Fantasy football: Week one starts, sits, pickups and drops
First, with Hurricane Irma threatening, Sunday’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins is being postponed. This is, of course, being done to keep everyone safe and is definitely a good decision. It also means that bye week season begins early this year and you might need to make some roster moves earlier than you planned.
Quarterback
Start: Ben Roethlisberger (at Cleveland, average draft position: 12th among quarterbacks)
Put me firmly in the “start any quarterback that faces Cleveland” camp. Now that Joe Haden‘s gone, who can you name in the Browns’ secondary other than former Michigan safety Jabrill Peppers? Nobody very good. Shoot, can you name any of their defensive starters that aren’t rookies? Cleveland’s defense is bad, and they’re facing an offense that has Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown and newly-unsuspended Martavis Bryant. Roethlisberger should have a top-10 day.
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Sit: Philip Rivers (vs. Dallas Cowboys, ADP: 19th)
Unless you drafted Jameis Winston, who is not playing this week due to Hurricane Irma, you’re probably rolling with your starter unless you completely forgot to draft a quarterback and ended up with Rivers. He’s okay to fill in some weeks, but not against Denver’s pass defense in a division game on the road.
Pickup: Carson Palmer (at Detroit Lions, available in 70.6% of leagues)
So, let’s say you did draft Jameis Winston and now you’re without a week one quarterback. Palmer and Matthew Stafford are, in all likelihood, about to have a shootout on Sunday and you could do worse than a guy throwing to David Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and John Brown in a high-scoring game.
Drop: Andy Dalton (51.1% available)
This guy is owned in more leagues than Palmer, Carson Wentz, Eli Manning and Tyrod Taylor. If he’s your starter, that’s bad. If he’s your backup, you definitely don’t need a backup.