Our lives are about to get back to normal! NFL Football is back on our screens, and we’re stressing about our fantasy football lineups. We wouldn’t want it any other way either. It’s been a long time without setting fantasy football lineups and discussing some sleepers. Let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming and talk some sleepers, shall we?
If you are new to this article, well, welcome aboard! I provide a “lineup” (one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers and one tight end) of sleepers that you may want to consider starting if you’re weak at the position or looking for other options in Points Per Reception (PPR) formats. Oh, and there will be some puns sprinkled in, most of which you’ll spend groaning at.
OK, now we’re officially getting into the first edition of 2025’s “Shore Thing Sleepers.”
Fantasy Football Start/Sit Consideration: Week 1 Sleepers (2025)
Quarterback
Joe Flacco (Cleveland Browns)
I will scour everywhere for possible sleepers. Yes, even the Cleveland Browns quarterback room will be considered. It might not be prime Joe Flacco, but he’s still a starting quarterback. After all, there are only 32 of them in the league. All he had to do was beat out the two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
If there’s one thing that you need to know about Flacco, it’s that he is a gunslinger. He will get you fantasy points; the problem is that the fantasy points can go either very positive or very negative. There’s no in-between. Look at last season when he was on the Colts. He averaged 251.5 passing yards, 1.7 passing touchdowns, an interception and 15.1 fantasy points in starts.
That’s not all, though! This isn’t his first rodeo with the Browns with Kevin Stefanski as the head coach, and that year was even better! That 2023 season, in his six starts (including the playoffs), he averaged 320.5 passing yards, 2.3 touchdowns, 1.6 interceptions and 20.4 fantasy points.
Now, Week 1 is unpredictable as it is. There is one thing that many people, including myself, predict: The Cincinnati Bengals’ defense will still be subpar. The Bengals’ defense allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks last year. If that wasn’t bad enough, they were responsible for 34 total touchdowns from quarterbacks, which was tied for the fourth-most. They might’ve slightly upgraded it. Still, when you give a gunslinger a defense that allows a lot of fantasy points and touchdowns, it could mean trouble.
Running Back
Jordan Mason (Minnesota Vikings)
Remember when Jordan Mason became a part of our fantasy lineups last year after Christian McCaffrey was a shocking “Monday Night Football” inactive to end Week 1? He might be on a new team with the Minnesota Vikings, but it’s still the same Mason who had 100+ rushing yards and a touchdown in three games last year.
Some rumors are saying that Mason will be in a “50/50ish split” with running back Aaron Jones. I tend to believe that rumor, as head coach Kevin O’Connell has liked to use a second running back alongside Jones. Just last year, we saw it with Ty Chandler, when he scored 7.2+ fantasy points in the first two weeks. Then, they traded for Cam Akers before the trade deadline. From Weeks 9-18, Akers finished as RB36 in that span, averaging only 26.8% of the snaps and scoring at least 7.2+ fantasy points in five games.
You can give me that all day, and why can’t he do it against the Chicago Bears? The only defensive signings they made on the defensive line were Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo. The Bears can still be a mess in stopping the run, as they and the Panthers were the only two teams to allow 2,000+ rushing yards and 18+ rushing touchdowns to running backs. We’ll see him in a limited role from what we saw of him last year, but when the matchup is favorable, he needs to provide the points, and I think he can do just that.
Chris Rodriguez Jr. (Washington Commanders)
I know what you’re all thinking. You put the wrong Washington Commanders’ running back on there. No, I definitely meant to put Chris Rodriguez Jr. and not Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who also goes by “Bill.” Now, no need to worry, as I do think that Croskey-Merritt will still be the RB1 and the primary one to roster.
So, why Rodriguez Jr.? We don’t have to flashback that far. In fact, it’s only until Aug. 21, and you can see how we got here. Brian Robinson Jr. is gone, and The Athletic’s Ben Standig asked the question of whether Rodriguez would take Robinson’s role as the short-yardage and goal-line back.
Dan Quinn’s answer? “Yes, and I would say there’s also parts of our offense that are a little bit untraditional, where we’re not traditional in using a lead blocker sometimes in short yardage.” Could this be “coachspeak”? Yes. Might I have fallen for it? Yes.
But that’s OK, and here’s why. If he does end up being the goalline back, he faces the New York Giants, who allowed 14 rushing touchdowns to running backs last season, tied for 12th most. Also, in six games last season, two different running backs from the same team scored seven-plus fantasy points against the Giants. That’s one-third of the games where that happened.
