8 Fantasy Football Sleepers for Week 1

Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore Ravens

Joe Flacco certainly isn't the most exciting fantasy quarterback out there.

The last time he threw for more than 20 touchdowns was 2014, and he has topped 3200 passing yards in only one of his last three seasons. Even by his standards, 2017 was an outlier in efficiency though. His 4.71 adjusted net yards per pass attempt (ANY/A) were the second-worst mark of his career, sitting over 15% lower than his career-average and over 12% worse than his mark from 2016.

I know that "Flacco was hugely bad last year" doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but when he's that far off of what we're used to seeing from him, there's reason to believe we could see some regression.

Week 1's matchup is a favorable one for him as well, taking on the Buffalo Bills.

numberFire's power rankings have the Bills 12th against the pass heading into the season, but they're coming off a 2017 campaign in which variance seemed to save them from looking a lot worse, statistically.

Per Rich Hribar of Rotoworld, the Bills allowed a league-high 36% of their opponents' drives to reach the red zone, but also limited their opponents to a league-low 3.8% passing touchdown rate. That's another area that screams "regression."

Oddsmakers are also fairly high on the Baltimore offense in this one, and their implied total sits at 24.0. The Ravens hit the 24-point mark 8 times in 16 games last year, and those games came with 30% more passing yards than their other 8.