College Fantasy Football DFS Rankings: Week 1

September 4, 2021

Brad's CFB DFS rankings for Week 1 on 9/4/21. His daily fantasy college football rankings for QBs, RBs and WRs and the DFS slates on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Another season of college football is upon us, and we're back at it with weekly college football DFS and college football betting articles. Below are the Week One rankings for the main CFB DFS slate on DraftKings. There are a few things that should be noted in college football DFS that set it apart from other DFS sports. First, there are no real reliable injury reports, so a player who looks like a stud could be ruled out five minutes before the game with no warning. That could easily vault an unknown $3k minimum priced player into the top value slot in a quick hurry.

The other thing to keep in mind is that early in the year there could be wild swings in the depth charts for these teams. A player who came into the year with a lot of hype could all of a sudden be fourth on the depth chart. Because of that, my personal rankings tend to favor quarterbacks and running backs as they are far more known quantities. Furthermore, in the first few weeks of the year there is the likelihood of some blowouts, which tends to hinder wide receiver production more than the other positions.

The final thing to note, the rankings below are per-dollar. A player like Austin Kendall stands out not because he is going to outscore all of the players in front of him, but because at his price he provides value not found with the other players. So without further ado, let's get to it!

CFB DFS Quarterback Rankings

There are a few things to keep an eye on here. We know new coach Steve Sarkisian has no issue running a great offense, and now we know he will turn to Hudson Card to lead that offense. There are a lot of unknowns with Card, but considering his pedigree and offensive system, there is a lot of upside with Card.

Austin Kendall is another big name to watch here as the former Oklahoma Sooner may get a shot to start at a very low price. If he does get the start expect him to be very popular. Mississippi State should put up a ton of points, but their depth chart lists Will Rogers OR Chance Lovertich as the starter. It is very risky, but Rogers seems like the likely choice here, if either is named starter they are likely to carry very low ownership for their upside in this match-up. Lastly, make sure Xavier Arline is listed as starter for Navy, but their run heavy offense gives him a decent floor that not many other quarterbacks have.

CFB DFS Running Back Rankings

As mentioned above, it is likely a good idea to spend up on running back, especially early in the DFS season. Players such as Breece Hall and Bijan Robinson appear locked into their roles and should be playing on teams that have the lead.

Transfers such as Keyon Henry-Brooks (Vanderbilt) and Eric Gray (Tennessee) appear to be the starters on their new teams, but it is also a bit of a risk taking a transfer in their first game with a new team.

CFB DFS Wide Receiver Rankings

Once again, see the note in the intro, but wide receiver is always a bit of a crap shoot in CFB DFS. That especially rings true week 1 on a slate where there are no sure-fire locks. As mentioned before, Texas should have an explosive offense and all indications are that Jordan Whittington and Joshua Moore should fill the role that produced so many stud Alabama wideouts over the past few years. If you want a cheaper option, Xavier Worthy has been named as a starter at WR for Texas as well.

One thing to keep in mind with some of these lower priced options are that they may be in games where their team is trailing for most of the game, that could give them more of an opportunity to hit one big play and pay off value easily. On the other side of that, if a team like Oklahoma wins in a blowout, there may not be enough value to go around for multiple receivers.

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