How about we do another flashback? This time to Week 9 of last season, where the same Rodriguez Jr. had 52 rushing yards on 11 attempts against the Giants. The Giants are bringing a scarier defense by drafting Abdul Carter with the third-overall pick, but the interior defensive line looks very similar to the one that the Commanders saw last year.
Wide Receiver
Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks)
I know it’s not the same Cooper Kupp that won the “Triple Crown” in the 2021 season. I’m not expecting him to reach those numbers again, especially being the Seahawks’ WR2 behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN). Still, I am left intrigued looking at him as a potential sleeper in Week 1 for some interesting reasons.
Starting with the Seahawks. They’ve gone three straight games against the San Francisco 49ers, where they have had two different wide receivers score double-digit fantasy points. In both games, JSN was one of them. Then, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett were the other receivers to do it, and if you don’t know, they’re now on different teams. Sam Darnold was good enough in Minnesota with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Why can’t he do it in Seattle with JSN and Kupp?
If you use last year’s numbers, it does look bleak. The 49ers allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points to the wide receiver position, and to make matters worse, they allowed the fewest receiving yards to the position last year. The problem is that the 49ers lost two players in the secondary in free agency, with Charvarius Ward signing with the Indianapolis Colts and Talanoa Hufanga with the Denver Broncos. While they did attempt to upgrade the secondary in the NFL Draft by adding Upton Stout, it appears weaker than it was last year, and this could cause some problems early on if not addressed.
Wan’Dale Robinson (New York Giants)
It’s my man, “PPR’Dale.” Why does Wan’Dale Robinson get that nickname? Well, surprisingly, the duo of Malik Nabers and Robinson finished in the top 10 for receptions and targets last year. While the Nabers part is not surprising, I can tell you that Robinson was definitely shocking. That’s not the only thing; he’s brought in the 18th-most receptions for wide receivers in the past two years. Put that statistic under the category of “doesn’t sound right, but it actually is.”
Now, all he needs to do is not finish under 700 receiving yards, as he’s done with all these receptions in the past two seasons. The first thing to do is upgrade your quarterback room, and that’s exactly what the Giants did by adding veteran Russell Wilson and rookie Jaxson Dart. We can only hope that he gets the same number of targets as he did in those games.
But why against the Washington Commanders? Especially considering that Robinson has historically struggled against the Commanders, not scoring double-digit fantasy points or even seeing more than four targets against them in his three-year career?
This is more of a gut call where I think they’re really going to focus on stopping Nabers, leading towards more receptions in short-yard situations for Robinson. The Giants need to embrace the role that he plays. With Wilson possibly not needing to “moonball” as much in this game, he should still be targeting Nabers with Robinson not far behind.
Tight End
Dalton Schultz (Houston Texans)
Sometimes it doesn’t hurt having a familiar face in your offense. I say that for Dalton Schultz, who is now entering his third year with the Houston Texans. QB C.J. Stroud has way too many new names in his offense to hand the ball off or pass to. Look at the running back room: With Joe Mixon hurt and missing some time, they brought in Nick Chubb during free agency and drafted Woody Marks. At receiver, Christian Kirk, whom they acquired in a trade, is expected to miss this game with a strained hamstring injury. They also drafted Iowa State rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel.
From those two positions, you only have three players who have seen snaps with Stroud beforehand: RB Dameon Pierce and WR Xavier Hutchinson, who are likely to be non-factors, and, of course, Nico Collins. So, that leads me to Schultz, who has chemistry with Stroud. It was a disappointing 2024 season for both of them, but when you need to get a feel for the game, nothing can help more than throwing to players you have already built chemistry with.
Looking at the stats from last year, when Collins played (including playoffs), Schultz was averaging 3.1 receptions on 4.7 targets for 30.2 yards, 0.1 touchdowns and seven fantasy points. I told you, it was a down year for the Texans’ duo.
Still, the opponent is what brightens it up for me. Last season, when the Los Angles Rams faced a tight end that was targeted five-eight times against them, they averaged 4.6 receptions for 48.7 yards, 0.3 touchdowns and 11.7 fantasy points, with the lowest score being 5.9 points!
Thanks for reading this week’s “Shore Thing Sleepers.” If you’re looking for more fantasy content like this or need help with the last-minute fantasy football start/sit decisions for your roster, you can find me on Facebook at “Fantasy Sports Start or Sit’Em Questions,” Twitter/X @FSSOSEQ or on BlueSky!
*Photo Credit: John Jones – USA TODAY Sports*
