Week One Fantasy Football Late Pickups

Week one is almost here and Remarkable has some stats for your fantasy team. Most fantasy football drafts are complete and teams are set, so we keyed in on players who aren’t owned in many Yahoo! Leagues. If you’re looking to tweak your last couple roster spots or Hurricane Irma has you searching for a week one replacement for any of your Dolphins or Buccaneers, here are some possible late adds.

Chris Thompson

We start with some Dallas Cowboys. Ezekiel Elliott will be playing week one, so these players might not get as many touches, but in deep leagues Jason Witten (62% owned) and Cole Beasley (39% owned) are good adds. A couple of stats on those pass catchers:

Jason Witten caught 63 of 77 passes when targeted (81.8% Reception Pct) when his QB was not under pressure last season (NFL Rank: 3rd best of 43 Qualified TEs; League Avg: 70.6%)
Witten had 673 receiving yards last season (NFL Rank: 11th among TEs). Dallas will face New York, which allowed 1,052 receiving yards to TE last season (NFL Rank: fourth most).
Cole Beasley caught 75 of 98 passes when targeted (76.5% Reception Pct) last season (NFL Rank: best of 51 Qualified WRs; League Avg: 59.9%)

If you are in a high points per reception (PPR) league, these two are strong pickups for week 1 and beyond.

Darren Sproles (50% owned) is not the feature back for the Philadelphia Eagles, but he has the ability to come out of the backfield and be used as a weapon. He gained 358 yards after the catch on plays out of the shotgun last season (NFL Rank: 6th best among RBs)
Chris Thompson (13% owned) recently signed a 2-year extension with the Washington Redskins. He is listed as the number two running back on the Washington depth charts, but he was lethal whenever he touched the ball. He averaged 7.9 All Purpose Yards per Touch (1,065 APY / 134 Touches) last season (NFL Rank: 3rd best of 43 Qualified RBs; League Avg: 5.3)

The Buffalo Bills have many questions marks after head coach Sean McDermott only kept 22 players from last year’s team. Proceed with caution with anyone on the Bills other than LeSean McCoy, but then again they do play the Jets in week one. We don’t know much about the upcoming season, but we do know the New York Jets will have a difficult time winning football games. If you are confident in the Bills’ offense, look towards Charles Clay (7% owned) to pick up a fair amount of catches:

Charles Clay had 57 receptions last season (NFL Rank: tied for 12th best among TEs)

Unfavorable matchup? LeGarrette Blount (85% owned) is a force in the redzone, but the Washington defense is stingy against the run:

LeGarrette Blount had 16 rushing touchdowns in the Red Zone last season (NFL Rank: 1st among RBs). Philadelphia will face Washington, who allowed 16 rushing touchdowns in the Red Zone last season (NFL Rank: 3rd of 32).

These next players are owned in almost all leagues, but we think week one matchups will payoff for these star players:

Amari Cooper (OAK) had 1,153 receiving yards last season (NFL Rank: 8th among WRs). Oakland will face Tennessee, which allowed 3,018 receiving yards to WR last season (NFL Rank: most).
Bilal Powell (NYJ) rushed for 10 or more yards on 18.3% of 131 carries last season — best among qualified RBs. Buffalo allowed 10+ yards on 13.7% of carries last season (NFL Rank: worst among teams; League Avg: 10.2%).
Doug Baldwin (SEA) had 1,128 receiving yards last season (NFL Rank: 11th among WRs). Seattle will face Green Bay, which allowed 3,017 receiving yards to WRs last season (NFL Rank: second most).
Kelvin Benjamin (CAR) gained 941 yards on 63 receptions (14.9 YPR) last season — fifth best among qualified WRs. San Francisco allowed 14.2 yards per reception to WRs last season (NFL Rank: fourth worst among teams).