The Judge's Verdict:
football 2019 Week 1
September 10, 2019
CASE SUMMARY:
Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (324 yds, 5 TD) and Dallas's Dak Prescott (405-4) led all QBs in fantasy scoring in the opening week. Although both players were certainly on everybody's watch list, they were generally ranked outside the starting group (Top 10) on most pre-season draft boards. However, given their opening week matchups, Jackson at Miami and Prescott vs NYG, some experts elevated one or both into their recommended starting selections.
DEFENDANT TESTIMONY:
4for4
Ranked Jackson 9th and Prescott 10th
Huddle
Ranked Prescott 6th and Jackson 7th, both comfortably inside “must start” status
Advice
Placed Jackson 4th for the week, the highest ranking, with Prescott at 12th
Sharks
Ranked Prescott 6th, noting his career best had previously come in his last game against the Giants, but had Jackson all the way down at 20th despite writing that Miami would likely be his best matchup of the year.
CBS
Their 3 analysts all had Jackson in a starting position (top 10), with Jamey Eisenberg most bullish (3rd). But they were more divided on Prescott, with Heath Cummings placing him 5th, but the other two analysts ranking him 13th and 14th.
ESPN
Footballers
Placed Lamar Jackson 7th but had Prescott 30th (!) (side note, they also had Watson 28th, the Judge hopes Watson owners didn't consider benching him)
Sharks
Ranked Prescott 5th but Jackson 16th
Sixpack
Jackson 7th, Prescott 10th
FFToday
Ranked Jackson 4th, the highest individual ranking, and Prescott 10th
Diehards
Placed Jackson 8th and Prescott 11th
Fantasy
Weren’t very optimistic about either, placing Jackson 14th and Prescott 17th
SleeperU
Jackson #13, Prescott #14
(read more about the fantasy football experts here)
VERDICT ANALYSIS:
The Fantasy Judge generally considers 8th or higher as "must-start," 9-11 as on the fence, and 12 and below as suggested backups. Many experts saw a big game coming from one of these two but few experts were bullish on both players, despite the matchups vs. Miami and the Giants. TheHuddle ranked them both very highly while FFToday and TheFFAdvice gave the highest individual ranking (4th, to Jackson)