Week one of the 2025 fantasy football season is finally here. After months of rookie analysis, draft coverage, trades, pickups, and cutdowns, the season kicks off tonight with an outstanding matchup. Hated rivals face off when the Cowboys visit Philadelphia. It’s banner night for the Super Bowl Champions, but the fantasy football intrigue is on the other side of the ball. Dallas is going to look like a much different team than it did last year, with no Micah Parsons, George Pickens taking over the WR2 spot, and question marks in the backfield. Dallas is a team that could make or break dynasty seasons. Pickens was a popular buy-low pickup over the off-season, and the backfield could see rookie Jaydon Blue challenging the oft-injured Javonte Williams for valuable touches. Don’t forget, it’s also a REVENGE GAME for Miles Sanders lurking in the depths of this Dallas running back room. It should be an exciting game and a great way to kick off a full weekend of NFL action. 

After Thursday, the Chiefs and Chargers will start their seasons on Friday from Brazil, before a full slate of Sunday action. The game of the week for me has to be the Sunday night showdown between the Ravens and the Bills. These offenses are loaded up with fantasy football studs, and hopefully we’ll see a high-scoring game in upstate New York. You also have the loaded NFC North kicking things off with divisional games from the jump! The Lions visit Green Bay Sunday afternoon, and the Vikings go to Chicago for a Monday night showdown. 

With games kicking off this weekend, we finally have access to official practice reports and injury designations from NFL teams. Throughout the summer, we relied on coach speak and beat writer reports for injury updates, but now teams have to release their daily practice reports before placing an official designation on the injured players before their games. This week, we saw Najee Harris return to the practice field, and it sounds like he’s ramping up to play tomorrow night in Brazil. Meanwhile, De’Von Achane and Matthew Stafford both returned to the practice field with a chance to start this weekend. 

One player who will not be suiting up this weekend is, unfortunately, Jalen Coker. After the Panthers cut Hunter Renfrow and traded Adam Thielen back home to the Vikings, Coker was on a trajectory to a starting role in this Panthers offense. Unfortunately, he suffered a quad injury last Thursday in practice, and he’s been placed on IR. With that news, Carolina re-signed Renfrow, but expect the targets this week to be spread between Tetairoa McMillan, Xavier Legett,e and Ja’Tavion Sanders. 

Despite spending an early draft pick on Kaleb Johnson, the Steelers have extended Jaylen Warren through the 2027 season. Johnson has had an up-and-down off-season, but this move shouldn’t move the needle much on his value. The Steelers have utilized a split backfield for years, so Johnson wasn’t likely to tote a full workload during his career in Western Pennsylvania. I expect Warren to be the primary running back in Pittsburgh this season, and I expect Johnson owners will be upset with his usage all season long. 

While DLF will continue to help you win your dynasty fantasy leagues throughout the regular season, we suggest you check out 4for4 for their expert weekly rankings and in-season advice. You can also ask our expert, Ken Kelly, for his take on your lineup questions in his Week One Lineup Advice post. Don’t forget to keep checking up on DLF, though, as we cover players to buy low and sell high throughout the season with the Dynasty Targets Acquired series! We’ll also continue to update the expert dynasty rankings and the monthly dynasty ADP!

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Tonight’s game pits the Cowboys against the Eagles on the evening that Philly will raise the banner and celebrate their Super Bowl victory. A massive piece of that championship, and championships around the dynasty fantasy football world, is running back Saquon Barkley. He had an incredible season last year, going off for over 2,000 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, both career highs. Barkley is going into year eight and has plenty of wear and tear on his legs over the last decade. Let’s take a look at Barkley’s dynasty value for 2025 and if he can repeat his magic 2024. 

The 2024 off-season was a low point for Barkley’s dynasty ADP, falling down to a low of 40.5 overall. He’s approached a top 10 pick at times after an RB1 finish, but he’s settled into the mid-teens at 16th overall heading into the season. That makes him the RB5, going off the board after Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Ashton Jeanty, and De’Von Achane. The DLF Expert Rankers have him in a similar spot, jumping Achane into the RB4 spot, but going off the board at 18 overall.  

