Fire & Ice: Top starts, sits and sleepers in fantasy football for Week 2

• Anthony Richardson should light up the boxscore: The Indianapolis Colts QB's gunslinging mindset, coupled with his elite mobility, makes him a great fantasy start every week — but he is especially a fire start this week against the Green Bay Packers who just allowed 34 points and 410 total yards against the Philadelphia Eagles last week.

• Stay away from Derek Carr: The Dallas Cowboys have allowed just 14 fantasy points per game to the QB position since the start of last season, so we may see a typical disastrous Carr performance in Week 2 at Dallas.

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Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Are you struggling to set your Week 2 fantasy football lineups?

Below, you can find my top fire (boom) and ice (bust) players at each position for Week 2. I also include my sleeper of the week at each position, in case you are in a deeper league or need a replacement for an ice player.

Don’t miss my “Fire & Ice” chart at the bottom of this page. There, I have listed out my fire, good, sleeper and ice plays for Week 2 of the 2024 fantasy football season.

Quarterbacks

Fire QB Start of the Week: Anthony Richardson (at GB)

Albeit it's a super small sample size, Anthony Richardson is proving to be an elite fantasy scorer — over the three full games played in his NFL career, he has scored 20.9, 29.6 and 26.1 fantasy points. He finished as the QB4 in Week 1, while only completing nine passes the entire game. Richarson averaged a league-high 17.3 air yards per pass attempt and an absurd 23.6 yards per completion in Week 1, while the Packers allowed the fifth most yards per completion in Week 1 against Jalen Hurts.

Richardson’s gunslinging mindset, coupled with his elite mobility, makes him a great fantasy start every week — but he is especially a fire start this week against the Packers who just allowed 34 points and 410 total yards against the Eagles last week.

Sleeper QB of the Week: Baker Mayfield (at DET)

Baker Mayfield was my “Sleeper QB of the Week” in Week 1’s Fire and Ice column, and he is staying here for Week 2. To open up the 2024 season, Mayfield finished as the QB2 on the week, behind only Josh Allen. He gets another juicy matchup against the Lions this Sunday, who allowed the third-most fantasy points to the quarterback position in 2023 and then followed that up by allowing Matthew Stafford to throw for over 300 yards against them in their season opener.

Mayfield has now scored 19.8-plus fantasy points in four of his last six regular season games played. He is a top-10 fantasy option this week.

Ice QB Start of the Week: Derek Carr (at DAL)

Derek Carr has sneakily thrown at least three touchdowns and scored 20-plus fantasy points in four of his last five games played dating back to last season, including last week where he destroyed the Panthers secondary. Carr was living in a clean pocket in Week 1, as the Panthers defense forced a league-low four total pressures all game long. It is very unlikely that Carr will have such a comfortable experience this Sunday. The Cowboys pass-rush was relentless in Week 1, recording a league-high six sacks and 37 total pressures against Deshaun Watson.

The Cowboys have allowed just 14 fantasy points per game to the QB position since the start of last season. I think we see a typical disastrous Carr performance in Week 2 at Dallas.

Running Backs

Fire RB Start of the Week: Kyren Williams (at ARI)

After playing on 91% of the Rams‘ offensive snaps in Week 1, I am confidently ranking Kyren Williams as my overall RB1 this week. Williams has averaged the second-most fantasy points per game (20.7) among running backs, behind only Christian McCaffrey, since the start of the 2023 season. He gets to face the Cardinals this Sunday, who have allowed the second-most fantasy points to the running back position over the last two seasons.

Williams absolutely destroyed the Cardinals over his two matchups in 2023 – he averaged 181 scrimmage yards per game and scored three times against them. His 301 rush yards against Arizona in 2023 were the most by any player vs a single opponent last season. Williams scored 38.4 fantasy points and finished as the RB1 the last time he faced the Cardinals in Week 12, 2023.

Sleeper RB of the Week: J.K. Dobbins (at CAR)

After suffering two devastating leg injuries over the past three years, and being forgotten about in the fantasy world, J.K. Dobbins showed up huge in his debut with the Chargers. Dobbins showed he still has what it takes to be a great starting RB — as long as he can stay healthy. In Week 1, he put up 135 rush yards and scored a touchdown on just 10 carries — his 13.5 yards per carry and 7.8 yards after contact per attempt led the NFL last week.

Dobbins already out-snapped his backfield competition Gus Edwards 33-23 in Week 1, and his snap count should only increase as we progress through the season. He gets a great matchup against the Panthers this Sunday, who have allowed the sixth most fantasy points to the running back position since the start of the 2023 season, and just allowed 35 points to the Saints RBs as a group last week.

