3 Daily Fantasy Football Players to Avoid in Week 1

Marcus Mariota ($7,500 on FanDuel)

Remember in Week 1 last season when Marcus Mariota threw just 15 passes but 4 of them went for touchdowns as the Tennessee Titans put up 42 points?

If you were one of the 0.8 percent of people who owned Mariota on FanDuel when he shocked us all with 24.96 points, congratulations. Don't plan on that happening again this season.

Last season in Week 1, Mariota was playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went on to give up 31 passing touchdowns, the fifth-most in the NFL last year. This season, Mariota will be facing a much different defense in the Minnesota Vikings.

Minnesota's 0.06 Adjusted Defensive Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per pass was tied for the seventh lowest total allowed last season. They gave up only 24 passing touchdowns all season, which was the eighth-lowest total in the NFL. More importantly, they gave up an average of only 16.9 FanDuel points per game in 2015, tied for the 10th-lowest average in the league. The sledding projects to be much tougher for Mariota in Week 1 this time around.

Mariota's 0.07 Passing NEP per pass was the seventh-lowest total among the 31 quarterbacks who made at least 300 drop backs last season. At $7,500, only 12 quarterbacks are priced higher than Mariota on the Week 1 slate, and we have him projected to score 16.8 points FanDuel points.

The Titans, playing as home underdogs, are currently implied by Vegas to score just 19.5 points, the fourth-fewest in Week 1.

Mariota will be in plenty of good spots this season, but this is not one of them.