Early Week 2 Fantasy Football Rankings: Justin Fields And Justin Herbert On The Rise
Fantasy

Early Week 2 Fantasy Football Rankings: Justin Fields And Justin Herbert On The Rise

Ian Hartitz examines the early fantasy Football rankings heading into Week 2, with Justin Fields, Justin Herbert and others rising and going down.

Hide your kids, hide your wife: Week 2 is here. It's time to win another fantasy matchup, people!

What follows are my abbreviated early PPR ranks along with some key questions and answers ahead of this week's slate of action. Note that referenced ranks refer to 2025 PPR per game scoring. Check out our Fantasy Life Rankings for full ranks from our squad of alleged expert rankers (code "IAN" for 20% off!).

As always: It's a great day to be great.

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Week 2 Fantasy Football Rankings

Quarterback

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Just how good was Justin Fields in Week 1?

Very! Sure, the counting numbers (218-1-0 passing, 12-48-2 rushing) were cool, but the efficiency really was elite: Justin Fields posted a double-digit adjusted yards per attempt rate (10.8) for just the fourth time of his career on his way to averaging a ridiculous +0.42 EPA per dropback—the sixth-highest mark in Week 1!

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 Yes, a lot of Fields' aerial success stemmed from the defense falling apart after respecting his legs. Also yes, that's kind of the whole point of employing a freak dual-threat athlete as your QB in the year 2025—and Fields also put several timing-based throws on tape that showed off the sort of accuracy that has been lacking at times over the years. This was a great performance! Shoutout to new OC Tanner Engstrand for continuously muddling up the Steelers' pre-snap picture: The Jets stand out as one of the league's offenses with the biggest increase in pre-snap motion in Week 1 relative to 2024.

While I'm not going to sit here and pretend like we suddenly need to weigh last Sunday's performance over the previous four years of Fields operating as anyone's idea of a mediocre passer, the 26-year-old talent was already someone worth betting on simply for their floor in fantasy land thanks to the history of high-volume rushers basically never busting at the position. What Week 1 told me is that there could in fact be a heightened ceiling at hand–racking up 266 total yards and 3 TDs against T.J. Watt and company is no joke!

Up next is a Bills defense that just let Mr. Lamar Jackson basically do whatever he wanted. Please don't confuse Fields with Jackson, but also don't be surprised if the Jets' QB1 continues to do a poor man's impression of the two-time MVP on his way to (again) racking up quality fantasy numbers. 

Does Justin Herbert suddenly deserve auto-start treatment?

Well, I've bumped him all the way up to QB7 after successfully dominating a tricky matchup against Steve Spagnuolo, so I'm going to go with yes!

But seriously: Herbert's real-life ability has never been in doubt. There's a reason why he's constantly making his way into top-five franchise QB conversations in non-fantasy discourse. Sure, the lack of playoff success isn't ideal and that does matter in the grand scheme of things, but God only makes so many 6-foot-6, 235-pound humans with Herbert's combination of arm strength and mobility.

Reminder: Herbert ran for a career high 306 yards last season despite dealing with multiple early-season lower-body injuries. While we shouldn't expect him to rack up designed rush attempts, the scrambling threat is real, and at least for one week Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh seemed plenty content to let the offense flow through Herbert and the team's suddenly deep WR room instead of Omarion Hampton and Najee Harris. The ceiling is awfully high here *if* the Chargers are truly willing to let their 27-year-old franchise QB cook more weeks than not.

After all, only four players at the position have managed to average 22+ fantasy points per game on multiple occasions since 2020:

Up next is a Monday night date with a Raiders defense that is fresh off allowing Drake Maye to rack up 298 total yards in a losing Week 1 effort. I'm willing to prioritize Herbert in close start/sit decisions in this spot thanks to the reality that he's quite good at the game and not dealing with nearly as many skill-position injuries as other signal-callers in the low-end QB1 range.

