Football Is Here!

Football is here! Wow, this is crazy, just waiting and waiting for the offseason to be over, and it’s finally arrived! I’ll kick us off with an introduction to how things are going to go this season, with the newsletter being twice a week now. Then we’ll go over some news and a Thursday Night Preview since our next edition doesn’t come out till Friday.

On Tuesdays, we will go over waiver wire adds, trades, news, and first impressions on that week’s games.

Fridays will be a Q&A, news updates, some final impressions, and things I’m watching for on Sunday. In addition, I might sneak in some player props and a few DFS picks in there as well.

I’ll try to keep my player takes as short and sweet as possible to make the newsletter easily digestible, yet impactful and informative.

News and Notes

• Mark Andrews will return to practice this week. Thank goodness. He’s the one constant in that offense.

• Cooper Kupp is seeing a specialist for his hamstring injury.

• De’Von Achane is back at practice. Raheem Mostert may not be all by himself on Sunday against the Chargers.

• Kadarius Toney is day-to-day and hopes to play against Detroit.

Waiver Wire and Trade Targets

It’s the first week so the team you draft is probably going to be the team you start with for the first week of the season, but if someone didn’t draft Deon Jackson and he is available, pick him up to play NOW.

More than likely you’re not in need of a streaming QB but in the future, I’ll put a couple out there. I’ll have a play or two for this week for DFS in the Friday edition.

As for trade targets, Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp are two guys I would float out offers for and see if you can buy low. Elijah Moore is another guy I think is in for a breakout year after struggling with the Jets last year.

Thursday Night Preview

🏹 Kansas City Chiefs

Start those dudes named Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, heard they’re pretty good. As for other Chiefs, Isiah Pacheco seems locked into a solid workload. I’m not sure what to do with McKinnon vs Edwards-Helaire. CEH was the running back 30 in PPR weeks 1-11 before his hamstring injury and was the RB 22 weeks 1-9. McKinnon didn’t explode until after the CEH was done for the season.

🦁 Detroit Lions

For the Lions, you’re starting ARSB no questions asked. Jared Goff is a good streamer/QB2 in what looks to be a high-scoring matchup. Jamir Gibbs and David Montgomery likely share the backfield, with Gibbs as the top receiving back. Sam LaPorta and the other receivers are off the board for me aside from DFS plays. I really like LaPorta over the course of the year but I think he’ll get off to a slow start being a rookie tight end. Marvin Jones and Josh Reynolds stand to be next in line for targets.

Final Thoughts

Don’t forget to join the Discord! It just got up and running and we have a great group so far discussing draft strategy, player vs player, DFS, and much more! While this newsletter is the heart of Ballfield Banter, the soul is the discord! Maybe that’s a weird way to put it, but basically, you can’t have one without the other!

If you want to have a question featured on the Friday edition of this newsletter, make sure to join the discord and submit a question there! Plus you’ll have the opportunity to see even more content from me and interact with other fantasy football fans, not just myself!