Week 1 Fantasy Football Mailbag: Mark Andrews Returning to Prominence?

So you're done with all your drafts for your redraft leagues and the season has started. It's a good time to reassess what's going on with your dynasty roster heading into Week 1. Sam Wallace went into our Fantasy Life Discord community to ask some dynasty fantasy football questions with Week 1 already underway.

Dynasty Fantasy Football Mailbag Covering Week 1

What is Josh Jacobs worth in dynasty formats?

I really struggle with how to evaluate someone like Josh Jacobs given everything going on off-the-field. In dynasty startup drafts, he's essentially off my draft board unless he falls absurdly far. I'm not even sure I want to trade for him in established leagues.

If you have him and are looking to offload him, I'm not quite at the "get whatever you can for him" stage yet, but if you can flip him for a late second or a pair of future thirds, I'm open to the conversation.

At 28 years old, Jacobs was likely at the peak of his dynasty value regardless. His current situation only adds further doubt and uncertainty to his overall dynasty value.

Which player is most undervalued in dynasty formats?

I'm going to go with a pair of rookie wideouts from Miami: Chris Bell and Caleb Douglas.

Malik Willis is about to make someone (maybe two someones) fantasy relevant, and it looks like it'll be the two rookies.

Dwain McFarland has this encouraging insight after Bell's latest outing:

I expect him to push for starter reps quickly. He is a fantastic fit for the Dolphins' play-action-centered offense where he can attack the interior of defenses on in-breaking routes and add YAC.

As for Douglas, he's a top-end athlete who, at 6-foot-4 and 206 pounds, boasts a 4.39-second, 40-yard dash time (93rd percentile) and a 115.5 speed score (97th percentile).

Those are the types of situations I like to attack; ambiguous situations without a clear, definitive No. 1 option can create unique buying situations.

Is 700+ yards & 13 TDs within the realm of possibilities for Mark Andrews in 2026?

I do miss the days when Mark Andrews was one of the premier options at the TE position. Unfortunately, we've had to reassess how we value him now that he's entering his ninth season in the league.

Looking back, Andrews has not topped 700 receiving yards since 2022 and he's only scored 10+ TDs twice in his career (2019, 2024).

I will say this … there's a clearer path to targets, involvement, and overall production this season than there was in 2025. Reaching 700 receiving yards is a much more likely threshold than 13 TDs, but I do appreciate the optimism. Our fantasy football projections have a ceiling outcome of 193 PPR and an actual projection of 157 PPR.

I suppose you could say there's a chance.

When are you bringing back the dynasty hangouts?

This is such a great question. If you are newer to our Fantasy Life community, there was once a time when I would go live on our Discord server each week during the NFL season and just simply … hang out. It was an awesome way to connect with our members, talk about dynasty fantasy football (or really anything fantasy football-related) and just enjoy each other's company.

Unfortunately, I haven't picked up that routine in a few years. There's a few reasons for that, mainly family and other weekly commitments I have during the week, but it's definitely something I miss doing.

So, while I don't have an official answer yet, or at least an answer that will satisfy this question, I do sincerely appreciate you all bugging me about this. I'll see if I can make something happen again sometime soon.

Miss you all.

Can Kirk Cousins hold the starting job all season from Fernando Mendoza?

Can he? Assuming health, I certainly think Cousins is (still) capable of leading an NFL franchise for a decent portion of a season. If you buy into the notion of using bye weeks as a natural bridge point for veteran / rookie QBs, the Raiders bye week isn't until Week 13.

It's possible the Raiders will already be out of playoff contention by that point so there's additional incentive for them to see what they have in Fernando Mendoza over the final five games.

That said, I would be very surprised if Cousins manages to hold onto the starting job for an entire season.

How much do you try to buy players quickly vs. not overreact after a great Week 1 (or another week) performance?

I'll touch on this more below, but utilization is a phenomenal indicator for how "sticky" or repeatable a given performance is. If someone goes off for 2 TDs and 96 yards on 2 targets/receptions, I'm not buying that.

However, if someone hauls in a pair receptions for 14 yards, but saw 10 targets and was on the field for every offensive snap, that will get my attention.

Don't simply look at the boxscores. Dig a little deeper.

What early-season stats should I focus on to not overreact to results in Weeks 1 & 2?

I think it's important to look at the underlying metrics early in the season. I'm specifically referring to stats such as snaps, routes run and even targets. If a player is consistently on the field, or on the field in key moments/situations—red zone, inside the 5 or 10-yard line, etc.—those are the things I want to know.

Dwain McFarland has this incredible tool called the Utilization Report , which he updates each and every week throughout the season. This breaks down the specific information you should care about moving forward.

It's the ultimate resource for any and every fantasy football manager.