Barkley’s 2024 got off to a hot start last season with 109 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He’s a major part of this team’s plan and should see a similar massive workload tonight. He’s going into year eight, so it’s natural to expect some decline at some point, but I don’t think it will be this season. If you’re going for a championship in your dynasty league this year, Barkley could once again be a league-winning piece.

Well, we finally made it. Every year, the turn from the loooonnngggg off-season to in-season always seems to sneak up on me, even after the dog days of summer that feel like they’ll never end. So, as games kickoff this week, so does our in-season content schedule. Here’s just a sample of what you can expect to find on the site:

• Monday’s:

  • Dynasty Waiver Wire

  • Dynasty Marketplace

  • Lineup Advice

• Tuesday’s:

  • Tactical Transactions

  • Week X Spotlight

  • Dynasty Aftermath

• Wednesday’s:

  • Injury Report

  • Traversing the Trade Finder

  • Tomorrow’s Dynasty Star Today

  • Weekly Matchups

• Thursday’s:

  • Dynasty Trades

  • Trending Observations

  • Rookie Stock Watch

  • Future Rookie Mock Draft

  • 4for4 Weekly Rankings

• Friday’s:

  • Targets Acquired

  • Cornerstone Report

  • Hot & Cold Devy Prospects

  • Monthly IDP Stats

• Saturday’s:

  • Rookie Report Card

  • Dynasty Film Review

  • Superflex QB Power Rankings

  • Monthly Injury Forecast

• Sunday’s:

  • FOOTBALL!

If you’re not a DLF subscriber yet, you’ll be able to access some of what we offer, but our most valuable content is behind a paywall. I know, I know, no one likes paying for tools, content, rankings, or ADP, but we’re worth every penny. Want to pay less than full price? Keep reading 👇

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WEEKLY MATCHUPS: FOUR SLEEPERS FOR WEEK ONE

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a series of tweets I share on a weekly basis regarding player and team defensive performances, all from a fantasy lens. I’m going to be sharing some of that same information with you here. I use this each week as I am making my own lineup and waiver wire decisions, and I thought you might find this valuable as well.

We’re back for another season and can’t wait to get started. The information included is valuable to dynasty managers and all fantasy players, perhaps the most useful and therefore important in the moment is the weekly matchup numbers. Looking at how teams have performed against certain positions and then targeting or avoiding those players each week has been a huge game-changer in my weekly lineup decisions. With that in mind, this year, I’ll focus most of my attention on that weekly matchup info, giving you a few must-start or must-sit players each week, based on the trends and numbers.

Note: With Week One of the 2025 NFL season upon us, all data found in this week’s article comes from last season, Weeks One through Seventeen. Understandably, much about individual teams has changed over the off-season, so we’ll treat this week as a starting point.

If ever there was a time to “start your studs”, it’s the opening week on the NFL season. It can be argued wed know less now than we will all season. With that said, there are always examples of when dynasty managers should dig a little deeper. Perhaps you were counting on suspended wideouts Rashee Rice or Jordan Addison as starters. Maybe you just lack depth, and your final starter is lacking.

Looking back at the top fantasy performances allowed by teams at each fantasy-relevant position, I noticed a few players who might not be viewed as an expected fantasy starter, but deserve a look this week, thanks to some plus matchups.

Michael Penix, QB ATL

A year ago, it was unclear how long Penix would have to wait to earn the starting gig for the Falcons. Thanks to the poor play of veteran Kirk Cousins, the sideline span was relatively short. Penix finished off the season as the starter, though he finished outside of the top-24 fantasy signal callers in his first two starts before ranking as the QB7 in a largely meaningless season finale. After seemingly being held back in his late-season trial run, there has been a lot of off-season hype for Penix, thanks to his big arm and play-making potential. In Week One, Penix gets the Buccaneers, who allowed nine QB1 games last season, tied for second-most in the league. The visiting Bucs are favored, and this game is tied for the fifth-highest predicted total of the week, suggesting we could see a shootout.

Travis Etienne, RB JAX

After all we’ve seen this off-season, the Jaguars’ backfield is still a bit of a mystery. After a disappointing season in 2024 for Etienne, Jacksonville and new head coach Liam Coen added rookie Bhayshul Tuten to create a three-headed backfield. Expect all three backs, including Tank Bigsby, to shine at different points in the season, but Coen will be desperate to get his new squad off to a strong start at home.