We are only one week in to the NFL season, but there are always Sleepers and Duds we try to find or avoid for our lineups for Week 2.
Some Sleepers can be players who didn’t perform up to the preseason hype, while the Duds could have a bad early season matchup.
Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow is the perfect example of being part of the Duds with his struggles at the beginning of the season similar to the past few years. Then there’s Buffalo’s Keon Coleman, who didn’t live up to his rookie season hype, but he exploded in the Bills’ come-from-behind Sunday night win against Baltimore.
But these type of players can be found every week during the NFL season, and I will try to point a few that can make difference of winning your weekly fantasy football matchup.
Onto this week’s Sleepers and Duds!
QB Sleepers
Drake Maye, New England
Maye struggled to lead the Patriots in the second half of their home loss Las Vegas. New England held a 10-7 lead at halftime but only managed 3 points in the second half.
Maye’s stats were respectable as he threw for 287 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. However, he needed 46 pass attempts for his yardage (only 6.24 yards per attempt). Anything below 7.5 per attempt is considered bad in this age of the NFL.
But enough with the doom and gloom as the Patriots head to Florida to face Miami. The Dolphins allowed Indianapolis’ Daniel Jones, known more for his running than passing, to average 9.38 yards per attempt in the loss to the Colts.
QB Duds
Bo Nix, Denver
Nix’s rookie season brought high hopes into the 2025 season, but his performance against Tennessee may have slow down thoughts of an AFC West title this season.
Nix had a game he needs to forget quickly as he turned the ball over 3 times and only had a 4.0 yards per pass attempt mark in the sluggish 20-12 win vs. the Titans.
Now the Broncos travel to Indianapolis, where the Colts shut down the Dolphins’ offense last weekend. Miami finished with only 211 yards, had three turnovers and were sacked once.
RB Sleepers
Dylan Sampson, Cleveland
Sampson may have not played the most snaps out of the Browns’ backfield last Sunday, but in his 31 snaps, he touched the ball 20 times.
Sampson, a fourth-round draft pick, finished with 12 carries for 29 yards and added 8 receptions on 8 targets for 64 yards in the Browns’ loss to Cincinnati.
Jerome Ford may the pseudo starter until Quinshon Judkins gets up to playing speed, but Sampson should be the player you want on your roster until then.
RB Duds
Chase Brown, Cincinnati
Just like his other top tier fantasy teammates, Brown was not immune to the slow start that have plagued Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase the past couple of seasons.
Brown had a strong start with a first-quarter 5-yard touchdown run, but he was ineffective for the rest of the game.
Now the Bengals face Jacksonville, who were middle of the road slowing Carolina’s run game last week.
WR Sleepers
Stefon Diggs, New England
Diggs had a quiet first game for the Patriots, but he gets to face a familiar foe this week in the Miami Dolphins.
Diggs has played the Dolphins three times in Miami during his career and has averaged 6.3 receptions for 95.7 yards and 0.67 TDs in those three games.
And the Dolphins secondary allowed Daniel Jones to throw for 272 yards and Michael Pittman Jr. to catch 6 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown.
WR Duds
Ricky Pearsall, San Francisco
Pearsall’s big game last week against Seattle may be some short-lived glory.
Quarterback Brock Purdy may miss Sunday’s game against New Orleans with a toe injury, and the rest of the WR corps is depleted with injuries to Jauan Jennings and George Kittle.
Pearsall may see some extra coverage against the Saints and have Mac Jones throwing him the ball this weekend.
TE Sleepers
Jake Tonges, San Francisco
While I think Pearsall could struggle, Tonges could have a sneaky good game despite Luke Farrell probably getting the start.
The Saints are a bottom 10 defense vs. TEs, and Tonges was able to bring in all three of his targets vs. Seattle, including the game-winning TD in the final 2 minutes of the game.
Looking at Tonges’ PFF grades, he ranked fourth among tight ends with an 81.2 receiving grade after last week’s game.
TE Duds
Trey McBride, Arizona
McBride gets a juicy matchup against the bad Carolina defense, but one of his Achilles’ heel, other than scoring touchdowns, is playing bad against a bad defense.
In the last two years, he has faced a bottom 10 defense vs. TEs seven times and he’s only averaged 8.1 fantasy points in those games, including 3.7 fantasy points in his only home game against a bottom 10 defense.
The history doesn’t bode well for a big game for the Arizona tight end.
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