Fantasy Football

The spotlight once again belongs to Cooper Rush after Dallas Cowboys star Dak Prescott suffered a hand injury in Sunday's season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Cowboys CEO Jerry Jones told reporters after the game that Prescott will be out "for a while" and is expected to miss several weeks because he requires surgery. Jones added that Rush will be the team's starter going forward.

"We'll have to have Cooper step up," Jones said. "He'll get all the reps, and we'll go from there."

Rush threw for 64 yards on 7-of-13 passing after replacing Prescott against Tampa Bay. He filled in for Prescott once in 2021 and far exceeded everyone's expectations. He went 24-of-40 for 325 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in a win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Fantasy managers will hope that wasn't a mirage, though he may be a risky play until he proves what he can do on a consistent basis.

When it comes to CeeDee Lamb, the calculus remains the same regardless of whether Prescott or Rush is the quarterback. Through his first two seasons, Lamb caught 153 passes for 2,037 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The departure of Amari Cooper meant the 2020 first-round pick was the unquestioned No. 1 option in the passing game, so he should get plenty of targets from Rush. In that aforementioned Vikings game, Lamb caught six passes for 112 yards. However, he was held to two catches for 29 yards against the Bucs.

Betting on Dalton Schultz to continue delivering starter-worthy numbers at tight end is a sensible decision, too. Schultz figures to be a big beneficiary if Dallas simplifies the offense a bit for Rush and limits how frequently it asks him to make downfield throws. Schultz finished with a team-high seven receptions for 62 yards on Sunday.

Beyond Lamb and Schultz, the outlook is too murky.

Michael Gallup is coming off a torn ACL and watched his yards per catch decline over the next two years after averaging 16.8 in 2019. James Washington was mostly a nonfactor during his four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers before opening the season on injured reserve. Third-round draft pick Jalen Tolbert could emerge as a threat but is totally unproven right now.

None of the three warrants a regular place in your starting lineup when Prescott is healthy, and that's especially true with Rush under center.

New York Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur may have provided fantasy football managers with rookie running back Breece Hall on their team some cause for concern Thursday.

According to ESPN's Rich Cimini, LaFleur called second-year running back Michael Carter the "heartbeat of our offense."

Despite Carter's solid play as a rookie last season and the fact that he still figures to get plenty of work in 2022, Hall was drafted early in many fantasy leagues on the heels of the Jets selecting him 36th overall in the second round of the 2022 NFL draft.

New York had a full-on committee in its backfield last season, but it was Carter who emerged as the most fantasy-relevant player of the group due primarily to his pass-catching ability.

Despite missing three games due to injury, the fourth-round pick out of North Carolina rushed for 639 yards and four touchdowns, while also catching 36 passes for 325 yards.

As a result, Carter was a weekly flex consideration last season, and he has a chance to carve out that type of role for himself once again this season, even with Hall in the mix.

The fact that the Jets invested a second-round pick in Hall suggests he will be used often, likely on first and second down, as well as short-yardage situations, but it wouldn't be wise to expect him to be a bell cow.

Hall is a solid pass-catcher in his own right, but Carter proved he could do it at the NFL level as a rookie, perhaps putting him in the catbird seat for third-down duties, and thus giving him plenty of value in point-per-reception leagues.

If both Hall and Carter stay healthy this season, it is likely Hall will finish with more fantasy points due to his touchdown upside, but the disparity may not be as significant as most assumed.

In Yahoo fantasy football drafts, Hall has an average draft position of 44.2, while Carter's ADP is sitting at 120.6, making Hall the RB18 and Carter the RB42. That means Hall is usually being drafted as an RB2, while Carter is being drafted as an RB4 or RB5.

When it comes to return on investment, Carter has the makings of being a much better pick than Hall, especially if LaFleur's comments are a sign that Carter will be heavily involved in the offense again this season.

The first touchdown of the 2022 season belongs to Buffalo Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis.

Davis hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from Josh Allen on a perfectly executed play-action to start a Thursday night of fireworks for the Bills on the way to a commanding 31-10 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

While Buffalo's defensive line set the tone up front and Allen impressed throughout the game as both a thrower and a runner, it was Davis who stood out as a potential breakout wide receiver in fantasy football circles.

Social media certainly noticed:

Stefon Diggs is going to be Buffalo's No. 1 option, but that also means he'll face the opponent's top cornerback and double-teams throughout the season. That leaves a golden opportunity for someone else to take advantage of the resultant space, and Davis looks like he will be that player in 2022.

He finished with four catches for 88 yards and one touchdown on five targets and will look to build on that performance when Buffalo hosts the Tennessee Titans in Week 2.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers veteran wideout Chris Godwin told reporters on Thursday he would be a game-time decision for Sunday's season-opening matchup against the Dallas Cowboys.

"I don't have a definitive answer," Godwin said. "I'm just really grateful to be out there right now."

Godwin is recovering from a torn ACL and MCL suffered in Week 15 last season.

"I think it's a really like complicated process," he told reporters. "Obviously, you come off a major injury like this, you never really know how you're gonna feel. But I've been doing really well. Y'all see me out there practicing. I've been doing a lot of stuff, and like each day, it's very different than the day before. So, I think, ultimately, what it comes down to is, one, how I'm feeling, and then two, the discussions I've had with [head coach] Todd Bowles and the training staff. I think whenever the time comes for the game, I think everybody will know, but until then, even I'm not sure."

The concern for fantasy players is that the Buccaneers play the Sunday night game. The risk in keeping a starting spot open for Godwin is that if he's ultimately ruled out, a replacement option will need to come from either the Bucs, Cowboys or the teams facing off Monday night, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.

That eliminates a large pool of players and likely means that Godwin should remain on the majority of benches in Week 1 unless his situation is updated before Sunday's 1 p.m. ET slate of games.

But that seems unlikely, and the Bucs aren't going to rush Godwin back.

"[The games] count the same, but we want him well. I don't want him out there before it's time," Bowles told reporters. "If he's healthy and ready to go and they clear him, and everybody feels he's ready to go and it's completely 100 percent, then you take your shot. Anything less than that, I'd rather him sit."

Adjust your rosters accordingly, fantasy players.