Best of the rest

QB14 Jordan Love: It was a breath of fresh air to see Jordan Love operating at full health again in Week 1. The man is fearless throwing in tight windows and possesses enough off-script ability to add a dangerous element to Matt LaFleur's ever-well-schemed attack. Love is just one year removed from a QB5 fantasy finish and worked as one of the game's single-most efficient passers during the back half of 2024. Get your popcorn ready for a potential Thursday night shootout against the Commanders—we could get a serious boom here if Jayden Daniels and company are more capable of keeping up on the scoreboard than the Lions were last week, which seems like a good possibility considering the opening game total of 48.5 points is the second-highest mark in Week 2.

QB16 Geno Smith: OK, Geno! Despite dealing with the worst weather game of Week 1, the 34-year-old Geno Smith threw for 362 yards on a b-e-a-utiful 10.6 yards per attempt. He did so honorably if you will: Geno's 10.3-yard average target depth was the third-highest mark in Week 1 (pre-MNF). The potential absence of Brock Bowers (knee) isn't ideal, although there continues to be enough potential dual-threat ability here to separate Smith from some of the position's more stationary QB2 options.

QB18 Michael Penix: Michael Penix's 42 pass attempts were the fifth most in Week 1 thanks to a combination of 
1.) The Falcons run game going nowhere. 
2.) ATL's defense not exactly balling out. 
3.) Early trust from this coaching staff. 
The man probably could have had a f*cking sweet last-second TD pass if Khadarel Hodge kept running. Ultimately, a matchup with Brian Flores and the potential for Penix's WRs to remain all kinds of banged up prevents me from moving him up too high, but there might be a legit fun fantasy ceiling here that QB-needy fantasy rosters should pay attention to.

QB21 Daniel Jones: Well that was sweet! The artist known as Vanilla Vick scored more fantasy points than Lamar Jackson (29.5 vs. 29.4) on his way to posting a top-three finish in Week 1. Sure, the Colts' underrated bevy of playmakers helped, but Jones also made some legit nails throws out there. Now, the Broncos will present a MUCH more difficult opponent than the Dolphins, but credit to Shane Steichen for putting the ex-Giants signal-caller in a position to succeed—I'm optimistic that Daniel Jones will provide additional streamable booms in the future … just not this week.

QB25 Aaron Rodgers: Credit to old man A-aron for getting his revenge game W, although the associated 4.6-yard average target depth and obvious lack of mobility at this point of his career has me skeptical that the good times will keep on rolling in such a meaningful way. This is especially true against Mike Macdonald's Seahawks defense this week–Aaron Rodgers' big Week 1 is more so encouraging for the fantasy upside of guys like DK Metcalf, Jaylen Warren and Jonnu Smith as opposed to a sign that we should race to start the 41-year-old veteran.

Running Back

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Was there any truth to the idea that Kyren Williams would see less work in 2025?

Nope! Kyren continued to seldom leave the field, something that has been a staple of Sean McVay offenses basically forever.

Highest RB snap rates in Week 1 (pre-MNF):

While Williams converted only 19 touches into 69 (nice) yards and a score, perceived competition Blake Corum (2 touches) and Jarquez Hunter (healthy scratch) were complete afterthoughts in the game plan.

Fun fact: Only Christian McCaffrey (22 PPR points per game), Saquon Barkley (19.3) and Jahmyr Gibbs (18.8) have racked up fantasy points more consistently than Williams (18.7) since 2023. He's my RB10 as the bell cow back of an offense favored by a TD against a Titans defense that just allowed 151 yards on the ground to the Broncos—and honestly that ranking feels a bit low. 

Does James Conner (again) have one of the week's best matchups?

He sure does! Overall, nobody has allowed more rushing yards *before* contact to opposing RBs than the Panthers (2.06) dating back to Week 1 of last season, a flaw that was (again) on display in Week 1 against Travis Etienne (16-143-0) and the Jaguars.

