• Kenneth Gainwell and Kyren Williams lead their backfields: There won’t be too many opportunities this season to add a team’s top running back off the waiver wire, but this week presents multiple chances.

• Puka Nacua has an all-time great Week 1 for a rookie: The Rams’ fifth-rounder put up historically great numbers and is worth keeping an eye on.

• Several options at tight end: There were multiple tight ends who stood out in a week when most good tight ends either dealt with injury or had a poor first game.

Estimated Reading Time: 22 minutes

Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season is just about in the books. Here are the players you should be targeting in your fantasy football leagues, including targets in smaller leagues and deeper leagues, as well as players to avoid.

Jump to a position group:

QB | RB | WR | TE

Quarterback

Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers (Rostered in 24.5% of leagues on ESPN)

Purdy completed 19 of his 29 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns in the 49ers’ dominant victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

• That was good for the 10th-best fantasy performance of Week 1.
• He accomplished this in a blowout. In a more competitive matchup, the team might need Purdy to throw the ball even more.
• Purdy ran the ball three times for 20 yards, making this his first game with double-digit rushing yards.
• Purdy’s ADP was on the rise throughout August as it became clear he would be healthy for Week 1, and now his stock should be rising even more because everything continues to be clicking for the 49ers’ offense.

Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers (15.8%)

Jordan Love completed 15 of his 27 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns.

• He did this with his top wide receiver Christian Watson inactive and his second-best receiver Romeo Doubs playing only half the game due to injury.
• Love finished with 23.0 fantasy points, the second-best performance of the week. Seven of the top nine fantasy producers were quarterbacks who are typically on fantasy rosters.
• Love ran the ball three times for 12 yards, a meager output — but still better than a number of older quarterbacks.
• We don’t know if Love can do this with any consistency, and his numbers might not look as good outside of blowout wins, but he played well enough for fantasy managers to at least stash him on rosters.