Best/Worst Matchups - 2025 Week 2

Welcome back to our best and worst matchups segment! I hope my advice gave you much success in Week 1 and got you off to a good start. Michael Penix Jr. played well in his season debut! On the flip side, Justin Fields surprised everyone and put up a spectacular opener against his former team. Regardless, there were some surprising outcomes in Week 1 that are tough to gauge whether they will dictate the remainder of the season. If there's anything I've learned from years of fantasy football experience, it's that we shouldn't overreact to the outcomes of Week 1.

Let's get crackin' on Week 2!

QUARTERBACKS

START Drake Maye vs Miami Dolphins

So not just any defense can make Daniel Jones look good. They would have to be extraordinarily bad. I think we saw just that in the Miami Dolphins in Week 1 and Daniel Jones finished as the QB3 only behind Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. That's some elite company! Now if we see who's in line to face the Dolphins in Week 2, that happens to be Drake Maye. Maye had an average outing in a low-scoring affair vs the Raiders last week. Maye has a similar skillset as Daniel Jones and will look to exploit all the same weaknesses of the Dolphins defense as Jones did the week before. I highly recommend starting Maye this week.

Honorable Mention: Geno Smith vs LAC, Justin Fields vs BUF

SIT Daniel Jones vs Denver Broncos

Speaking of the devil... Jones is destined to come back down to Earth against one of the best defenses in the league. The Broncos' defense kept them in their game against Cam Ward and the Titans; a game they should've won handily but the offense looked out of sorts. That same defense should easily keep Daniel Jones in check, and you should not be hypnotized by the elite numbers he put up against one of the worst defenses in the league. Don't. Be. Fooled.

Honorable Mention: Baker Mayfield vs HOU, Bo Nix vs IND

RUNNING BACKS

START Zach Charbonnet vs Pittsburgh Steelers

My hunch going into the 2025 season was that Kenneth Walker's role as clear-cut lead back in Seattle was diminishing and Zach Charbonnet was nipping at his heels. This Week 1 timeshare is exactly what I saw coming, and Charbonnet make the most of it when he found the end-zone. Not only that, but he played more snaps than Walker (58% for Charb, 40% for KW3) and saw more carries as well (12 carries for Charb to KW3's 10) The matchup they get happens to be Pittsburgh. If you would've asked me before Week 1, I would've told you that this would not be an ideal matchup. Then I saw Breece Hall take 19 carries for 107 yards against them and saw their flaws. There are holes in Pittsburgh's defense early this season and Charbonnet has a good chance to expose them as well.

Honorable Mention: Dylan Sampson vs BAL, Trey Benson vs CAR

SIT D'Andre Swift vs Detroit Lions

I had a good feeling about Swift going into the season. He got back into Ben Johnson's offensive system after getting traded from Detroit a couple years back. He doesn't have much, if any, competition for workload in Chicago's backfield. He also got engaged to Travis Kelce this off-season, for crying out loud...

Oh, wait, you're saying that's a different Swift? Really? My bad...

Anyways, Swift didn't do much with his 80% snap share where he rushed 17 times for 53 yards and caught 3 of 5 targets for 12 yards. That's it. The Bears' offense isn't quite gelling yet and Detroit did a pretty good job containing Josh Jacobs last week (19 carries for 66 yards, 3.4 YPC) If Detroit can limit Jacobs to that, Swift won't be able to come close to that. Jacobs even saved his fantasy day by finding the end-zone on a goal line carry. Do not even consider Swift this week if you don't have to.

Honorable Mention: Isiah Pacheco vs PHI

WIDE RECEIVER

START Marquise Brown vs Philadelphia Eagles

Hollywood is looking around his wide receiver room in Kansas City like John Travolta confused as to where everyone is at. Xavier Worthy went down early in Week 1 with a shoulder injury, Rashee Rice is missing the first 6 games because of personal misconduct, and rookie Jalen Royals has been injured to start the season as well. As a result, Hollywood saw 19(!) targets last week, which led the NFL. Patrick Mahomes threw the ball nearly 40 times in their Week 1 loss to the Chargers. In order to keep up with the Eagles this week, they will undoubtedly need to throw the ball as much as they did last week. We are starting to see better fantasy numbers out of Mahomes and Hollywood is going to be the primary benefactor for the next few weeks and should be treated as a WR2-3.

Honorable Mention: Rome Odunze vs DET, Keenan Allen vs NYJ

SIT Calvin Ridley vs Los Angeles Rams

Ridley received a decent volume last week with 8 targets. He only managed to catch 4 of them. This is mostly due to rookie QB Cam Ward still finding his footing in the NFL. The Tennessee Titans offense presents near to no value this early in the season. To go along with the fact that they are going up against the Rams this week who just prevented the Texans from finding the end-zone last week, no Titans should be played outside of possibly Tony Pollard. Ridley is not an exception here despite being the WR1 in this offense. The matchup here does not give the Titans a good chance to rebound.

Honorable Mention: Michael Pittman vs DEN, Davante Adams vs TEN

TIGHT ENDS

START Harold Fannin vs Baltimore Ravens

I was pretty high on David Njoku going into this season with Joe Flacco returning to Cleveland. I didn't realize that I was looking at the wrong TE to go off. Harold Fannin led the Browns in targets in Week 1 with 9. That beat out the likes of Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman and Dylan Sampson all of which had 8 targets. Njoku finished with 6 targets. The fact that Fannin is receiving this amount of attention this early shows that he's going to be a mainstay in this offense despite the familiar weapons that Flacco has around him. The matchup he gets is the Ravens which is sort of confusing. They should have a decent defense in Baltimore, but they just allowed a 40-burger against the Bills and Dalton Kincaid found the end-zone on 4 catches for 48 yards. I would feel comfortable starting Fannin when injuries to Kittle and perhaps Bowers may take out 2 of the 3 top tight ends in the league.

Honorable Mention: Hunter Henry vs MIA, Jonnu Smith vs SEA

SIT Mark Andrews vs Cleveland Browns

Let's go to the other side of this CLE/BAL game. With that Baltimore offense that put up 40 points in Week 1, the starting TE in Andrews managed just 1 catch for 5 yards. Last year, Andrews got off to a slow start production-wise where he only sniffed the Top 10 TE's just once in his first 5 weeks. This could be a scheme thing or just a change in favorite target (Zay Flowers went bonkers on 7 catches for 143 yards and a TD) I know that the Browns defense just held the supposed-elite Bengals offense under 20 points. At this point, you should not trust Andrews as the elite TE option he once was and you should not feel comfortable starting him yet.

Honorable Mention: Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland vs DET, Mike Gesicki vs JAX

#DRock313