Now, it's fair to be at least a little bit concerned about Trey Benson's involvement in this offense. The Cardinals utilized more of a 60/40 split during their Week 1 win over the Saints. Per Fantasy Life Utilization numbers…

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 Ultimately, Conner profiles for 15+ touches as a 6.5-point home favorite against a defense that hasn't shown any ability to slow down opposing RBs for the better part of the last calendar year. That's enough to earn must-start treatment in my book, even if season-long RB1 aspirations could be tough to reach if Benson stays so involved.

Are we overly sweating some underwhelming Week 1 performances?

Not really. I mean, are we supposed to believe that all of these alleged ballers are suddenly bad at football?

Week 1 yards per carry from notable highly drafted RBs:

Sure, Derrick Henry (9.4) and future Hall of Famer Bill Croskey-Merritt (8.2) managed to put forward highly-efficient season-debut performances; just realize week-to-week run-game efficiency can be volatile for a number of reasons—don't be too quick to write off these talented RBs because of one less-than-ideal performance, particularly when pretty much all of these guys (save for KWIII) still managed to put forward elite utilization.

Best of the rest

RB26 J.K. Dobbins: Clearly led the way over RJ Harvey in Week 1, although the annoying presence of Tyler Badie on passing downs lowers the floor and ceiling for all parties involved. Ultimately, pretending to know what Sean Payton's plan is when it comes to backfield utilization is probably wishful thinking, but Dobbins does profile for 15+ touches in the near term. That's tough to overly bicker about inside an offense that will hopefully look better ahead of Week 2's winnable matchup against the Colts.

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RB28 Zach Charbonnet: The good: Charb out-snapped Kenneth Walker (59% vs. 41%) and wound up with both of the backfield's carries inside the 5-yard line. The bad: Walker still managed to lead the way in touches (13 vs. 12) thanks to earning all three targets between the pair. Credit to Zach Charbonnet for making more out of his opportunities, but I also wouldn't start writing fables about the time he averaged 3.9 yards per carry with a long run of seven yards in Week 1, 2025. Ultimately, Charb deserves the nod ahead of Week 2's matchup against the Steelers' banged-up front-seven, but this sort of potentially inconsistent split usage inside an offense not exactly expected to routinely light up the scoreboard could unfortunately render both backs as meh RB3s in more weeks than not moving forward.

RB29 Jaylen Warren: Well, Jaylen Warren was the Steelers' featured runner as Mike Tomlin suggested, but it was actually Kenneth Gainwell who led the way in total snaps (50%). It'd be awfully surprising if Kaleb Johnson never gets a real opportunity on early downs. Overall, a small win for Warren, who continues to boast fantasy-friendly pass-catching upside, although the potential for this backfield to revolve around *three* RBs in more weeks than not moving forward has me hesitant to skyrocket the veteran too high up the ranks. This is especially true against a Seahawks defense that bottled up CMC quite well as a rusher in Week 1.

RB32 Bill Croskey-Merritt: The good: Chris Rodriguez was a healthy scratch, allowing Jacory Croskey-Merritt to lead the Commanders backfield in rush attempts (10) and yards (82). The bad: Austin Ekeler (49%) snaps worked ahead of Bill (29%) overall, and Jeremy McNichols (20%) was annoyingly involved as well. It'd make sense if Croskey-Merritt is leaned on more in future weeks; just realize less positive game script could lead to very limited overall usage for the rookie—something that seems to be on the table ahead of Thursday night's road trip to Lambeau.

RB35 Isiah Pacheco: The Chiefs were willing to rotate Kareem Hunt in on early downs and long-down-and-distance snaps alike. Brashard Smith is also involved here. Many, including myself, thought that Isiah Pacheco's limited usage down the stretch of 2024 was injury related, but it seems Andy Reid and company do, in fact, have a soft spot for Mr. Hunt. Stay away ahead of a rough Super Bowl rematch against an Eagles defense that should have Jalen Carter back if he can refrain from spitting on people.

