Fantasy Football Week 1 Quarterback Preview: Sitting Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, and Kirk Cousins

Changing the rankings over from a season-long view to a Week 1 view is always a bit of a shock. While many rankings look the same, there are always some outliers based either on injuries, matchups, or some other unexpected factor. In Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season, there are three veteran quarterbacks with terrifying matchups that I would like to sit on my bench.

To be fair, I may have preferred to bench Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins even with great matchups. Their age and the fact that they’re returning from Achilles’ injuries make them risky enough. We also haven’t seen either play a full game with their new teams. Cousins is at least at home, but I expect the Steelers defense to be very good once again and don’t want to trust him. Rodgers travels to San Francisco, a team that had more interceptions (22) than passing touchdowns allowed (20) in 2023. They were also tied for seventh in the NFL in sacks with 48, so they’ll provide a good test for the Jets’ rebuilt offensive line. 

The bigger surprise is my fear of starting Dak Prescott. My projections process starts with a team total projection from implied Vegas lines. As of Tuesday morning, the Cowboys have an implied total of 19.75. I would imagine that would be their lowest of the year, and it makes sense. Only two of the nine teams to travel to Cleveland last year scored more than 20 points. Add in the fact that Prescott and Lamb haven’t been practicing together due to Lamb’s holdout and there’s real reason to be concerned in Week 1. You can’t sit Lamb, but it’s much easier to sit Prescott.

Two other top-notch QBs I don’t want to start in Week 1 are Brock Purdy and Justin Herbert. Purdy plays a Jets defense that was the best in football against quarterbacks in 2023. He’s an easy sit. I want to see the Chargers offensive game plan under Greg Roman before I start Herbert, especially since the QB has been dealing with a foot issue. 

That’s a lot of QBs I don’t want to play, but I have two streamers who are rostered in less than half of leagues, and one deep sleeper I would start over Herbert, listed below. You always find all of my projections over at Sportsline. 

Let’s get to the rest of the preview:

Week 1 QB Preview

• 234 — Tampa Bay gave up 234 yards rushing to QBs last year, the fifth-lowest mark in the league. We’ll see how much that matters against Jayden Daniels.
• 110.3 — Tua Tagovailoa owns a 110.3 passer rating in nine career September games, his highest mark in any month. 
• 21 — The Jets gave up 21 combined touchdowns to quarterbacks last year, only the Ravens allowed fewer.
• 26.5 — Bradley Chubb, Christian Wilkins, and Andrew Van Ginkel combined for 26.5 sacks last year. None of them will be in uniform for the Dolphins Week 1.
• 24.9 — Jared Goff averaged 24.9 FPPG at home last year. In 2022, he averaged 25.6 at home. He’s a must-start at home in Week 1.
• 4 — Anthony Richardson scored four rushing touchdowns in approximately two and a half games last year. Last year the Texans surrendered a league-high seven rushing TDs to QBs.

My full set of Week 1 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You’ll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 1. Projected stats for all starting quarterbacks are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.