Fantasy Football Week 1 Panic Meter: Young RBs highlight players we're worried about to start 2026

It is Week 1, and the last thing I want to do is incite panic among a group of fantasy football managers who have been waiting all offseason for this moment. We drafted these teams, talked ourselves into these players and have been waiting for real football to finally get here. The last thing you want to hear before setting your first lineup is somebody telling you to worry about one of the players you drafted.

But think about it this way. There are some legitimate concerns heading into Week 1, and I would much rather know about those concerns now and set my expectations accordingly than find out when the games start. So these are panics, but they are loose panics. We are not burying anybody before the season starts. This is simply about identifying where there may be a little more risk than we anticipated when we drafted these players.

Let's start with Dak Prescott because this one caught my attention immediately. Tyler Smith is going to have surgery on his thumb and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. Smith is one of the best guards in football, and Dallas is going to open the season against the Giants, Commanders, Ravens and Texans without arguably the best player on its offensive line.

Then, you look at the rest of that offensive line and there are reasons to be concerned. Terence Steele allowed 52 pressures last season, which is not good, and now T.J. Bass is being asked to step into Smith's spot. Dallas has some difficult defensive fronts coming up early, so I understand why people may look at this situation and wonder whether Dak should be downgraded.

I am not there yet. Dak still has CeeDee Lamb , George Pickens and Jake Ferguson . This is still an offense we expect to throw the football a lot, and Dak is still a veteran quarterback who has shown he can operate at a high level when things are not perfect around him.

Would I rather have Smith protecting him? Of course. Does losing Smith make these first few games more difficult? Absolutely. But if Prescott is the quarterback you drafted to start for your fantasy team, I am not changing that because of this injury.

This one is different because my concern with Ashton Jeanty is mainly about what we do not know. The Raiders have been pretty vague about exactly what this ankle injury is and, more importantly, what it could mean for Jeanty's workload in Week 1.

That is what I want to know. Is he good to go? And I do not mean, "Is he active?" I mean, is Jeanty actually ready to play a normal workload? Because those are two completely different questions.

How many times have we seen a player get cleared, everybody gets excited because he is active and then the game starts and he is standing on the sideline for half the snaps? That is what worries me here.

Mike Washington Jr. complicates this because Washington has done enough throughout the summer to give the Raiders confidence in him. I am not saying Washington is taking Jeanty's job. That is not what this is about. But if Jeanty is only 80-85%, does Las Vegas really have to push him for 20-plus touches in Week 1? Probably not.

If Jeanty is active, you are probably going to play him. He is just one of those players. I get it. But we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that "active" does not mean "full workload."

There is definitely some panic around Malik Nabers, and I understand it. He is coming back from the ACL injury, he did not do a ton of back-to-back work throughout training camp and now you are asking him to step into Week 1 in a brand new offense.

There are already people in fantasy who are a little apprehensive about this Matt Nagy-led offense. Now Nabers has to find his rhythm with Jaxson Dart and, more importantly than anything else, trust his knee again when the game starts moving at full speed.

You can be medically cleared, you can practice and you can run routes. At some point, though, Nabers has to plant that foot, make a hard cut with somebody closing on him and not think about the knee.

The good news is the Giants certainly seem to have confidence in where he is. They released Darius Slayton and are heading into the season with Nabers, Darnell Mooney , Malachi Fields and Odell Beckham Jr. at wide receiver. Whatever we may think about Nabers' Week 1 workload, New York has to feel pretty good about his timeline if that is the wide receiver room it is comfortable taking into the season.

And Nabers is still Nabers. We already know what this player can do when the football is coming his way. My concern is simply whether we see the full Malik Nabers immediately. That is enough for some panic, but it is nowhere near enough panic for me to stay away from him if he is playing.

Jeremiyah Love is in a very similar spot to Jeanty for me. You are talking about a rookie running back, the third overall pick in the NFL Draft and a player who already showed us in the preseason why Arizona was so excited about him.

We know he can play. That is not the question. The question is why Arizona would rush him back if it does not have to. Love is coming off a high-ankle sprain, and we have to remember the difference between being able to play and being ready for the workload fantasy managers want.

If Love is active in Week 1, you are going to consider starting him. I understand that. But Arizona brought in Tyler Allgeier for exactly this type of situation. This is a former 1,000-yard rusher and a veteran running back who has already handled NFL carries. If Arizona needs somebody to take 15 touches for a week or two while Love gets completely healthy, I think it feels pretty comfortable asking Allgeier to do that.

So if Love is technically available but Arizona thinks another week of managing his workload will help him get right, why would it push him? This is Week 1 of a very long season.

Long term, I am not worried about Jeremiyah Love. Week 1 is different. If I have another good option, I would rather not play him until I actually see what this workload looks like.

Now, we get to the one that actually concerns me. TreVeyon Henderson is total panic. I do not want to put him in the "Coping Corner" yet because we are not there, but this is problematic.

The reason this is different from Jeanty and Love is that Henderson's issue did not just pop up a couple of days before Week 1. We have been hearing about this for a while now. He has been dealing with the ankle injury that has held him out of practice for weeks and the Patriots ruled Henderson out for the opener Wednesday vs. the Seahawks .

My concern isn't just Henderson missing Week 1. It is what happens after Week 1, because while Henderson has been unavailable, everything we have heard about Rhamondre Stevenson has been positive. Stevenson has looked good, operated as the RB1 and been the guy New England trusts in this backfield.

That was already part of the concern with Henderson before the injury. We drafted Henderson because we believe in the talent, and I believe in the talent. But talent was never the problem. The question was whether Henderson could take enough of this backfield away from Stevenson to become the fantasy option we wanted him to be.

Now, Henderson is hurt, which makes that path even more difficult. And let me be clear: this is not about dropping TreVeyon Henderson. Absolutely not, not even close. He is way too talented, and things can change very quickly at running back.

But starting him when healthy is a different conversation. I cannot do that right now. Even when he gets cleared, I would need to see what this role actually looks like before feeling comfortable putting him into my lineup.

Henderson has an injury layered on top of a role that was already more questionable than fantasy managers wanted it to be. That is why this one is different.

We are not in "Coping Corner" yet, but we are absolutely already in "Total Panic."