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RB36 Dylan Sampson: I'll move Dylan Sampson up the ranks if we verify that Quinshon Judkins will NOT suit up on Sunday against the Ravens. This is thanks in large part to the possibility that this Joe Flacco-led offense continues to prioritize the pass, setting up Sampson (8-64-0 receiving in Week 1) nicely against a Ravens defense that typically funnels production to the air anyway. This Browns offense could go from fun to unwatchable in a hurry if Mr. Elite ever exits the equation, but for now Sampson presents very solid FLEX appeal in full-PPR formats.

RB47 Cam Skattebo: The rookie worked behind Tyrone Tracy (73% snaps vs. 11%) and even Devin Singletary (16%) in Week 1, but hey, this was cool! Cam Skattebo also put his best foot forward in pass protection and earned the group's only goal-line carry. There's fantasy-friendly three-down ability here–I want to have the Arizona State product on my fantasy bench, even if he's unstartable for the time being.

Wide Receiver

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Just how good was Jaxon Smith-Njigba in Week 1?

Very. His Next-Gen Stats route chart is borderline erotic, and the usage was nothing short of elite.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba among 75 qualified WRs in Week 1 (pre-MNF)

  • Targets: 13 (3rd)
  • Air yards: 177 (2nd)
  • Targets per route run: 57% (1st)
  • Target share: 59% (1st)
  • Air yard share: 91% (1st)

JSN also simply looked like a damn dawg out there. Obviously the man was awesome in 2024 on his way to catching 100 passes for 1,130 yards as a 22-year-old, but Sunday's display of veteran-level savvy and nuance was nothing short of amazing.

The verdict on whether or not Sam Darnold can lead the Seahawks to high-end real life success remains very much out, but I am at least confident in his ability to force feed his clear-cut No. 1 WR the football. Top-10 treatment is warranted ahead of a matchup with a Steelers defense that didn't have many answers for fellow Buckeye Garrett Wilson (7-95-1) in Week 1.

Is Zay Flowers poised to make a third-year leap?

Maybe! The man is really freaking good at football after all. I maintain the human joystick should be selected to team USA's flag football Olympics team—Flowers would be my betting favorite if the entire NFL decided to play a game of tag against each other.

That said: As great as Flowers' season-opening 7-143-1 performance was, this continues to profile as a fairly crowded, run-first Ravens offense. Just look at last season when Flowers tied for the league lead in 100+ yard performances … and also eight games with under 40 yards receiving.

Ultimately, I am drinking the Kool Aid to a decent extent and have pushed Flowers up into the mid-tier WR2 range ahead of guys with slightly higher target floors, but in worse offenses not orchestrated by the league's two-time MVP. Sunday's matchup against the Browns doesn't profile as a smash spot considering how ordinary Myles Garrett and company just managed to make the Bengals look, although Flowers' 7-115-0 performance against the group in Week 8 last season reflects the reality that he's still capable of winning in a big way.

Should fantasy managers panic about Tetairoa McMillan?

On the one hand, yes. Bryce Young looked awful in Week 1 on his way to throwing for just 154 yards against a Jaguars defense not exactly expected to work among the league's most elite units. We have around 20 starts at this point of Young looking BAD, and about 10 of him looking OK. Maybe Week 1 was just an unfortunate, weather-induced dud that we'll forget soon enough, but it takes a rather major leap of faith at this point to assume competent QB play in Carolina.

On the other hand, Tetairoa McMillan looks the part of a Grade A baller already. The 5-68-0 receiving line doesn't immediately jump off the page, but that also doesn't include a ridiculous one-handed near catch that drew a DPI (I thought he caught it FWIW) as well as another chunk 16-yard gain that was nullified due to an ineligible man downfield.

Does this look like a WR1 to you? Because it sure does to me.

Historically high-end fantasy WRs have been less dependent on existing in an elite real-life offense than other positions. Just look at Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. last season. I'm not quite ready to zoom T-Mac up into the WR1 tier of things, but he showed enough to me in Week 1 to continue to fire up alongside fellow No. 1 options with some QB concerns in the low-end WR2 range.

