Week 1 of the NFL season always dumps a lot of information on us. It's then up to us, as fantasy managers, to decipher all this without overreacting or underreacting.
You do not want to make sporadic decisions based on one game; however, the Week 1 waiver wire is always extremely important to get right.
Here are some of the most notable fantasy football events that took place in Week 1, and how you should act on them.
FANTASY WEEK 2 RANKINGS: QB | RB | WR | TE | D/ST | PK
Top Week 1 Sunday fantasy news & reactions
Daniel Jones breakout season incoming?
This performance by Daniel Jones was by far the most shocking thing to happen in Week 1. This was one of the best games of Jones' career; in fact, it was his highest completion percentage ever.
To further blow your mind with Jones' excellence, he did something in Week 1 that has not been done since 1991. Jones became the first QB of this millennium to score on every single drive in a game.
Yes, you heard that right, Daniel Jones did something that Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes have never done.
Realistic reasons for optimism exist:
Daniel Jones is this year's Sam Darnold
— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) September 7, 2025
+ underrated runner: has exactly as many career >90 rushing yard games as Mike Vick and Cam Newton (believe it or not)
+ has a great supporting cast: top-7 OL and top-7 receiving corps, after always being bottom-3 in both categories
+… https://t.co/DDExHt8ydK
With all this being said, is a Daniel Jones breakout season loading? No.
This week, the Colts will face the Denver Broncos, who many think have the best defensive unit in the league. This is going to be an astronomically tougher defense to play against compared to the Miami Dolphins.
If Jones looks great or even decent against the Broncos and has a good fantasy performance, then we'll come back to this conversation.
Quentin Johnston rises from his fantasy grave
Johnston has seemingly moved past the drops issue that plagued him early in his career. In Week 1, Johnston was targeted 7 times by Justin Herbert, which is tied for the fourth most in Johnston's career thus far.
With these 7 targets, he caught five balls for 79 yards and two touchdowns. The two TD catches took Johnston's decent fantasy performance and made it into the WR3 overall for the week.
This outing from Johnston was reassuring, that's for sure, but his fantasy finish was inflated by the two TDs. It's hard to predict TDs, but the volume was there, and everyone on the Chargers' WR core was healthy. This alone makes Johnston an interesting fantasy option to monitor.
MORE: Best Week 2 waiver wire pickups
Jets, Steelers offenses shine in Aaron Rodgers-Justin Fields revenge game
This game was the most shocking shootout of Week 1. You could just smell the 10-10 score going into the fourth quarter when this game was first announced.
The only other game in Week 1 to have a higher total over/under was the Bills vs Ravens on SNF.
As far as fantasy implications go moving forward, Justin Fields is creeping his way into being a must-start. The rushing ability alone makes Fields' floor so high, but he looked decent throwing the ball. The connection with his Ohio State teammate Garrett Wilson looked as good as ever.
As far as Aaron Rodgers goes, he's going to have to show that this was not a one-time thing. Emotions were high; you could tell in his post-game interview that Rodgers wanted to beat the Jets badly.
Rookie stars led by Emeka Egbuka, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Tyler Warren
These rookies showed out in their first career game and had great fantasy performances.
We'll start with the least surprising name: Emeka Egbuka. Anyone who watched Egbuka at Ohio State knew he was an absolute stud. Pretty quickly in camp, the Bucs started to realize this, too. Obviously, the injuries to the WR room in Tampa Bay have helped Egbuka get off to a quick start. But if you have Egbula, you keep him and start him from here on out.
Jacory "Bill" Croskey-Merritt became a fantasy darling seemingly overnight after the Brian Robinson trade went through. This game was a promising start to his role in this dynamic Commanders offense. He was given just 10 rushing attempts, but made the most of them with 82 yards and a TD.
This comparison is not being tossed around lightly, but Tyler Warren is this year's Brock Bowers.
In Week 1, Warren finished as the TE3 with no touchdowns, just usage and production. He was targeted 9 times and caught seven of them for 76 yards. The best part about Warren is that this game seemed like only the surface level for how the Colts will use him.
Injury concerns for Puka Nacua?
There were plenty of scares in Week 1 for Puka Nacua managers. Nacua took a nasty shot to the head on the Rams' second possession of the game. He would immediately pop up, which was a good sign, but then Nacua started bleeding around his eye.
Nacua left the game, was stitched up, evaluated for a concussion, returned, and then was pulled for a second time by an independent spotter to be evaluated again.
Everything came back clear, and we were reminded that Puka Nacua is a dog. Once he returned, he played 38 snaps and caught 10 balls for 130 yards. Nacua finished as the WR5 on the week, and as of Sept. 9, he is not on the injury report.
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Biggest Week 1 fantasy busts
This section can be dedicated to the WR position in Week 1. Out of the top 10 drafted WRs in 2025, the only one to finish inside the top 10 for Week 1 was Puka Nacua (WR5).
The list of the other WRs and their finishes includes: Ja'Marr Chase WR74, CeeDee Lamb WR14, Justin Jefferson WR20, Malik Nabers WR29, Amon-Ra St. Brown WR47, Nico Collins WR64, Brian Thomas Jr. WR42, A.J. Brown WR100, Drake London WR22.
As you can see, this is a putrid performance across the board for the WR position in Week 1.
These WRs are all elite and will be great fantasy options the rest of the way. There should be no concern when it comes to them, and certainly no overreactions.