’s got an arm, and he can make plays happen. Sometimes, we call him pickspatrick for a reason.

More talent on the team means Mike Evans may get less targets, but Jameis loves him. I wonder how he’ll do with Fitzmagic?

Sigh, Peyton Barber actually looked pretty decent.

Ronald Jones is going too high for me in fantasy drafts. I love the talent. I really do. Watch his college film – looked decent in first preseason game too. He’s great. That’s why he’s being drafted so high. He may not be a pass catching runner, and we don’t know that for sure because not many attempt were made, but if he isn’t going to be a pass catcher, can he still have value? I think so, think Jordan Howard.

Although, on a team like the Buccs, who seem to want to use Barber too, it seems less likely that Ronald Jones pays off in drafts. Beside the positional question mark, there’s the team and the QB question marks, which causes too much chaos on a team for them to be successful, in my opinion, but let’s see how the next preseason game goes.

Winston looked like a man ready to prove something. I got chills a bit. I am not high on Winston, but I saw a poised, talented quarterback that comes in on game 5, without question, and tears it up for fantasy, and gives Mike Evans WR1 upside again.

Dolphins

It just came out that DeVante Parker broke his middle finger. Hmmm. I drafted him in his rookie season. I drafted him 2 more years in a row. Middle finger broke. Is that an ironic gesture or what? I am confused bro. I’ll probably end up with him again this season, FML.

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” George W. Bush

This team is a disaster. There is some fantasy wreckage that has use value though. I love Kalen Ballage. He’s still a rookie and buried under veteran Frank Gore and Kenyan Drake, but I would bet that he’ll be used this season, at least in the passing game.  

Senorise Perry impressed me eyeballs. I drew hearts next to his name in my notes. Is that weird?

Redskins

I’m so sad over Guice getting injured for the season – he looked so nice. Next year.

Byron Marshall, former Eagle, had a few nice moves on the night. My brows moved.

It’s going to be Fit Rob Kelly or Samaje Perine taking over this all important role on the offense. Could this change cause the coach to change the plan and go running back by committee and use all the RB’s at his disposal? I doubt it. I favor Perine for the Job over the other two. Rob has to do something significant to change my mind. I welcome it though. Perine was highly touted, in his second season with new coaching and a new system and a new QB, maybe things have changed. It didn’t show in the preseason game. He looked sort of weak. Let’s see how the next preseason game goes for the Redskins running backs.

The Redskins might have to add wide receiver Cam Sims to the team. He gave the coaches a good excuse to add him to their WR needy roster.

Patriots

They showcased running back’s Gillislee and Jeremy Hill. Hill destroyed. I love that guy.

This is what I wrote at the beginning of July: “Former Bengals RB, now in an even more crowded backfield, although a more talented team, that spreads the ball around even more than cincy. That said, He might be a sleeper on this team because he has the potential to be good. In his first 3 seasons on the Bengals: 2014, 222 attempts, 1124 rushing yards and 9 tds – 2015, 223 attempts, 790 rushing yards, 11 tds and 1 receiving td – 2016, 222 attempts, 839 rushing yards and 9 tds, which is really good by most measures. 2017 was strange for him, he got injured, but he was splitting carries and it felt like the wind was knocked out of his sails for some reason, maybe the drafting of Joe Mixon with Gio Bernard already in the fold just demotivated him? I’m not certain what happened, but in 2017 he had 116 rushing yards in 7 games and no td’s. That’s caused by either bad play calling, bad offensive line or bad playing on his part…or a combo of those things, which is more likely, but I blame the coaching and Hills motivation levels. I am pegging him a sleeper, on a backfield I want nothing to do with. Although, I would draft Hill over any of the other patriot RB’s as a last pick – other than Sony Michel.”

Cordarrelle Patterson and Devin Lucien both have potential contributions to be made on a team absent of  Julian Edelman, where Chris Hogan is the WR1 and keeps dropping the ball. The runners will be pass catchers as well, as usual on the Patriots, while a healthy Gronkowski is the main pass catching target.

The wide receivers and running backs are what I’m watching on the Patriots this preseason, especially with Sony Michel injured. Let’s see to what extent. I really want to see Michel in an NFL game. He’ll rise on draft boards, considering his talent and the way the patriots emphasis and utilize their running backs.

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