Best of the rest

WR27 Tyreek Hill: The bad vibes surrounding the Dolphins for a large portion of this offseason immediately carried over into their Week 1 performance. Tyreek Hill's January decision to replace his Twitter avatar with Antonio Brown leaving the field midgame feels more like foreshadowing than ever. At this point Hill's best path back to WR1 status might just be reuniting with his former employer in Kansas City. I'll need to see some semblance of positivity from this Dolphins offense in the meantime before considering moving Hill back into must-start territory.

WR29 Jakobi Meyers: Will be in my top 24 should Brock Bowers (knee) be forced to miss any time. Shoutout to the ever-crafty route-running technician for also flashing in a major way after the catch last week: Jakobi Meyers' six missed tackles forced were tied for the second-highest mark in Week 1 among all players, and no other WR had more than three! The man has posted back-to-back WR2 campaigns in fantasy land and looks more than capable of making it three for three should he and Smith continue to gel as well as they did in their debut together.

WR33 Chris Olave: Three trips in and out of the medical tent didn't stop the Santana-level smooth Ohio State product from racking up a team-high 13 targets in his first game under new head coach Kellen Moore. Most intriguing was the lower-aDOT at hand: Chris Olave's early 2025 average target depth (7.5) is significantly shorter than what we saw in 2022 (14.2), 2023 (13.3) and 2024 (10.3) alike. Now, we still want explosive plays down the field; just realize the erratic QB situation in NOLA (to be nice) could make those sort of chunk gains pretty volatile—Week 1 was a VERY nice starting data point for managers looking to have a better baseline floor here moving forward.

WR36 Keon Coleman: One of MY GUYS had himself one helluva Week 1, racking up the second-most PPR points (25.2) of any WR (pre-MNF) and coming within a shoe string of finding the end zone twice. Now, the majority of Coleman's production did come with the Bills in comeback mode in the fourth quarter—Josh Allen isn't going to throw 46 passes every week—but at a minimum the 22-year-old talent's 8-112-1 season debut was a pretty great start for someone deemed bad at football by many after his rookie season. I'm treating Coleman as a boom-or-bust WR3 capable of doing plenty of the former thanks to his status as the potential weekly No. 1 target for one of the best QBs alive.

WR38 Hollywood Brown: Oh, you didn't think Hollywood was going to lead the league in targets in Week 1? Learn ball. But seriously: Brown's massive workload is contingent on Xavier Worthy (shoulder, day-to-day) staying sidelined, and will likely be short term with Rashee Rice due back in five short weeks. Still: It's not often you can find guys with double-digit target upside from Patrick Mahomes on the waiver wire–Brown is a great short-term FLEX option for rosters dealing with unfortunate early-season injuries.

WR46 Kayshon Boutte: F*cked around and cleared 100 yards while racking up the league's fourth-most air yards. Such is life with a QB like Drake Maye who is always willing to fling the ball up to his guy. Boutte has now finished as a top-18 fantasy WR in three of his last four games with Maye (s/o Alfredo Brown). Now, Stefon Diggs should start to cement himself as the offense's clear-cut No. 1 WR as he continues to get closer to 100% health; just realize the LSU product has flashed over the past two seasons and has earned himself this top-50 ranking.

WR49 Matthew Golden: Unfortunately posted a meh 57% route rate, as Romeo Doubs (74%) was the No. 1, and Jayden Reed (52%) as well as Dontayvion Wicks (43%) rotated in plenty. This is a problem: It'd make sense if the first-rounder gets more and more snaps as the season goes, but for now he's impossible to trust as anything more than a boom-or-bust WR4 type–paritcularly in a Packers offense that is always content to lean on their run game once they get a lead.

WR65 Elic Ayomanor: Racked up a week-high 120 unrealized air yards, which is a nerdy way of quantifying the amount of total opportunity that was on the table for a player's incomplete targets. It remains to be seen if/when the Cam Ward experience will produce anything closer to quality real-life counting numbers, but having this sort of gunslinger under center could help produce better results down the line in an offense devoid of a clear-cut secondary option behind Calvin Ridley.

Tight End

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What the hell is wrong with the Injury Gods?

