Have you ever finished a fantasy football draft and thought to yourself “this team is solid, but it could use a little more upside”? Well, we have the cure for that with our Week 1 Fantasy Football Stashes!

Of course, we have our Week 1 Waiver Wire article for the “must add” waiver wire picks. We have our Week 1 Streamers article for the safe (but boring) guys to potentially start. This is for the high-risk, high-reward Week 1 fantasy football stashes and sleepers. The “league winners”, if you will.

 

 

 

Most of these Week 1 fantasy football stashes are not going to be super trustworthy in the early going. Some of them might not even be starters. Some of them could even be hurt right now. But all of the best fantasy football stashes below have one thing in common – upside.

Best Fantasy Football Stashes For Week 1

In the years they won leagues, guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Hunter Renfrow didn’t really do anything until the second half of the season. You had to stash them. And Week 1 was the best time to do it, before your league-mates can get their grubby paws on them.

So that’s what we’ll do here. We’re going to look at players rostered in less than 50% of leagues on Yahoo (or close to it if a guy deserves a mention). We’ll give a quick look at what makes them a great Week 1 fantasy football stash and why you should hold them. We’ll even throw in some honorable mentions for the really deep league stashes if they are out there! So, let’s dig in.

 

 

 

NFL Week 1 Quarterback Stashes

Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots, Yahoo: 6%| ESPN: 4% | Sleeper: 0%

Jacoby Brissett is the starter. Everyone knows that. And we have no idea if or when we will see Drake Maye this season. But, if we do, the upside is undoubtedly there. Everyone is so worried about the weapons or his throwing ability but I honestly don’t care about that. I care about his willingness to run. 

Jayden Daniels had a season in college running 186 times – Drake Maye had one with 184. Drake Maye runs the same 40 times as Jalen Hurts and they’re both far faster than Josh Allen who ran a 4.75. And Josh Allen also didn’t have his first 60%+ completion percentage season until year three. We always talk about the ceiling of mobile QBs but running the ball 5-6 times a game creates an incredible floor too.

Bryce Young, QB, Carolina Panthers, Yahoo: 9%| ESPN: 11% | Sleeper: 44%

Of all 272 regular season games, the two with the lowest over/under based on Vegas odds are the two times the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints play each other. So you don’t want to start Young this week. 

But they paid $150 million for two new offensive guards, they traded for Diontae Johnson and they drafted Xavier Leggette, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jonothan Brooks. Brooks will miss the first four games with injury but this team could hit a stride at some point. And Bryce Young could take a step. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 1 Running Back Stashes

Jordan Mason, RB, San Francisco 49ers, Yahoo: 26%| ESPN: 17% | Sleeper: 2%

Fantasy football does not have to be hard. The 49ers coaching staff has been singing Mason’s praises all year. He was clearly beating out Elijah Mitchell for that RB2 job. Then Mitchell was placed on season-ending IR so it didn’t even matter. 

It’s hard to say whether or not Mason will play much now but Christian McCaffrey has already been dealing with a calf issue. If anything happens to CMC, it’s wheels up for Mason.

Jaylen Wright, RB, Miami Dolphins, Yahoo: 21%| ESPN: 23% | Sleeper: 0%

When deciding whether to stash Jordan Mason or Jaylen Wright, you need to take your own roster construction and goals into account. Mason has the higher upside but he needs an injury specific to Christian McCaffrey to become relevant. 

Jaylen Wright could become relevant if EITHER Raheem Mostert or De’Vone Achane gets hurt. So the likelihood of that happening is double what it is for Mason. But, if it does happen, Wright would be splitting the workload. So his ceiling isn’t as high as Mason’s. These are the questions we wrangle with.

My general thoughts are that, if you are loaded at RB, you should stash Mason since you would need an absolute stud to crack your lineup. If you went Hero or Zero RB and are really hurting for fantasy-relevant players, Wright might be the better stash. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 1 Wide Receiver Stashes

Mike Williams - New York Jets, 44%| ESPN: 72% | Sleeper: 94%

In a recent interview, Jets head coach Robert Saleh said that Mike Williams has “flashed in practice” since returning. He also added the following quote “He’s going to be available Week 1 but to expect him to be 100 percent? No”. 

There is some uncertainty as to how this Jets offense with Aaron Rodgers will operate so it could be worse a stash to hold onto Mike Williams and see how he progresses coming off a serious knee injury. We’re higher on Williams than the general consensus in the industry.

Dontayvion Wicks - Green Bay Packers, Yahoo: 29%| ESPN: 20% | Sleeper: 0%

I personally was not taking much Dontayvion Wicks in drafts. But that doesn’t mean I won’t take a free look at him off the wire if he’s there in certain leagues. That is ESPECIALLY true if it’s a league like Yahoo or Sleeper which might allow you to hold players on your bench then drop them for new players AFTER they play (check your settings on that). 

The Packers play the Eagles on Friday night in Brazil so you can get a free peek at his usage. I prefer Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs but I did drop my kicker in one league to check out what Wicks looks like. If he’s still a part-time guy as the WR4 like last year, I’ll just drop him on Saturday morning. If he has a bigger role (or the oft-injured Christian Watson goes down), now we might have hit on something.

Jalen McMillan - Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Yahoo: 5%| ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 0%

Mike Williams and Dontayvion Wicks are likely rostered in a lot of leagues so I wanted to include one more for the deeper leagues. Many viewed McMillan as the second best WR out of Washington behind Rome Odunze so it was surprising to see Ja’Lynn Polk go before him. 

He should be the WR3 for Tampa Bay, but Mike Evans is north of 30 years old, and Chris Godwin has not been a bastion of health. Cade Otton was one of the least efficient tight ends in terms of yards per route run at 0.8 so McMillan could slot in nicely as a top two target if something were to happen to Evans or Godwin. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 1 Tight End Stashes

Jonnu Smith - Miami Dolphins 8%| ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 0%

Ahh yes, Mr. Smith. An enigma in the tight end world with his enamoring athleticism but journeyman status. He will now play for his fourth team in the Miami Dolphins though this finally may be the scheme that fits his style best.

The Dolphins use a similar scheme to the 49ers which utilizes a fullback and a “two way” tight end that can both block and run routes. The 49ers obviously have the explosive George Kittle. The Dolphins will try the explosive Jonnu Smith. He likely needs an injury to Tyreek Hill or Jayden Waddle to unlock his true upside 

Ben Sinnott - Washington Commanders, Yahoo: 8%| ESPN: 6% | Sleeper: 0%

The stigma on rookie tight ends has been broken as recent seasons from the likes of Kyle Pitts, Sam LaPorta and Dalton Kincaid have shattered that glass ceiling. But that doesn’t mean they will all start popping off. 

OPPORTUNITY is still the most important thing and Sinnott might need to wait his turn behind veteran Zach Ertz. Outside of Terry McLaurin though, there is no other dominant pass catcher so, when that time comes, the upside could be big. We all saw what happened with Trey McBride last year when Ertz went down…

 

 

 

Why Do We Stash?

Obviously, it would be nice if our entire roster was just chock full of stars. Maybe your lineup is (some of my dynasty leagues certainly are). But, for most of us, there will be holes. That’s why we highlight the Top Waiver Adds each week as well as the Best Streamers to get you by. 

The best fantasy football stashes though? These are the guys that win you the title. That come out of the woodwork down the stretch like rookie Odell Beckham. or Amon-Ra St. Brown.