It’s time to stop smoking clove cigarettes and writing sad poems - football is back! Now is the time to find those value players for your Week 1 lineups, playing in great matchups, as you try to surprise your opponents who are still blindly starting their highest drafted players.

Here’s a look at five under the radar potential studs to consider starting in your lineups for Week 1 of the fantasy season. 

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• 2025 fantasy football rankings
• Running back (RB) rankings
• Wide receiver (WR) rankings
• Quarterback (QB) rankings
• Tight end (TE) rankings
• Defense (D/ST) rankings
• Kicker (K) rankings
• FLEX rankings
• Dynasty rankings

Sneaky Week 1 Fantasy Football Lineup Starts

Carson Palmer - QB, ARI 

Before he was injured, Carson Palmer was on the way to one of the best seasons of his career. In six games he threw for 1626 yards and 11 touchdowns with only three interceptions. That projects out to 4336 yards, 29 TDs and eight interceptions when extrapolated across the entire year.

And who comes to Arizona on Sunday? New Orleans, the owners of the second worst pass defense in the league last season. Even more worrying for New Orleans, they were forced to release Junior Galette before the season. Galette finished with a 34.3 pass rush rating per PFF. The rest of the team combined for a miserable -6.8. Add to that that top corner Keenan Lewis is unlikely to suit up for week 1, and now you've got a team playing on the road without their best pass rusher and without their best CB. It's a tasty recipe for success.

Doug Martin - RB, TB

After breaking out his rookie season, Doug Martin has had a tough time over the last two. However, he’s impressed Tampa Bay’s coaching staff heavily this preseason, and Martin appears to be fully healthy. More to the point, the Tennessee Titans run defense was the 5th worst in the NFL last year. With the Bucs newly fortified O-line (rookies Donovan Smith and Ali Marpet will be starting), Martin should find more room to run.

Kenny Stills - WR, MIA

Jarvis Landry has been getting a lot of (justifiable) love for his rookie year, but Kenny Stills may be the Dolphins wide receiver should be talking about. He finished ahead of Landry in PFF’s end of year rankings. He also was one of the NFL’s best deep targets. Drew Brees completed 64.3% of the deep balls sent his way, per Scout.com. To top it all off, he finished last season with some of his best performances, racking up 500 yards in his last six games.

He’ll be facing a Redskins defense that finished dead last in pass defense last season without making significant improvements in the secondary. Look for Stills upward trend to continue.

Charles Clay - TE, BUF

Everybody knows that Greg Roman loves his tight ends. What many don’t know is just how good Charles Clay has been. Pro Football Focus rated him as the 9th best pass catching tight end in the league, ahead of players like Jimmy Graham and Julius Thomas.

Despite their additions, the Colts look like a middle class team defensively. Clay is a seam buster and the Colts will often be matching either D’Qwell Jackson or Jerrell Freeman on him often. Opponents were 85 of 111 for 867 yards and 7 TDs against them in 2014, with many of those catches being from the tight end position. With the Bills commitment to the run and the danger of the Taylor scrambling, Clay should find some room in the middle of the field.

Minnesota Vikings D/ST

Is there any defense more under the radar than the Minnesota Vikings? They finished last season ranked 8th ranked overall by PFF and finished 9th in sacks. They should be improved with the addition of 1st round pick Trae Waynes and the continued development of Anthony Barr.

They’ve drawn a 49ers team which finished 30th in passing offense last year. They did finish fourth in rushing offense but also lost two key players: RB Frank Gore and OG Mike Iupati, arguably the best run blocking guard in the NFL. The transitioning offense entering a new scheme playing against Mike Zimmer's second year defense should be looking at an easy loss.

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