NFL Week 1 Fantasy Football Game Recap: Minnesota Vikings vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Justin Jefferson: 9 receptions, 150 receiving yards

• Mike Evans: 6 receptions, 66 receiving yards, 1 touchdown

Rachaad White’s first game as the Buccaneers’ feature back: White dominated offensive snaps throughout the game, but that didn’t necessarily lead to great fantasy production.

• White ran 17 times for 39 yards and caught two passes for 10 yards.
• He was the clear top back in every situation, with Sean Tucker and Chase Edmonds each seeing a little bit of playing time.
• The Buccaneers combined for four total yards before contact on 32 designed runs, with all of the running backs needing to do most of their work after contact.
• Everything points to White continuing to handle a dominant workload. But he wasn’t an efficient back in this offense last year, and that continues to be the case through Week 1.
• If he’s not able to turn things around in the next few weeks, it wouldn’t be surprising to see undrafted rookie Sean Tucker cut into White’s playing time.

Trey Palmer takes over as the third wide receiver: The sixth-round rookie is the Buccaneers’ WR3.

• The opportunity opened up when Russell Gage suffered a season-ending knee injury.
• Tampa Bay gave several young receivers an opportunity to claim the role during the preseason, but as many expected, Palmer took the lead.
• He played roughly two-thirds of the offense’s snaps in 11 personnel, with Deven Thompkins taking the other third.
• Chris Godwin has traditionally been a slot receiver, but he was consistently lining up on the outside while the younger receivers played in the slot.
• Rakim Jarrett took both of the Buccaneers’ snaps out of 13 personnel, which were the only snaps Mike Evans or Godwin missed.
• Palmer caught two of his three targets, one for a seven-yard touchdown and another for a one-yard gain.
• Palmer is worth a stash only in deep leagues at this point because of the rotation and the quality of the Buccaneers’ offense.

Alexander Mattison makes his debut as the Vikings’ top back: Mattison was used how we expected, but that didn’t yield great fantasy results.

• Mattison ran 11 times for 34 yards and caught three passes for 10 yards and a touchdown.
• He was the clear top halfback in every situation.
• C.J. Ham played a solo running back role at times in clear passing situations.
• This is the ideal kind of usage for Mattison going forward; he just needs to do more with his opportunities. Ideally, the Vikings will be winning more often so they can run more in second halves going forward.

Jordan Addison debuts in a limited role: Addison showed up in a big way on the stat sheet, but his playing time might stay limited for the time being.

• Addison caught four passes for 61 yards and a touchdown, with a lot of his production coming via a 39-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.
• Addison played 100% of snaps when the Vikings were in 11 personnel and 0% of snaps in any other personnel grouping.
• K.J. Osborn took the 12 and 21 personnel snaps that last year were going to Adam Thielen. This led Osborn to see a higher percentage of offensive snaps than in any game he played last season.
• Ideally, if the Vikings are considering having Addison become the WR2 anytime soon, he should play at least a couple of snaps in 12 or 21 personnel at some point.
• Addison can outperform Osborn week after week in the passing game, but until Addison becomes an every-down wide receiver, his upside will be limited.

Miscellaneous Notes

• There is no reason to be concerned about T.J. Hockenson’s playing time. He was off the field for 16 snaps, 14 of which were from 21 personnel. This is typically a clear running formation, but Minnesota happened to pass a lot out of 21 this week.
• Hockenson won’t be playing in 21 personnel anytime soon, but he won’t be missing out on this many pass plays in the future.
• Cade Otton dominated offensive snaps, leaving the field for two plays. However, he caught only two of his three targets for 19 yards. He is a player to keep an eye on if the Buccaneers’ offense starts clicking later in the season.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.