2024 Fantasy Football Breakout Candidates: Week 1

2024 Fantasy Football Breakout Candidates: Week 1

The 2024 NFL Season has officially arrived! That means you’re scrambling to set your first fantasy football lineups this season! Today, we are going to delve into some fantasy football breakout candidates for Week 1 of the NFL Season, which we will do every week this season. Well, what are we waiting for?!?! Let’s dive into it!

Zamir White, RB, Raiders

It will be hard to underestimate a Chargers defense that’s underperformed each of the last two seasons with Jim Harbaugh calling the shots. That said, they ranked No. 18 EPA/play and success rate against opposing teams’ ground games after being even more of a problematic unit in 2022. In his final four games of the season, White, currently listed as RB25 in standard, feasted for 397 yards on 4.7 yards per carry and one score. Antonio Pierce wants to control the game on the ground, so I believe that White could be a volume RB2 in most formats Sunday.

Aaron Jones, RB, Vikings

New faces in new places! Jones will make his debut for the Vikings Sunday after spending seven seasons with the NFC North rival Packers. Jones rushed for 584 yards in the team’s final five games last season on 5.7 yards per carry, and while Minnesota’s run blocking isn’t as sharp, he will be up against a porous Giants rush defense led by Dexter Lawrence. If Minnesota’s interior can contain him–a tall task–I think Jones can do a good job easing the pressure off first-year Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold in Week 1.

Adonai Mitchell, WR, Colts

We saw what lightning-fast rookie Xavier Worthy could do in the open field for Kansas City Thursday. Enters his former Texas teammate Adonai Mitchell, who will be the Colts’ WR2 Sunday with Josh Downs‘ high ankle sprain. It remains to be seen how much of a passing threat Anthony Richardson will be, but I don’t doubt that head coach Shane Steichen hasn’t already schemed up a few plays to get Mitchell involved in his first career game.

Geno Smith, QB, Seahawks

New Seahawks offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was a Kalen DeBoer disciple. He’s going to put his quarterback in the best position to succeed. The Broncos, who lost safety Justin Simmons earlier this offseason, aren’t a good pass defense who shouldn’t put much pressure on Smith. Depending on your league format, he may not be startable, but I still like him to top his QB19 trajectory in Week 1.

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