7 Things Before You Set Your Lineup

It’s Week 1 and of course you are going to start the men you drafted as studs, but what should you expect? Let’s check that out.

Here are seven stats that you should know before you set your lineup. Of course, this being week one, we are going off the stats from last year (and a little bit of preseason). So, even though you are going to start your studs, here are a few facts to keep in mind.

1. Cincinnati Bengals Notoriously Slow Start

For the past three years, the Bengals have started 0-2. Here are Joe Burrow’s stats:

2024 loss to the New England Patriots, Burrow completed 21-of-29 passes for 164 yards and no touchdowns.

2023 loss at Cleveland, Burrow completed 14-of-31 passes for 82 yards and zero touchdowns.

2022 an overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers culminated in 338 yards on 33-of-53 passes and two touchdowns.

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football Reference

There were some extenuating circumstances, the most important being that Burrow did not previously play in the preseason. In 2023 he was recovering from a calf strain, in 2022 it was an appendectomy, and last year he just didn’t play in preseason games.

However, that was then.

This season Burrow played in two preseason games.. He was on the field for two series against the Philadelphia Eagles and for three series (until he got mercilessly taken down) against the Washington Commanders.

The Bengals will start this year on the road against divisional rivals, the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals are currently a 5.5-point favorite and the over/under is sitting at 46.5.

Bucking a three year trend is dangerous, but what are you going to do?

Play him and the consensus number one man in fantasy drafts this year Ja’Mar Chase in your fantasy football leagues, but consider Tua Tagovailoa in DFS.

2. New Offensive Coordinators

It’s not always just about the talent, in fantasy football land, the scheme matters too. This season will start off with 13 new offensive coordinators. Some, like Liam Coen in Jacksonville, Kellen Moore in New Orleans, Brian Schottenheimer in Dallas, and Ben Johnson in Chicago are also new head coaches (all have offensive coordinators but these head coaches will be calling the plays).

Two are names you know. Josh McDaniels is back in New England and Chip Kelly has returned from the college ranks and is in Las Vegas.

Some are familiar to their teams, like John Grizzard who was Tampa Bay’s pass game coordinator, and is now their offensive coordinator and Kevin Patullo who had the same distinction in Philadelphia before being promoted to offensive coordinator.

Klint Kubiak is in Seattle and has familiarity with new quarterback Sam Darnold from their time in San Francisco. And Nick Caley is in Houston to bring quarterback C.J. Stroud back to his rookie year form after a terrible year two in the NFL.

Detroit will be going with former Denver Bronco’s passing game coordinator, John Morton and the New York Jets will go with Tanner Engstrand who came along with new head coach Aaron Glenn.

That’s a lot of new faces in new places, perhaps give their offenses a few weeks before you start counting heavily on their fantasy production.

3. New Defensive Coordinators

Don’t ever sleep on the defensive side of the ball, it matters. You know how a defense can wreck your fantasy football offenses. And this season there will be nine new defensive coordinators trying to do just that.

Al Golden is replacing Lou Anarumo in Cincinnati, with Anarumo going to Indianapolis. Former head coaches, Matt Eberflus and Brandon Staley will go back to their roots as defensive coordinators, Eberflus in Dallas (now without their best defensive player Micah Parsons) and Staley is in New Orleans. Steve Wilks, who should have been a head coach, is in New York with the Jets and Glenn.

Dennis Allen is in Chicago and Kelvin Sheppard is in Detroit. Both are in charge of defenses that underperformed with superior personnel. Detroit did have massive injury losses and Chicago did have an Eberflus problem, but not this year 🤞🏾. Both of these defenses have fantasy football altering potential.

4. Offensive Line

Just as the defense gets overlooked, so do the offensive lines. But when your quarterback gets sacked 63 times it’s something that you are going to avoid on your fantasy football roster.

Here are the top five and bottom five offensive lines for the start of 2025 NFL season, per Pro Football Focus.

Philadelphia Eagles: last season ranked top six in both pass blocking and run blocking. They will return four of their five starters from last year.
Denver Broncos: returning all five starters across the line. Last year they were ranked first in pass blocking.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: quarterback Baker Mayfield faced pressure on only 24.7% of his dropbacks, which was the third lowest among 48 qualifying quarterbacks. Tristan Wirfs allowed only one quarterback hit and zero sacks in 2024.
Minnesota Vikings: will play in front of rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy to start the season. Vikings 27th in sack rate allowed with an 8.98%, 18th in run blocking and 16th in pass blocking.
Detroit Lions: 5.56% sack rate percentage (which was eighth best) and second in run blocking grade.

32. Houston Texans: Stroud was sacked 63 times last season, second most in the league. The Texans replaced left tackle Laremy Tunsil with Cam Robinson this year. Robinson allowed 64 pressures last year, 10 more than the next closest offensive tackle.

31. Cincinnati Bengals: ranked 29th in pass blocking and 29th in run blocking.

30. Seattle Seahawks: allowed the second highest pressure rate in 2025 at 34.5%.

29. New England Patriots: ranked 26th in sack rate percentage at 8.95%.

28. New York Giants: ranked 28th in pass blocking and 23rd in run blocking; quarterback Russell Wilson was clocked at having the longest average time to throw (3.15 seconds) in 2024.

5. Game With The Highest Over/Under

The Sunday Night game is the Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills (this game unfortunately will not be on the main slate for DFS). The over/under is 52.5 and Buffalo is a 1.5-point favorite.

The Ravens were second in the league in sacks last season (54) while the Bills were 18th (39). The Bills were 13th in run defense allowing an average 117.7 rushing yards per game, the Ravens were first in run defense allowing 80.9 rushing yards per game.

6. Game With The Largest Spread

Surprisingly or not there are no games in week one with a double-digit point spread. The game with the largest margin is the Denver Broncos hosting the Tennessee Titans. The Broncos are an eight point favorite with a second lowest over/under at 41.5.

The Broncos defense finished last season fourth in points allowed (19.0), seventh in passer rating allowed (88.2) and led the league with a franchise record 63 sacks. The Titans will have new rookie quarterback Cam Ward starting his first NFL game.

Yeah, it could be as bad as it sounds for the rookie starting on the road in altitude.

7. Week 1: And Then There Is This

Across 14 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll’s team posted six top-3 finishes in rushing attempts.
Ben Johnson’s offenses PerSumerSports used two tight end sets on 32.2% of their snaps in 2024 (league average 21.7%) and utilized three wide receiver sets on 54.2% (league average 60.7%)
Pittsburgh Steelers defense led the league last year in takeaways (33)

Fantasy football is alive!! Have fun, play your studs (unless injured of course) and let me know what seven facts/stats about week one you want to see next week!

Cheers friends!

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gladyslouisetyler/2025/08/29/nfl-2025-week-1-fantasy-football-7-things-before-you-set-your-lineup/