Week one is in the books are we are off to the races in the 2025 NFL and Fantasy Football season. There is no turning back now! Every week we will rewatch as many games as we can on NFL+ and report back our biggest findings. Watching redzone and highlights isn’t suffice, watching the entire game helps with process and to stay ahead of your league mates. We will do our best to help you out all season long. If you haven’t already follow me on X @FantasySavvy and follow my youtube page https://www.youtube.com/@FantasySavvy. It’s much appreciated, thanks for following, all the best this season.
Dolphins @ Colts
Daniel Jones, who I have liked to call Daniel Pennies, looked more like Danny Dimes in this one. Now he did have great protection and the Dolphins defense could be one of the worst in the league, at least their secondary, but he played smart and made some nice accurate throws. The best one of the day was to a deep ball down the left sideline to Alec Pierce. Again, he had great protection so we still need to see more and a lot of his passes where short underneath routes where the wideouts produced a lot of YAC, but the week one performance was encouraging for Colts fans.
Tyler Warren is in for a nice season, it doesn’t really matter who is throwing him the ball. He displays great hands, break tackles and tracks the ball well. He only got one carry in this game, but we may see more of that going forward. Jonathan Taylor had some nice runs in this game, but Jones vultured him twice in the endzone, something many suspected Anthony Richardson to do. Taylor also sat out most of the 4th quarter in the blowout.
Michael Pittman had the best day at WR, but the talented Adonai Mitchell and Alec Pierce could hurt his production going forward. Josh Downs underneath production will be hurt by Tyler Warren. There’s only so much Daniel Jones can produce.
The Dolphins looked abysmal. Tua Tagovailoa continues to hold this team back with his weak arm, lack of atheltic ability and checkdown nature. This is a Tua and Mike McDaniels problem. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle will likely continue to be frustrating with Tua behind center and Mcdaniels calling the shots. There is still is no room for a third productive WR, you can only hope for two and one of them just might Devon Achane again. Achane again scored on the Dolphins patented Swing pass, in mostly garbage time. Achane also had some nice runs and looked like the one safe fantasy asset on this team. You would figure if the Dolphins defense is going to get roasted every week, then Tua, Tyreek and Waddle will be good for fantasy, but this does have a chance to be a complete shitshow. The Colts defense is a sound group, so with better matchups this offense should be more productive. Mike McDaniels is already on the hot seat.
Giants @ Commanders
Jayden Daniels kept it rolling from last season with his smart play, running and taking what the defense gives him. A lot of underneath short stuff, but he was also hitting Deebo Samuel plenty across the middle of the field. Deebo looked very good, like vintage Deebo from the 49ers a few years back. He is arguably in the best situation he’s every been in playing with Jayden Daniels.
Terry McClaurin had a slow start to the season, but that might be understandable, considering how long he sat out this offseason. Terry did beat the defense on a deep ball and was very open but Daniels overthrew him. It’s going to come, but Deebo will be a threat to outproduce him this season.
Zach Ertz still has good hands and is still a savvy veteran as displayed on his opening touchdown score. Jacory Croskey-Merritt aka Bill showed his acceleration, speed, power and agility in this game. It’s him and Austin Ekeler in this backfield. A great situation to be in. Jeremy McNichols worked in late but he’s clearly third in the pecking order. The Washington offensive line opened up some nice holes in this run game and Bill has a chance to pay off that steamed up ADP.
I didn’t think Russell Wilson looked awful as many would say, he just kind of looked like the QB we’ve seen the last few seasons. Russ no longer has the wheels he used to have and that’s going to continue to limit him. The Washington defense was creating a ton of pressure leaving Russ without much time to throw. Daron Payne was a one man wrecking crew disrupting multiple plays.
Malik Nabers is ridiculous, arguably the most talented WR in the league. His acceleration probably is the best. Wandale Robinson is going to be a decent fantasy asset once again, but will never be anything more than a 7-10 points per game WR. Theo Johnson had two drops and Daniel Bellinger showed strong hands. Bellinger could have a leg up next week.
Tyrone Tracy mostly had nowhere to run and was very lucky not to have fumble on a pass that he caught. It was initially ruled a fumbled then overruled, but it was very close. Cam Skattebo did not play much, but made his presence felt with a huge block on a pass down the field to Nabers. He got one goal line carry and had nowhere to go. He’s going to get more looks as we move on here and I expect him to move past Tracy at some point.
Panthers @ Jaguars
Trevor Lawrence continues to show inaccuracy, evidenced by his multiple missed passes to Brian Thomas. He also still isn’t quite elusive enough to avoid pressure consistently. However, I thought he did play well overall and this offense looked very cohesive, combined with the running game. A good debut for Liam Coen for sure.
Brian Thomas score came on a run and that saved his fantasy day as he had essentially no production through the air. I am not panicking on Thomas, but this offense is less condensed then it was down the stretch last season with the addition of Travis Hunter, Dyami Brown and the quality of this running back room. Hunter caught a bunch of short passes and didn’t do much on the day, he’s likely going to remain inconsistent for fantasy, but certainly will have some big games. I am not sure Trevor Lawrence can sustain two productive WR’s throughout the year. Especially with the type of player Brian Thomas is, but again this offense could be spread around much more, you also have Brenton Strange at Tight end who looked very solid. Strange was separating and making tough catches.
