Fantasy Football: Things we learned, might've learned, and didn't learn in Week 1

Things We Learned

Tyler Allgeier will be a factor in 2023

Tyler Allgeier was a prominent player for the Falcons in 2022. Although he scored just four touchdowns on the season, his 1,035 rushing yards helped Atlanta have one of the best ground games in the entire league. However, it was assumed that his time as a significant piece of the offense was over when the Falcons selected Bijan Robinson eighth overall in this year’s draft. While they may be trying to ramp Robinson up to NFL speed, Allgeier and the coaching staff showed that this will not be a one-man crew in the backfield. 

As a matter of fact, Allgeier saw MORE total opportunities than Bijan did in their win over the Panthers. He saw 15 carries to Bijan’s 10, while also seeing just three fewer targets. He also received all four carries inside the 10-yard line. Again, this may be the Falcons’ way of acclimating Bijan into the NFL. Even then, I don’t think they will have him go from 16 touches to 20+ carries anytime soon. That is unless the game script calls for more passing, in which Bijan will have a leg up.

Calvin Ridley is back and may be better than ever

Calvin Ridley hadn’t played in a regular season game since October of 2021. Some people thought that nearly two years off would play a role and that he would take time to get reacclimated. Others felt that he was hungry to get back on the field, and the time off would have him at the top of his game, especially considering the missed time in 2022 was not due to injury. Well, game number one showed that the second group was on the right side of the argument.

In a game that the Jaguars surprisingly led by multiple scores for just 4:08 of game time, Ridley was the star of the show and Trevor Lawrence’s top target. The 28-year old saw a game-high 11 targets, hauling in eight of them. He turned those eight catches into 101 yards and a score. His 24.1 full-PPR points were good enough for 5th among all receivers in the opening weekend. If he sees that level of target share on a weekly basis, he should have no trouble meeting (and exceeding) his WR16 ADP. If he IS still getting acclimated and this isn’t even the best of Ridley, the league had better watch out.