Intro week one of the 2024 NFL season is upon us and that means that fantasy football is right around the corner almost everyone should have their team drafted by now so now it's time to turn our attention to the season opener and get off to a hot start today we're going to be taking a look at five players to start and five players to sit in week one of your fantasy football season Rashee Rice let's begin with the first start candidate which is wide receiver Rashid rice against the Baltimore Ravens it doesn't look like Rashid rice is going to be suspended at all this season which is great news news because that was his biggest concern heading into the year from weeks 12 to 17 last year he was averaging over nine targets per game which translated to 7.3 catches 86 yards and half a touchdown per game he should continue to be heavily involved on Kansas City's offense especially with Maris Brown likely to be sitting out for the season opener he's a heavily involved young wide receiver with very little competition on one of the League's best offenses you should feel 100% confident starting him in week one Kyler Murray the next person that you need to be starting is quarter back Kyler Murray against the Buffalo Bills Murray has become one of the most underrated players in fantasy football he was sixth in fantasy points per game among quarterbacks in the final nine weeks of last season despite coming off an ACL tear and he should only get better with a new top tier wide receiver in Marvin Harrison Jr buffalo's defense has lost a lot of juice and isn't nearly as good as it used to be so I think that we could be in for a high-scoring affair in week one at number three we have wide Tee Higgins receiver T Higgins against the New England Patriots Higgins Almost Never fails to deliver when he's one of the focal points of Cincinnati's offense and for week one he might just be their top weapon Jamar Chase is still holding out and has missed all of training camp so far so even if he's playing he might have to shake off some Rust before he becomes a dominant Force again the Bengals are spending a lot of time preparing for their season opener and with the Jamar Chase holdout still unresolved it's safe to assume that they're game planning T Higgins to be their top playmaker against the Patriots Ken Walker III coming in at number four we have running back Kenneth Walker against the Denver Broncos Walker didn't have a very good ending to last season but we all know that he's still one of the better young running backs in the NFL and for week one he has an amazing match up against the Denver Broncos who lack much in terms of real talent on the defensive side of the ball in fact PFF ranks Denver's defensive line as the second worst in the entire NFL so it shouldn't take much for Seattle to run all over them Walker was an rb2 or better in five out of his first six games last year and I see no reason why he shouldn't get off to a similar hot start this year the Calvin Ridley fifth and Final Smash start is wide receiver Calvin Ridley against the Chicago Bears the Titans went out and spent big money to acquire Calvin Ridley this offseason and anybody that thinks the offense isn't going to run through him is mistaken he's been getting a lot of positive reports out of camp and with DeAndre Hopkins aging and dealing with injuries the door is wide open for Ridley to run away with the majority of targets on this offense which will be valuable with Will leves slinging it down the field every play the match up against Chicago is just okay but his role is what makes him such a great start now we're going to be moving Rhamondre Stevenson moving on to the sit candidates with the first one being running back ra Andre Stevenson against the Cincinnati Bengals I really like ra Andre as a player but he just simply isn't set up for Success New England's offense is projected to be the worst in football this year and they have arguably the worst offensive line in the entire NFL as well between the murky quarterback position and a bad o line there isn't much in terms of opportunities for Stevenson to find the end zone which hinders his upside significantly I'd be looking almost anywhere else in week one at number two DeAndre Hopkins two we have wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins against the Chicago Bears like I mentioned a minute ago I think that Calvin Ridley is the clear-cut wide receiver one in this offense and even not considering that Hopkins is currently dealing with a pretty significant knee injury and it's not a guarantee that he'll even play in week one my guess is that he does but do we really want to start a 32-year-old wide receiver coming off of a mildly serious knee injury who isn't even the top wide receiver on his own team on a will Levis Le offense that's going to be a hard pass for me the third player to sit is wide receiver Mike Williams Mike Williams against the San Francisco 49ers Williams is another player dealing with some serious injury concerns aorn ACL cut his 2023 season short and even though he's off the pup list and has been practicing lately I think that it's extremely unlikely that we see him at 100% Health in week one if he even plays at all beyond the injury he'll need time to acclimate to the new offense with such limited practice time and the Jets also have a tough matchup against the 49ers in their season open no reason to take a chance on starting him in what could be a low-scoring affair coming in at number four is tight Jake Ferguson end Jake Ferguson against the Cleveland Browns now I don't have anything against Ferguson overall but he's a player I'm not really wanting to start in my fantasy leagues he's just okay as a talent and his fantasy production ultimately hinges on whether or not he's going to find the End Zone on a given week he also has a tough match up against the Browns defense in week one who allowed the second least fantasy points to tight ends last year I'd be looking for someone with a better matchup and better floor to start in the season opener and the final player that Jerome Ford you should be avoiding for week one of your fantasy season is running back Jerome Ford against the Dallas Cowboys now I know there's a lot of people that are excited for Jerome Ford with Nick chub set to miss the start of the season but I'd caution people from starting him in week one the Browns face a tough match up against Dallas's defense and it seems likely that this could be a low-scoring game overall another concern is that Deontay Foreman is having a great preseason and looks to be the goal line back forev so Ford's touchdown upside isn't even that great he'll be a better starter in weeks 2 through 5 when his schedule gets much easier and that's going to do it for this video be sure to like And subscribe for more content like this and be sure to turn on notifications so that you never miss a new drop thanks for tuning in and until next time goodbye [Music] a