Hungry for More: The Fantasy Footballers’ Predictions for Week 1
We are finally on the cusp of needing to set lineups ahead of Week 1 for fantasy football in the 2024 season! Finding players for your fantasy roster who can take a step forward can be the difference-making move to change a potential loss into an epic win! Ahead of Week 1, the Ballers have their bibs on looking for a feast of fantasy goodness in this week’s Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats!
Every week throughout the season, Andy, Mike, and Jason will be delivering a menu of players they either want to see take that next step forward for fantasy or a player who they feel may be dining and dashing!
WR – Brandon Aiyuk (SF)
2023 Season:
| Receptions | Receiving Yards | TDs |
| 75 | 1,342 | 7 |
Andy has a plate ready for a serving of the newly extended Brandon Aiyuk. After a summer filled with rumors of numerous teams – the Browns, Patriots, and Steelers mainly – willing to give up both players and picks for the chance to negotiate a long-term deal with Aiyuk, the 49ers locked him up for the significant future with a contract extension right before the season started. The concern for fantasy managers has to be not seeing Aiyuk on the field at all in the preseason and what that could mean for his impact on their fantasy teams in the early weeks of the season.
Last season, Aiyuk was extremely efficient for San Francisco, scoring seven times on just 75 receptions. In the last 10 seasons, there have been 99 WRs who have scored seven times with 75 or fewer receptions, but Aiyuk’s 2023 season was the second-highest receiving yards in that group of players. Andy is interested to see how the 49ers’ offense transforms this season with the potential for the team to move on from Deebo Samuel at the end of the year. Fantasy managers who have been holding onto Aiyuk all summer are eager to see how San Francisco’s most expensive WR looks back on the field to start the year.
WR – Luke McCaffrey (WASH)
2023 Collegiate Season:
| Receptions | Receiving Yards | TDs |
| 71 | 992 | 13 |
From a veteran that fantasy managers are eager to see back on the field, to Jason’s pick of a rookie he’s wanting to see more of with Luke McCaffrey. While there hasn’t been much talk about McCaffrey throughout the offseason, the moves that the Commanders have made give Jason reason to be interested in what could happen with McCaffrey in this passing game. There wasn’t much thought that McCaffrey could be a part of the offense in Washington early on in the season until the Commanders traded Jahan Dotson to the Eagles in late August, opening the door for McCaffrey to become the WR2 in their new-look offense.
McCaffrey is seen as a pretty raw WR prospect coming into the league with only two years of collegiate experience at the position after switching from QB before the 2022 season. If there’s hope for McCaffrey to become fantasy-relevant as a rookie, it will be due to a connection with fellow rookie QB Jayden Daniels. Jason brings up the reports that McCaffrey and Daniels have been developing a “breakfast relationship” that we’ve seen become valuable in the past. What’s more important is that McCaffrey has been listed as the WR2 on the Commanders’ official depth chart. With plenty of opportunity in the Washington offense, McCaffrey could be ready to serve up some fantasy success.
WR – Tee Higgins (CIN)
2023 Season:
| Receptions | Receiving Yards | TDs |
| 42 | 656 | 5 |
It’s been a long road in the relationship between Mike and Tee Higgins, but the Fantasy Hitman is eager to see what the Bengals’ WR can do this season. The uncertainty in Cincinnati may be exactly what’s needed to get Higgins back on track after a lackluster 2023 season where he finished as the WR49. With Ja’Marr Chase’s status up in the air for the season opener due to contract negotiations, Higgins could enter the season as the primary receiving target for Joe Burrow in the Bengals’ offense.
Since Higgins and Chase have both been in the league, we’ve only seen Higgins on the field without Chase in five games, but the results have been epic. In those five games, Higgins averaged nearly seven more fantasy points per game with nearly two more receptions and over 40 more yards per game. While we presume that Chase and Higgins will be back on the field together at some point this season, Mike thinks fantasy managers will have a tasty treat with a large portion of Higgins to start 2024.