Tank Bigsby was traded away Monday so right now this is Travis Etienne’s backfield and he looked back to his old ways and healthy again. It was notable that LeQuint Allen Jr. got the 2nd look at RB before Bigsby and Bayshul Tuten. Allen had a couple nice runs, as did Tuten, but I expect Tuten to be the guy to share with Etienne the most. With the way Etienne looked in Week one it will take a lot for Tuten to usurp him, but he’s a definite hold. Tuten is very talented and it’s possible it could turn into a 50/50 split at some point. Allen is also worth a pickup as he did play more than Tuten in this game.
Bryce Young had a rough game with once again his size sort of limiting him. There were multiple throws where he skyed the ball or threw it too high because he had to loft it over the defenders arms. That said, I thought the Jaguars defense looked pretty formidable. I am not panicking on Young just yet, he did have some bone headed throws like what we saw from him early last year, including a pick six called back, but he should get better and he still has that rushing floor.
Chuba Hubbard ran well and is clearly the guy, Rico Dowdle and Trevor Etienne are not threats at all. That late TD catch for Hubbard was great to help his fantasy production.
Tetairoa McMillan had a slow debut, but showed a lot of what he did in college with breaking In and comeback routes. He’s going to be steady on these routes alone and will always be a threat in the redzone and on deep routes. There was one route where he had the defender beat in one on one coverage, but Bryce was pressured and couldn’t get the pass off and another where the defender sort of held his arm down to prevent a TD. McMillan will still struggle with press coverage and tight man to man. It will be close to see if he pays off that ADP which I saw steamed up to the 2nd round in a $20,000 high stakes draft. That was definitely way too high in my opinion.
Xavier Legette’s main issue is he lacks fundamentals. There were two catches that he would have had if he kept he feet in his bounds, but he just didn’t drag or drop his feet in the right place. He will make some big plays from time to time, but he needs to get refine his game to become an consistent option. I was expecting more from Ja’Tavion Sanders in this game but he also is still raw as a player.
Steelers @ Jets
I thought Justin Fields played one of his better games in his career as he was he was consistently good throughout the game. Fields has struggled to do this in his career although Fields has also played with some of the worst offensive lines and personnel in the league and probably coaching as well. He played poised, kept his eyes down field, threw the ball accurately and of course made plays with his feet. The offseason bashing worked into groupthink and led many off of him and Garrett Wilson. This is the same thing that happened with him and DJ Moore of a few seasons ago, where Moore had a career year. Groupthink is always dangerous. This offensive line and run game with Breece Hall is probably the best he’s worked with and although the pass catchers overall aren’t great, it’s nice to have a Garrett Wilson. Fields is going to have some struggles of course, but if he’s healthy throughout the season he’s going to produce very nice dividends in Fantasy and hopefully for the Jets as well.
Another groupthink mindset was that Breece Hall would split a chunk of time with Braelon Allen and that he could be washed. This is why we saw Breece fall into the 5th round at times. Well, after one week it’s obvious that Breece is far and away the best back on this team and one of the best RB’s in the league. If you watched all of Breece’s snaps last year he wasn’t as bad as people said he was, the line wasn’t blocking well and he was also playing through some injuries. Allen is a decent handcuff, and possibly will have some flex value weeks, but Isaiah Davis can also mix in and is arguably the better back.
Garrett Wilson got bashed mainly because Fields was his QB. That pairing certainly got off to a great start against one of the best defenses and secondaries in the NFL, so the future looks very bright. I said it in the offseason, that Wilson had a great chance to have a career year. Fields problem never really was with accuracy or not being to make the necessary throws. His problem was always consistency, processing and reading coverages. Again, the odds were always kind of stacked against him with the lack of personnel around him and the constant offensive coordinator and coaching changes. Fields certainly needed to improve as well, but it’s nice that he seems to really have the backing of the entire Jets organization and Aaron Glenn and Tanner Engstrand are probably the best two coaches he’s ever had. The Jets offense certainly looked very fluid with Engstrand calling the plays.
Aaron Rodgers still is plagued by his age and limited mobility which was a huge part of his game, but as far as his throwing ability and mental capacity it’s all still there. I thought the Steelers did a good job dialing up some solid plays for D.K. Metcalf and utilizing the two talented tight ends in Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth. Jonnu does seem like the better bet for fantasy production. Both of these tight ends values took a serious hit when Jonnu was traded there, but they both have room to be productive, especially Jonnu who is Arthur Smith’s boy. Roman Wilson was non existent, it was Calvin Austin who stole the show. Playing with Rodgers one of these 2nd WR’s defintely can be productive. I was betting on Wilson, but it appears it could be Austin. Let’s see how it works out over the course of the season, Wilson is still an intriguing name to watch.
The backfield was split between Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. Neither back ran well, but both were solid in the passing game and in pass protection while Warren ended up with the receiving touchdown. Rookie Kaleb Johnson played on kickoff returns and only had one carry that went for negative yards. Rodgers and maybe the coaching staff probably don’t fully trust him, but at some point they are going to need to utilize him at least in short yardage and on the goal line to start. You don’t want Jaylen Warren and Gainwell taking goal line carries. I would still bet on talent here and think Kaleb will earn a much more substantial role at somepoint, but right now you can not put him in your starting lineups. However, Kaleb is the best runner on this team, it should come, be patient.
Fantasy Savvy 