Saints Fantasy Football Preview Week 1

Image credit – Christopher Hanewinckel – USA TODAY Sports

This is the New Orleans Saints Fantasy football outlook for week one of the 2020 season. The year 2020 is having its way with whatever it desires. However, NFL football is holding strong. Last night the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans held the season opener. Now that we are in the return of the NFL season, we get to enjoy the return of fantasy football. I am going explore players on the Saints and Buccaneers for your week 1 match ups.

When you think New Orleans Saints fantasy football you think Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, and Alvin Kamara. They are all ranked near the top at their positions.

Drew Brees

Drew Brees matches up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense this Sunday. The Buccaneers struggled to stop the passing game last year. They were ranked the league’s third-worst for opponent passing yards per game at 270.1 yards per game. They may have improved over the off-season. However, they have maintained the same starting lineup with the lone change of a rookie starting at safety. Start quarterbacks against the Bucs until they prove otherwise.

Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara

Michael Thomas is a definite start, he is an every week start no matter who you are playing. Against Tampa Bay Michael Thomas has had great weeks historically. In 2019 Thomas had 100 yards plus touchdowns both games against the Bucs. Alvin Kamara and the team of running backs for New Orleans may get slowed down a little more versus a stout Buccaneer defense. However, Kamara is still a start regardless as he can also produce in the passing game.

Outlook for other Saints fantasy football players

Some more not so obvious players to look at that may not be every week starts are Jared Cook and Emmanuel Sanders. They will have a role that could garner points behind the primary offensive beneficiaries.

Some Saints that you may not want to start Week 1 but keep an eye the first couple weeks to see if you may want to acquire them are Tre’Quan Smith, Deonte Harris and potentially running back Ty Montgomery. These players will either get the ball in their hands more than expected or not much at all on a consistent basis. Sean Payton is good at be creative and using new talent. These guy may see less attention from the defense with the bigger named players ahead of them getting all the spotlight. But the Saints are back to being loaded on the offensive side. That can be frustrating for fantasy owners because there is no guarantee where Sean Payton and Drew Brees will find additional production each week.

New Orleans Saints Defense

The Saints defense is a good play. Position by position the Saints match up well even though they are facing a loaded Bucs offense. Offenses are likely to have hiccups at the beginning of the season and haven’t had a chance to make adjustment of actual game play. Tom Brady is also playing with a new head coach which hasn’t happened to him his entire NFL career. With a shorter training camp and without a preseason things may not happen as fast as people think for the Bucs with multiple critical new pieces to the team.