After a rollercoaster of a 14-game Sunday around the NFL that featured breakouts, busts, bad beats, injuries, and more, we have our first Monday Night Football game of the season coming up. For Week 1, we’re treated to a battle between the injury-plagued Baltimore Ravens and the Las Vegas Raiders in the first regular-season game with fans at the new Allegiant Stadium in Vegas.
Top Picks
My top three SuperDraft picks (in no particular order) are listed below for the Monday Night Football showdown.
Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens (1.0x score multiplier)
While Jackson doesn’t have an additional score multiplier to accompany rostering him Monday evening, he still carries arguably the highest upside on the entire slate, especially with how depleted the Ravens’ backfield is. After a down 2020 season, the hope is that Jackson can rekindle his 2019 MVP season where he established himself as one of the best dual threats in the NFL, passing for 36 scores while also rushing for seven touchdowns.
Using the betting market to evaluate his expected performance, Jackson currently sits at implied totals of 210.5 passing yards, 1.5 passing touchdowns, 71.5 rushing yards (highest among any player on the slate), and sits at -155 to score a touchdown (rushing). This projects for the most fantasy points in the game by a landslide, making the lack of a multiplier a bit of an irrelevant argument on a single-game slate.
Darren Waller, TE, Las Vegas Raiders (1.4x)
If there’s a game-breaker for the Raiders who has the potential to explode in this game, it’s Darren Waller. The top-tier tight end put on a clinic in the second half of 2020, averaging over 130 yards per game between Week 13 and Week 18 on the back of 11 targets (8.6 catches) per game. Waller logged 20.5% of his catches in the short-middle location of the field. Coincidentally, this also happens to be where the Ravens secondary struggles the most. They allowed 27.7% of passes against to go there (highest of any direction) for 1,098 total yards on the season.
The Raiders are also going to be trailing in this game more often than not. This leads to more passing-down work for Waller to rack up. He should have plenty of receptions accompanied by his generous score multiplier.
Ty’Son Williams, RB, Baltimore Ravens (1.6x)
After injuries to J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, and Justice Hill, Ty’Son Williams is the last man standing in the backfield for Week 1. Despite the signings of Devonta Freeman, Le’Veon Bell, and Latavius Murray, it’s been reported that Williams will carry the load against the Raiders. This is a great opportunity for him to do so as well. The Raiders allowed the second-most rushing touchdowns (24) and the most red-zone rushing touchdowns (22) in the league last season. Add the scoring upside to the anticipated volume and his elite multiplier and you have a rock-solid flex option and a great champion option for the additional 0.5x multiplier as well.
Champion rankings
1. Darren Waller (2.1x)
2. Lamar Jackson (1.5x)
3. Ty’Son Williams (2.4x)
4. Derek Carr (1.95x)
5. Mark Andrews (2.45x)
This article expresses the personal views of the writer and does not reflect the view(s) of SuperDraft in any way.
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