Ice RB Start of the Week: Zamir White (at BAL)

The Raiders confusingly shied away from Zamir White and leaned on Alexander Mattison in Week 1, especially in the fourth quarter when they were attempting to come back against the Chargers. White played 13 fewer offensive snaps than Mattison in the game, while only getting onto the field for two snaps in the 4th quarter.

Mattison is clearly the preferred pass-catching back in Las Vegas, and it seems he will be getting the majority of snaps as long as the Raiders are trailing — which is expected to be often. The Raiders are 8.5-point underdogs against the Ravens in Baltimore this Sunday, making it hard to trust White in your starting lineups in Week 2.

Wide Receivers

Fire WR Start of the Week: Amari Cooper (at JAX)

Deshaun Watson tried to get the ball to his No. 1 guy last week, targeting Amari Cooper nine times — but they only connected for two receptions for 16 yards. Maybe I am too generous, but I am throwing out the Browns’ Week 1 performance against the Cowboys defense that terrorized them the entire 60 minutes. Things will get easier for their offense against the Jaguars, who were the 26th-ranked pass defense in 2023 and then allowed both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle to put up over 100 receiving yards against them in Week 1 in Miami.

With Browns’ TE David Njoku out with an injury this weekend, Cooper should see at least double-digit targets against the Jaguars weak secondary. He is a top-12 fantasy option this week.

Sleeper WR Start of the Week: Wan’Dale Robinson (at WAS)

Wan’Dale Robinson was inefficient in Week 1, putting up only 44 yards on a team-high 12 targets — but if he gets a similar workload this weekend, he should have a much better performance.

The Commanders have allowed the most receiving yards and second-most fantasy points to the wide receiver position since the start of the 2023 season.

They particularly struggled at covering the slot in their season opener, allowing the Buccaneers to gain 139 receiving yards and score three touchdowns from the slot. All six of Robinson’s Week 1 catches came when aligned in the slot.

Ice WR Starts of the Week: Stefon Diggs (vs CHI)

In Week 1, 15.1 of Stefon Diggs’ 21.3 fantasy points scored came on two short touchdown receptions. Among the Texans’ WR trio, Diggs ranked last in targets, receiving yards, yards per reception and intended air yards in their season opener. Fantasy managers will need Diggs to continue scoring touchdowns at a super high rate to be happy with him in your starting lineup. This is a tough matchup for that to happen as the Bears have allowed only five touchdowns to the wide receiver position over their last seven games.

This matchup calls for another big Joe Mixon performance, with C.J. Stroud taking occasional shots down the field to Nico Collins and Tank Dell.

Tight Ends

Fire TE Start of the Week: Mark Andrews (vs LV)

It was the other Ravens TE, Isaiah Likely, who stole the spotlight in the 2024 NFL kickoff game — but don’t discount Mark Andrews too quickly. Andrews still ran the second most routes among all tight ends in the NFL in Week 1. I expect Andrews to be targeted at a much higher rate this Sunday, especially near the goal line. Continue to plug Andrews into your fantasy lineups with confidence; I have him ranked as my TE5 heading into Week 2.

Sleeper TE of the Week: Colby Parkinson (at ARI)

No tight end played more snaps or ran more routes in Week 1 than Rams TE Colby Parkinson. He finished as the TE7 on the week while tying his career-high 47 receiving yards in his first career game played with the Rams. Plus, his target rate should increase with Puka Nacua being placed on IR. Parkinson has great upside in Week 2 in a nice matchup against the Cardinals' weak secondary.

Ice TE Start of the Week: Pat Freiermuth (at DEN)

The Broncos are a good matchup for fantasy tight ends, but I don’t think the matchup matters when it comes to starting Pat Freiermuth. He has scored seven or fewer fantasy points in ten of his last 12 games played. Over his last six games, he has averaged a measly 25.8 receiving yards and 5.9 fantasy points per game.

To make matters worse, Justin Fields is likely to start again this Sunday for the Steelers. Fields had exactly zero pass attempts over the middle in Week 1. The risk is too great for the very little upside that Freiermuth offers fantasy managers.

Fire & Ice Fantasy Football Plays

Here, I categorize every relevant fantasy player into five different buckets: (1) fire starts (best starts of the week); (2) thumbs up (good starts); (3) Risky players with upside (sleepers); (4) Ice starts (predicting bad performance from good player); (5) Stop (must sits).

Note: If a player/defense is not listed, I am not considering starting them in Week 2. I did not include Bills/Dolphins players as they played on Thursday night.