Seriously man. Three of my current top-12 options are dealing with an issue of some shape or size:

  • Brock Bowers (knee): NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports Bowers is "fine" and there are "no concerns moving forward." Dr. Deepak Chona leans toward a Week 2 return without a dip in production based on these comments and video. Dr. Jeff Mueller also believes it's likely Bowers is good to go for Week 2. Concerned fantasy managers should look to "handcuff" the stud TE with Michael Mayer, who would enter the low-end TE1 conversation should Bowers be forced out of action.
  • George Kittle (hamstring): There's concern from Dr. Chona that this could be a multi-week injury for George Kittle. Pain. Perhaps a lower grade will result in a single-week absence, but fantasy managers should absolutely have a backup plan in place ahead of Sunday's matchup in New Orleans. Myself and Kendall Valenzuela discussed the top TE waiver wire additions on the Monday edition of The Fantasy Life Show.
  • Evan Engram (calf): Like Kittle, this could carry a multi-week absence. Unlike Kittle, Evan Engram was already having some peculiar usage even before the injury happened inside a Broncos passing game that looked disjointed to be nice. It was just one game, and Engram was targeted heavily when he was on the field, but upside TE1 joker-induced dreams aren't looking great at the moment.

Are we seriously back in on Kyle Pitts?

Kinda! Look, I get it: Kyle Pitts always shreds the Buccaneers, and I literally wrote in this column last week that, "I like the idea of keeping Pitts on the fantasy bench in the hope of being able to flip him to a thirsty truther should he manage to put together a solid Week 1."

But then again … the man looked good out there!

Pitts really hasn't been fully healthy since his rookie season due to various hamstring and knee injuries. Now he's suddenly the only overly healthy pass catcher in Atlanta with both Drake London and Darnell Mooney dealing with shoulder issues.

I'm tentatively drinking the Kool Aid ahead of this week's matchup with the Vikings thanks mostly to this volume element–friendly reminder that the 24-year-old mortal enemy of fantasy football still can't legally rent an RV in many parts of continental America.

Best of the rest

TE16 Juwan Johnson: Caught 8-of-11 targets for 76 yards and nearly scored a game-tying TD while playing all but *one* snap. This usage should persist as long as Taysom Hill (knee) and Foster Moreau (knee) remain out of the picture. Don't expect this Saints offense to consistently enable a multitude of high-end fantasy performers, but hey, desperate fantasy managers can do worse than a plus-receiver TE playing a true every-down role.

TE18 Harold Fannin: Harold Fannin caught 7-of-9 targets for 63 yards while surprisingly running a route on 65% of Joe Flacco's dropbacks. The Bowling Green product showed off some YAC goodness and even earned a wildcat snap. Fannin and company's fantasy upside is dependent on Flacco keeping this starting job, but hey, the 21-year-old certainly looks to have the goods—he's one of the top additions at the position this week, even if David Njoku continues to play an every-down role in his own right.

TE20 Dalton Kincaid: Catching a TD on the Bills' opening drive was great. Running a route on only 62% of Josh Allen's dropbacks was not great. Fun fact: You need to be on the field in order to score fantasy points in the year 2025; Kincaid's fantasy ceiling will continue to be capped as long as Dawson Knox keeps turning this into a 60/40 split.

TE21 Jonnu Smith: Similar sentiment as Kincaid: It's great that Smith converted a goal-line pop pass into a TD; clearly Arthur Smith loves the man. That said, Smith (53% routes) posted the same usage as Pat Freiermuth (53%) inside an offense that doesn't figure to run quite as hot in future weeks.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Justin Fields
    JustinFieldsIR
    QBNYJNYJ
    PPG
    9.15
  2. Justin Herbert
    JustinHerbert
    QBLACLAC
    PPG
    11.52
  3. Kyren Williams
    KyrenWilliams
    RBLARLAR
    PPG
    12.14
    Proj
    11.83
  4. Jacory Croskey-Merritt
    JacoryCroskey-Merritt
    RBWASWAS
    PPG
    6.78