Fantasy Football Stock Report: Ashton Jeanty, Colston Loveland among notable risers, fallers in Week 1

As I write this on Sunday night, all but one Week 1 game is comfortably in the books, and as is always the case on opening weekend, we encountered a slew of surprises. Some promising, others concerning and many that may have affected our outlook on a player or an offense. We're all doing our best not to overreact to one Sunday (and one Wednesday and one Thursday), but some of these shifting perspectives are bound to have permanent ramifications.

With that in mind, I've compiled the (first) full weekly fantasy football stock report. These are the most notable risers and fallers heading into Week 2.

Ankle sprain, schmankle schprain (sorry, editors). Ashton Jeanty looked incredible on Sunday and had absolutely no limitations on his workload. He handled 23 carries and had six catches, totaling 147 yards while scoring twice through the air. He totaled 74 rushing yards after contact and scored both of his receiving touchdowns from the 13-yard line. Translation? The second-year RB's upside is arguably somewhere in the Christian McCaffrey stratosphere. The one caveat to all of this, of course, is that he did it against the Miami Dolphins . We'll see whether things change in Week 2 against the Chargers. But for now, Jeanty looks fully healthy and completely dominant, and anyone who got him at the "ankle sprain discount" is doing cartwheels.

At just 61% rostered on Yahoo, Jalen Coker was closer to being a waiver-wire player than a fantasy stud. Not anymore. The third-year wideout led the Panthers with nine targets, eight catches, 138 receiving yards and two touchdowns, finishing as the WR1 overall on Sunday (29.8 fantasy points). He ran the second-most routes on the team (32), behind Tetairoa McMillan (36), and averaged 13.8 air yards per target and 4.31 yards per route run. He made a very strong opening argument to be a 1B to McMillan's 1A this season. And while all of Carolina's numbers were inflated by this barn-burner of a game with Chicago , Coker had flashed late last year and looks like a legitimate third-year breakout candidate. He'll be among the most-added players on waivers this week (despite starting at 61%) and should be at least a FLEX consideration until further notice.

Elsewhere in this crazy Bears-Panthers game, Chuba Hubbard outsnapped Jonathon Brooks 41-to-13 and outcarried him 10-to-4. And while Brooks broke off a 48-yard reception, he was pretty silent as a rusher. Meanwhile, Hubbard racked up 49 yards on his 10 carries and scored from two yards out on the ground and four yards out through the air. Again, take it with a Chicago grain of salt. But at least for now, Hubbard is the lead back in Carolina and a borderline RB2 for fantasy.

This was somewhat predictable given how the Bills defense played the run last season (terribly), but David Montgomery's three touchdowns on Sunday were pretty encouraging. He only averaged 3.0 yards per carry on 20 totes and added 19 yards on three catches, but Montgomery scored rushing TDs from the goal line and the 18-yard line, and a receiving TD from the seven-yard line as well. If Houston is going to put him in position to score that often — and feed him more than 20 opportunities a game — Montgomery doesn't need to be that efficient to be effective for fantasy. He gets the Bengals next week as well, so expect another RB1-level outing from the artist formerly known as "Knuckles" (unless we're still calling him that).

I promise, I was totally and completely normal about Parker Washington scoring the first touchdown of the Jaguars' 2026 season ... and ultimately putting up 16.8 fantasy points in the first half before essentially taking the rest of the game off in a blowout win. That's right, Washington logged all of his five catches for 83 yards by halftime, and then did not see a target the rest of the day. Jacksonville 's not going to be up 24-0 after two quarters against most opponents — this was the Cleveland Browns after all — so we should get four quarters from Washington moving forward. He's a legitimate WR2 in fantasy (if not better).

Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence has not just Washington, but also a resurgent Brian Thomas Jr. , effective Jakobi Meyers , touchdown-scoring Brenton Strange and productive Bhayshul Tuten to throw to this season. He picked up right where he left off at the end of last season — scorching the league. Lawrence threw four touchdowns and posted a 150.6 passer rating ... and those four scores came on the team's first six drives before the aforementioned second-half coasting. At this rate, Lawrence could very well belong in the elite tier of fantasy QBs with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (and maybe Caleb Williams and Jaxson Dart , based on what we saw on Sunday).

Had Dallas Goedert posted a decent day against the Commanders, I might have largely chalked it up to the Washington defense — which was, and clearly still is, terrible against tight ends. But the Eagles tight end was dominant , snagging a team-high four catches for a team-high 77 yards (on five targets) and scoring two touchdowns, including a 43-yarder late in the fourth quarter that essentially sealed the game for Philly. Dontayvion Wicks and DeVonta Smith were both good in their roles as well, but with A.J. Brown gone, Goedert looks like he's a focal point of this offense and probably the top red-zone threat (at least from outside the two-yard line). He was a fringe TE1 entering the year but could quickly cement himself near or inside the upper-tier at the position.

Speaking of tight ends taking their place in the elite ranks ... hello, Isaiah Likely. After being stuck behind Mark Andrews for years in Baltimore — and often flashing when given the chance — Likely followed John Harbaugh to New York. And boy did it work out (through one week). Likely was Jaxson Dart's best receiver, snagging all eight of his targets for 78 yards and two touchdowns, and making several critical plays in the eventual 28-20 win over the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. He looked every bit the part of a true TE1 for both Big Blue and for fantasy. I'm not hesitating to put him right in the conversation with Colston Loveland (who we'll get to later), Tyler Warren and Tucker Kraft among the best tight ends not named Trey McBride (or Brock Bowers when healthy). It might sound like an overreaction, but what we saw on Sunday night makes too much sense to ignore. Likely to the moon.

