Thursday Night Football Fantasy Picks: Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Bills vs Rams Week 1

At long last, Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season is here, and Thursday Night Football brings us our first taste of live football in six months. The action gets started off with a bang, a showdown between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams.

Thursday Night Football Fantasy Picks

This matchup features some of the biggest stars in football and there's no shortage of fantasy football-relevant players on either side.

With that in mind, here is The Duel's start 'em, sit 'em advice for Thursday's showdown at SoFi Stadium.

Gabriel Davis Fantasy

Start Gabriel Davis, WR, Buffalo Bills: We just talked about this matchup containing some stars. Well, remember those guys are all automatic starts. That includes the likes of Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen. One player with some sneaky value? Bills wideout Gabriel Davis. He enters this matchup as WR32 in The Duel's Week 1 PPR rankings, but I like him as a FLEX consideration. Davis was a sneaky option at the end of last year, tallying 8 targets, 4 receptions and 0.8 TDs per week from Week 14 on. Those were good for WR28 numbers in that stretch, even while sitting out one of those five weeks. The Rams secondary is a tough matchup, but Jalen Ramsey will pay heavy attention will to Stefon Diggs.

Matthew Stafford Fantasy

Start Matthew Stafford, QB, Los Angeles Rams: People are sleeping on Matthew Stafford in this Week 1 matchup, even after capturing a Super Bowl title last year. Yes, he's dealing with the questionable elbow injury but will be starting in this matchup. With Tre'Davious White out and rookie Kaiir Elam taking on a starting role, the Bills' secondary enters with question marks. I love the idea of a veteran quarterback taking advantage of that. After all, the Rams passed the ball at a top-10 rate a year ago, and Stafford finished as QB5 with nine games scoring at least 20 fantasy points.

Devin Singletary Fantasy

Sit Devin Singletary, RB, Buffalo Bills: Fantasy managers must stay away from the Bills' running backs in this matchup, including both Devin Singletary and James Cook. Not only did Buffalo pass the ball at a top-10 clip last year, but the Rams impose a top defensive unit. Los Angeles allowed the ninth-fewest PPR points to opposing RBs a year ago, and ranked fifth in Football Outsiders' rush-defense DVOA metric. Singletary barley cracked the top-20 in rushing attempts last year (188) and only saw a disappointing 36.9% of rushing opportunities in the red zone. James Cook will eat into Singletary's targets and that's not something I'm signing up for in Week 1.

Tyler Higbee Fantasy

Sit Tyler Higbee, TE, Los Angeles Rams: Tyler Higbee is the clear-cut lead tight end in this Rams' offense, but there's simply too many mouths to feed. He averaged just 19% of the team's target share in the final four weeks of the season, before the addition of Allen Robinson to replace Robert Woods' production. Buffalo allowed the fourth-fewest PPR points to opposing tight ends a year ago, and while the secondary has some question marks, the likes of Cooper Kupp and Robinson are more likely to take advantage of that.

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Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.