Fantasy Football: 6 Things We Learned in Week 1

Deshaun Watson: Rust or Bust?

Deshaun Watson might not be the superstar he looked like last year. Despite lighting the NFL on fire for five weeks in 2017, the sophomore quarterback struggled in Week 1 coming off of his late-October ACL tear. These struggles also came against a Patriots defense that surrendered the fourth-most offensive yardage just a season ago. The young quarterback looked lost to start, losing a fumble on a handoff to Lamar Miller on their very first offensive snap of the game.

Regression was bound to hit Watson's ludicrous 9.3% touchdown rate from 2017, but he came crashing back down to Earth in Week 1, posting just 176 passing yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception on the Pats. His hot streak last year came against a series of opponents suffering from intense defensive struggles; four of the five opponents he faced during his hot streak were bottom-half pass defenses. Regression was expected, but the intensity of his struggles were surprising.

Fortunately, Watson produces fantasy points with his feet, meaning that even in a tough passing matchup he's never totally a fantasy dud. While he struggled in Foxborough on Sunday, he still rushed 8 times for 40 yards. That rushing production buoyed his dismal passing day and contributed 36% of his 11 fantasy points.

Even more fortunate for Watson -- and those of us who drafted him in fantasy leagues this year -- the Texans face the second-easiest schedule of pass defenses per Warren Sharp's projections model. In other words, Watson doesn't have to be the unprecedented all-star he was in 2017 in order to continue being a fantasy stud in 2018.

Going forward, we can't trust Watson as a superstar, but we can trust him as a matchup-dependent streaming option on a weekly basis.