Josh Allen's newest toy, DJ Moore, had an excellent first game with the Bills, catching five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown on eight targets. But even counting the 43-yard bomb that DJM caught for his score, this stat line doesn't tell the full story. Moore also drew an egregious pass interference penalty on a similar downfield pass earlier in the game, which would have resulted in a 47-yard touchdown without the penalty, and instead set up an Allen rushing TD from the one-yard line. Moore ran the most routes on the team and saw 19.4 air yards per target, ultimately accounting for 44% of the Bills' team air yards on the day. Also armed with Khalil Shakir underneath and Dalton Kincaid over the middle — not to mention James Cook II in the ground game — Allen and the Bills offense are poised for a best-ever type of season in 2026. It looks like Moore will thrive at the helm of the passing attack and is a strong WR2 with WR1 upside.

This is hard for me to admit as a long-time Christian Watson denier — and it was probably my worst "fade" of all-time — but the Packers wideout looked dominant on Sunday against what was one of the toughest defenses against wide receivers last year. He started things off with an 81-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter and proceeded to rack up 147 yards on six catches, with another TD from the two-yard line at the end of the first half. Watson currently sits just behind Coker for the highest fantasy score at the position (29.7 points). But most importantly, he saw eight targets. Watson had only seen eight or more targets five times prior in his career, and only caught six or more passes twice (both more than two years ago). He appears to be the true WR1 in Green Bay , and combining his efficiency with WR1 volume is a terrifying prospect. There's still a part of me that fears this receiving corps will be unpredictable week-to-week and Watson could be an afterthought next Sunday ... but that part is fading quickly.

We knew the Dolphins offense was going to be bad in 2026, and that De'Von Achane was a riskier early fantasy pick as a result. But Achane's unmatched big-play threat and elite receiving upside theoretically mitigated that risk. Welp. In a game Miami trailed throughout, against the Raiders no less, Achane had four receptions for 30 yards, which was nowhere near enough to offset just 36 rushing yards on 11 carries. Moreover, Miami did not have a single drive that finished inside the Raiders' 10-yard line ... and their only touchdown was a 13-yard rush vultured by Malik Willis . Achane will undoubtedly have some big games — perhaps even more often than not — but the floor being single-digit fantasy points in one of the few games all season the Dolphins weren't massive underdogs ... is discouraging.

Drake London/Kyle Pitts Sr., WR/TE, Falcons

There was some hope entering Week 1 that Cooper Rush might be a viable enough backup to support the top receiving options in Atlanta after Tua Tagovailoa 's late injury scratch (and Michael Penix Jr . already out). Not so much. Rush completed just 12 passes against the Steelers ... and eight of those completions went to Bijan Robinson . No, I'm not joking. London and Pitts combined for two catches on five targets for 29 yards (and all the catches and yards were London's). We'll see how the quarterback situation shakes out next week and beyond — and both these players are too talented to be goose-egged or near goose-egged all year — but it's certainly not an encouraging start for players many had near the top of their positions in the preseason rankings.

The good news is that this "fade" from my weekly column sort of balances out the Watson one ... I think? The bad news is that Terry McLaurin might be very hard to trust in fantasy this season. Washington's former WR1 — and yes, I mean that — saw just four targets and caught two for 14 yards. We were looking at a zero in his fantasy box score for the vast majority of the game, and it seemed extremely clear that Jayden Daniels and Co. preferred Stefon Diggs (who drew nine targets). Also, rookie Antonio Williams surged late in the game and might lay claim to a bigger piece of the pie moving forward. It might sound hyperbolically doom-and-gloom, but I was already very out on McLaurin this year and Week 1 was a near "nail-in-the-coffin." He is no longer the clear No. 1 in the DMV, and I do not foresee a major bounce-back in 2026 after a very disappointing 2025. I'd honestly look to trade McLaurin to an optimistic buyer ASAP ... and might even consider Coker as the return.

To put it unkindly, the Cleveland Browns are very, very bad, and that's very, very bad news for Quinshon Judkins. He was outrushed by Deshaun Watson on Sunday (on six fewer carries), finishing with just 33 yards on 12 totes (2.8 per carry) and adding two catches for 17 yards. The Browns didn't get into the red zone until late in the third quarter, and that drive ended in a field goal ... and was their only red-zone drive ending in points all day. And mind you, this dud of an opener for Judkins came with Dylan Sampson (knee) out for essentially the entire game. Working off Sunday's tape, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the Browns put together an effective offense at any point this season, which means Judkins will be incredibly hit-or-miss, based on big plays or occasional touchdowns. He was drafted as an RB2, but is already slipping into RB3 territory after that ineffective an opener.

If you told me entering Week 1 that Colston Loveland would play the entire game, and that the Bears would score 59 points, but that the second-year tight end would finish with zero, zilch, nada ... I would have chuckled and checked your temperature. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. It was borderline inexplicable, especially considering Loveland ran the most routes on the team (32) and Cole Kmet had two catches for 35 yards and a touchdown. Honestly, I expect a significant rebound from Loveland moving forward — he's too talented, and Kalif Raymond is unlikely to see nine targets again — but we should not see goose eggs in 59-burgers from our elite fantasy tight ends. Loveland is on "Concern Watch" for the next couple weeks.