Freedman's Favorites and Fades For Week 1 Fantasy Football
Fantasy

Freedman's Favorites and Fades For Week 1 Fantasy Football

Matthew Freedman introduces his favorite (and least favorite) palys for Week 1 of fantasy football.

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This is my 11th season as a full-time fantasy football writer and analyst.

Time flies, time dies, time does not exist, we do not exist, nothing exists, nothing is nothing, so everything is everything, we are everything, and we are everlasting.

Immortal. Infinite. Like gods … but only if we dominate our friends and family this season and claim the greatest glory achievable: A fantasy football championship. 

This is my 11th season writing the weekly positional breakdown series that has evolved into what this year will be called "Freedman's Favorites & Fades." Essentially, players I'm upgrading and downgrading on a weekly basis. Phrased differently: The best and worst fantasy plays every week.

And yes … we're adding FADES.

As I've always said, pessimism pays.

Here are the links to all eight positional breakdowns for Week 1.

  • The Best QBs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Worst QBs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Best RBs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Worst RBs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Best WRs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Worst WRs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Best TEs For Week 1 Fantasy Football
  • The Worst TEs For Week 1 Fantasy Football

I'm writing this intro, in the words of Layne Staley: "at 7 am on a Tuesday in August."

As I write, the regular season is still days away. In fantasy football time, that's forever.

But as you read it, we've finally reached Week 1.

The time is nigh.

In the words of Scott Stapp: "No time for mourning, ain't got no time."

Also, maybe I should listen to something else besides '90s grunge the next time I write this intro.

As was the case last year, this series will be broken out by position … but instead of just four articles (my Favorites), there will now be eight (Favorites plus Fades), two for each position.

Plus, each week you'll be able to find this series on a dedicated Freedman's Favorites & Fades landing page. For the sake of convenience, I recommend bookmarking it. That way, whenever my eight positional breakdowns go live on Wednesday morning, you can wake up, grab your cup of coffee, log in, automatically hit up the page, and consume all my content like the ravenous fantasy football degenerate you are. (And I say that with respect. Obviously.)

And while I'm on the topic of schedule, here are a couple related notes.

Injuries: Since I write Favorites & Fades on Monday and Tuesday, I have incomplete injury information. After submission, any updated thoughts I have regarding injuries will manifest in my rankings. For our quick fantasy thoughts every day, subscribe to the Fantasy Life newsletter.

Rankings: This season, I'll have the following rankings schedule.

  • Tue AM: Publish
  • Thu AM: Refresh
  • Thu PM: Make necessary TNF changes
  • Sat PM: Update
  • Sun AM: Revise
  • Sun PM: Finalize based on news prior to 1 pm ET kickoff

I should note: This year, most of this series will be housed behind a paywall. I mean, I'm a seven-time top-20 ranker in accuracy and a long-time profitable bettor. At some point, this was bound to happen. [Freedman's note to editor: Insert here the quotation about "free milk" and a "cow." I can't remember it exactly, but you know the one.]

To access all my fantasy football rankings, my weekly written content, our Fantasy HQ League Hub, our weekly player projections, and my personal NFL Game Model, use the promo code FREEDMAN for a 10% discount on the FantasyLife+ package.

But if you're just a lowkey junkie and not a full-blown pull-the-wallet-out fantasy fiend, fret not, my friend: Each week, the intro and two positional pieces in the series will be free.

As the saying goes, I'm a Freedman of the people.

As such, this year I shall continue my steadfast quest (not unlike a '90s rock band playing an unplugged set) to strip my work down to its purple core. (Yes, that's a Stone Temple Pilots reference.)

Instead of talking about all the players, I now focus only on guys I like and dislike. And instead of detailing 5-8 data points on a player, I now highlight the 2-3 most important.

In the olden days, my articles were intentional tomes. I tried to cram into them every actionable insight I could find. Now, I strive for brevity, for the sake of my readers, editors, family, and sanity. I enjoy beating dead horses, but not everyone shares my sickness. 

And, really, who has the time to spend hours diving into the minutiae of all the players I'm upgrading and downgrading in any given week? Not Stapp. And definitely not Staley and Scott Weiland. (Too soon? Nah, they would've loved that joke.)

The older I get, the more valuable I realize time is … and I don't want to waste it for anyone with pieces (and I suppose intros) longer than necessary.

So that's enough preamble. Let's get into the Week 1 edition of Freedman's Favorites & Fades.

Published