Top Stars from The NFL Week 1

Now that week 1 in the NFL is over, it’s time to take a look back on the top performers of the week. Everyone is likely either happy or disappointed about how their favorite team did but let’s be honest: we know the other reason everyone watches – gambling purposes. Let’s look back at some players that likely won people betting on football quite a bit of money in week 1.

Going back to the Thursday night game, if you either took the Patriots or had Tom Brady on your fantasy team, you likely did quite well and won money betting on the NFL. Brady torched the Steelers defense on opening night, throwing for 288 yards and 4 TD’s on his way to a 28-21 victory over the Steelers. Other star QB’s were Carson Palmer of the Cardinals who threw for over 300 yards and 3 TD’s and Marcus Mariota who threw for 4 TD’s in an incredible opening game. Mariota is a guy worth tracking going forward, in particular if you play in a fantasy football keeper league.

At running back, there were a trio of 100 rushers this week. DeAngelo Williams of the Steelers had a great game filling in for the suspended Le’veon Bell (although Williams will likely be of little value when Bell returns). Alfred Morris was his usual consistent but unspectacular self against a good Dolphins defense. Morris is likely to see a ton of carries this year with the well documented QB issues plaguing Washington. And the best RB performance of the week has to be Matt Forte. The man ran all over the Packers defense while also managing to catch passes out of the backfield. With Brandon Marshall now in New York, look for Forte to get even more touches this season than before.

Seemingly every top wide receiver disappointed in week 1 with Green, Bryant, Johnson, and Beckham doing very little. With these receivers all disappointing many mid-tier level guys stepped up. Keenan Allen caught 15 passes against a Lions defense that was very good a year ago. Kendall Wright and Nate Washington seemingly came out of nowhere for the Titans and Texans respectively. And the lone star to have a great day was Antonio Brown playing against the Patriots. Brown is very consistent although he had a lot going for him week 1 with Bell being suspended (along with Bryant, the second receiver) and against a Patriots secondary that isn’t nearly what it was a year ago. Brown is a top tier receiver and will produce no matter what, just don’t expect the same level of production every week.

Rob Gronkowski and Jason Witten are two of the top tight ends to ever play the game and they sure didn’t disappoint in week one. They caught a total of 5 touchdowns and both were very important pieces of their teams’ victories. Beyond them, this was a week where Tyler Eifert and Austin Seferian-Jenkins broke out. Eifert had been dealing with injuries and it was great to see him on the field and producing for Cincinnati. Jenkins was an unknown in terms of production but he is a physically gifted player and it was good to see him play well in his first game with Jameis Winston at QB. He should be a player to watch going forward and is very much in play if you play daily fantasy football. Good luck to all in week 2NFL betting and beyond!