What Week 1 tells us about the QB position and Week 2 salaries

The NFL wraps up Week 1 with its annual Monday Night Football doubleheader, but in the mean time, Week 2 DraftKings salaries are officially available. We’re going to examine each position, looking at two players who are coming off entirely different performances, and the perception by most heading into Week 2. One sees a bump up in his salary while another gets a discount in a matchup in which he excelled in two 2018 matchups.

Lamar Jackson ($6,800) vs. Arizona Cardinals

Jackson ended as the highest scoring quarterback of the week with 36.56 DKFP in a 59-10 blowout of the Dolphins. It’s already so bad in Miami, reports are surfacing that several players contacted their agents and requested to be traded. That’ll happen when a quarterback in a run-first offense throws for 324 yards and five touchdowns.

Jackson only made 20 pass attempts but made almost every single one count, completing 17 of those for an average of 19 yards per completion. It was an extremely effective game for a QB that entering this game had a 58.2 percent completion rate last season. Jackson has never been an efficient passer, even in his college days. In his three years at Louisville, Jackson never exceeded a completion percentage of 59.1 percent and was even as low as 54.7 percent in his freshman year on 247 attempts. Keeping up at the rate he showed in Week 2 feels highly unlikely.

With last week’s performance, Jackson is now the second most expensive quarterback behind only Patrick Mahomes ($7,500). He draws a matchup against the Cardinals, who last season held opposing quarterbacks to an average of 16.1 DKFP, which was the fifth-lowest in the league. Granted, they’re banged up in the secondary with Patrick Peterson serving his six-game suspension and Robert Alford on injured reserve with a leg injury. While Jackson will always have a safe floor with his rushing ability, thinking he can continue to pass at an elite rate will draw people in, only to set them up for disappointment.

Jared Goff ($5,900) vs. New Orleans Saints

The perception for Goff is nearing an all-time low, as he produced another disappointing outing in Week 1 against the Panthers. Despite the team scoring 30 points and earning the win, Goff ended the day with 10.4 DKFP, completing 23-of-39 pass attempts for 186 yards with one touchdown and an interception. If anything, it was their run game that scooped up the majority of the offense with Malcolm Brown ($3,800) of all people scoring two touchdowns on 11 carries and 53 yards.

Goff received a $300 discount heading into Week 2 but draws a really favorable matchup against the Saints. He carved up this team in Week 9, throwing for 391 yards while completing 28-of-40 pass attempts with three touchdowns and one interception. He also met this team in the controversial Conference Championship, scoring 15.8 DKFP on 297 passing yards with 25-of-40 attempts and a touchdown.

Goff has all three of receivers at his disposal, but most importantly, Cooper Kupp ($6,000). When Kupp was healthy last season, the Rams averaged 10.2 yards per pass attempt. When he was off the field, that number dropped to 7.5. It’s not crazy to think Kupp was simply shaking off the rust in Week 1, as despite catching 7-of-10 targets, only managed 46 yards and 11.6 DKFP. With so many options to go too against a shaky Saints secondary, Goff has a chance to bounce back in a matchup he performed well in 2018.

I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is Steveazors) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.