Set your lineups/Thursday Night Football preview

The day is finally here. Football is back tonight!!! For fantasy managers it also means some lineup decisions need to be made. I'm going to give a full preview on all the fantasy relevant players tonight but first I want to address a general misconception by some about how to properly set a lineup. 
    In short you always want to insert the player with the latest gametime time slot you intend on starting in your flex. This gives you more flexibility in case of a late inactive. For instance you intend to start Saquan (Mon 7:20), Aaron Jones (Sun 1:00), and David Johnson (Thurs 8:10). Saquan would need to occupy the FLEX spot on your roster NOT an RB spot because he plays Monday night. This becomes especially important in these covid-19 times. Players that have a higher than normal temperature upon arriving to the stadium will be unable to enter and play. This may lead to a ton of surprise inactives and makes the Sun and Mon night games more risky. Mitigating that risk by properly setting your lineup gives you more replacement options in case that happens. 
Here's a wrong example: ❌
Conner and Carson need to be swapped in this scenario. Once Carson's game kicks off your have painted yourself into a corner with Conner. If he has a issue where he can't go you wouldn't be able to swap in a WR which would be your best option in Dionte Johnson.

Below is an even worse example. Fuller in the flex plays Thur night. Once he plays that flex spot is locked up. If ANY of your WRs have an issue between now and thier game time you'd only be able to replace them with another WR. Otherwise you could have used a RB or even a TE. No players under regular circumstances should be in your Flex spot for Thurs night.❌
This is what your lineup should look like: ✅
Conner in the Flex playing mon night if you decided you wanted to start Dionte Johnson over Carson you'd have to move Conner up to RB and move AJ Brown into the flex then Dionte up to WR. Brown plays in the latest possible timeslot so he would occupy the flex if you chose to start 4WRs.
Now that the semantics are out of the way let's dive into tonight's game. 
Tonight's KC v HOU matchup offers the highest O/U of the week and that that's exactly what you want to look for. Target matchups with high predicted point totals. I'll go position by position and provide where I'm comfortable starting every relevant player.
Scoring system used is half point PPR and 4 point passing TDs. 12 team league format (QB RB WR 1s = Top 12 at thier respective position)

QB1: Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson
Both QBs offer sky high ceilings and high floors in this matchup. Mahomes is my QB1 overall week 1 and Watson is my #4 this week behind only Mahomes Lamar and Dak. You're obviously starting either one of you drafted them.

RB1: Clyde Edwards Helaire CEH makes his debut and managers that drafted him will get to see if he's the Workhorse he was drafted to be. I don't think he sees 20+ touches but 15-20 in this offense with his skillset should be enough to be a mid range RB1.

RB2: David Johnson The problem with DJ is you don't know which version of him you are going to see. This is why I wasn't targeting him in drafts. He's barely in my top 24 RBs for week 1 (21) but if you drafted him you probably need to start him. 

WR1: Tyreek Hill Huge boom potential here. Obviously if he's healthy he's playing for your fantasy team.

WR2: Will Fuller, Brandin Cooks Fuller has huge boom potential as well and is as high upside as a WR 2 can be. If you're going to start Fuller this is the week. Cooks is dealing with an injury but if he suits up and isn't reported to be limited I'd be willing to play him as a mid range WR2 but temper expectations. 

WR3/Flex: Randall Cobb (only in full PPR if Cooks is out) this is more worst case scenario and it being week 1 not a crazy amount of injuries or byes you should have better options. However IF Cooks sits Cobb offers low end Flex consideration 

TE1: Travis Kelce, Jordan Akins Kelce is THE TE1.  As for Akins if you read my streaming options blog he was one I was ok with streaming in this matchup. If you waited on TE in the draft he's a decent option this week.

Defense: Kansas City KC has some value as they are 9.5 point favorites. Should see plenty of sack and turnover opportunities but the point total should still be high so check on how your league scores for defenses

K: Harrison Butker a great kicker tied to a top 2 offense in football what more could you want. 

Thanks for reading and watch out for my next blog on guys I'm starting and fading in their matchups this weekend!!!
Follow me on twitter @Chris_Cianci 

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