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The Fantasy Football Today team is back with our Sunday morning lineup help. Adam Aizer and Heath Cummings updated you on the latest news and answered some start/sit questions on this morning's FFT podcast, and Heath is on CBS Sports HQ with Jamey Eisenberg and Dave Richard until kickoff to answer your questions and get you ready for the week on the FFT live show. 

Make sure you check both out, but if you want more direct answers to your questions, I've got two more ways for you to win: Go to Twitter and use the hashtag "#AskFFT", where our whole team will be answering questions all morning; and go to the FFT YouTube channel to chat with Adam and I starting at 11:30. We'll be there right up until kickoff answering as many questions as we can, so make sure you're in the chat early to get your questions in. 

For more Week 1 help, here's the rest of our preview content to get you ready:

For the rest of this morning's newsletter, I've got updates on the latest injury news as well as answers to your questions in an #AskFFT mailbag -- email me at chris.towers@ViacomCBS.com throughout the week to get your emails included. 

Week 1 Injury Report

Quarterbacks

  • Zach Wilson (knee) has been ruled out for Week 1 and is expected to be out until at least Week 1 due to the injury suffered in the preseason. Joe Flacco will start in his place, and should be decent enough that it won't wreck the Jets offense. 

Running backs

  • J.K. Dobbins (knee) will sit out Week 1, according to a Sunday morning report .... Kennth Walker is questionable for Monday's game, but he missed practice all week and is still recovering from hernia surgery, so I'd be shocked if he played. Walker is a long-term upside play, but I'm treating Rashaad Penny as the clear lead back to open the season. He's an RB3 for me, though one I probably prefer to someone like Dameon Pierce. 
  • Ty Montgomery (knee) is questionable for Week 1 against the Dolphins, and in classic Patriots fashion, that means it really isn't clear if he's going to play or what kind of role he'll have. He figures to see some time in passing downs, but training camp reports indicated that the Patriots may use both Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson more often in those situations, so it may not be as simple as "Montgomery plays the valuable James White role" in a new-look Patriots offense. 

Wide receivers

  • Chris Godwin (knee) is viewed as a game-time decision for Sunday night's matchup against the Cowboys, but according to Sunday morning reports, he's expected to play. Even if he does, I think it'll be in a limited role, given that he was still wearing the orange non-contact jersey during the practice week. Godwin has significant long-term upside, but if I drafted him, it was with the expectation that he wouldn't be of much use for my team for the first few weeks, at least. I'm leaving him on my bench this week. Russell Gage (hamstring) is also questionable, but seems to have a better chance of playing a full role -- however, with the concerns around Godwin's availability, I'm viewing Gage as more of a WR4, with Julio Jones a WR3. 
  • Michael Thomas (hamstring) is expected to play after being limited in practice all week. It's a great matchup against the Falcons, but Thomas hasn't played since January of 2021 due to ankle issues, and he has a new coach and quarterback since then, not to mention more competition for targets from newcomers Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry. Thomas could still be a significant difference maker for Fantasy, but I'm viewing him as more of a WR3 for now. 
  • Allen Lazard (ankle) is doubtful for Week 1 against the Vikings. He's been out since getting stepped on in practice last week, and I'm not expecting him to play. He might be the No. 1 target for Aaron Rodgers when healthy, but I expect the ball to get spread around enough to make this a frustrating mess for Fantasy, at least to start. 
  • Michael Gallup (knee) has been ruled out for Week 1 against the Buccaneers, but he did enough in practice this week to think he could be back by Week 2 or very shortly after. He remains a high-end stash, even if you might not be able to expect much from him until October. 
  • Drake London (knee) is expected to make his NFL debut Sunday against the Saints, and he has a big opportunity to step in right away as the primary complement to Kyle Pitts. That being said, this is a very tough matchup in the best of circumstances, and London missed much of his first training camp with the injury, so I'll steer clear here. 
  • Rondale Moore (hamstring) has been ruled out for Sunday's opener against the Chiefs. He suffered the injury during practice, and I'm worried it could linger beyond just this week. A.J. Green is an intriguing DFS play in what could be a shootout, while Greg Dortch is a very deep sleeper in Moore's absence. 
  • Jakobi Meyers (knee) is expected to play Sunday against the Dolphins after being limited in practice all week. He's expected to slide down in the Patriots hierarchy alongside DeVante Parker, though neither is a recommended Fantasy play given the Patriots reportedly messy training camp on that side of the ball. 

Tight ends

  • George Kittle (groin) missed the entire week of practice and is not expected to play Sunday. That clears things up a bit for Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk to dominate targets, though Samuel is the only must-start option of the 49ers pass catchers with Kittle out. 
  • Zach Ertz (calf) got in a limited practice session Friday and has a chance to play, though he'll need to get through pre-game warmups without incident. This injury has been lingering since early August, and while Ertz was solid in his time with Arizona last year, my preference would be to go with a healthier option for Week 1 -- Gerald Everett is expected to play a significant role in the Chargers offense, and I've got him ahead of Ertz, for one.

#AskFFT Mailbag

Send your questions to Chris.Towers@ViacomCBS.com to be included next week

This is really three different questions, one with a very easy answer: Go ahead and cut Van Jefferson. Maybe he'll have a bigger role this season – Allen Robinson didn't exactly look like he's going to demand a massive target share in the opener – but I just haven't seen enough from Jefferson to think he'll ever be more than a boom-or-bust WR4, and he's coming off knee surgery. 

Akers and Stafford deserve more patience. Stafford especially so – he didn't play well Thursday, but there aren't many teams with a pass rush like Buffalo's, so he'll look a lot better against lighter competition. 

Akers is, obviously, the tougher question, given his limited role – he played just 18% of the snaps and had three carries in Week 1. Sean McVay didn't exactly sound complimentary in talking about Akers, saying "There were some instances where there were some positive things and some things that he can do better, but we want to see just an increased level of urgency and accountability snap in and snap out from him," and I'm heading into Week 2 expecting Akers to be the backup for the Rams.

But that means he's a backup to a guy in Darrell Henderson Jr. who has basically never proven he can stay healthy at the NFL level, so I would think Akers will get a chance before long. Don't cut him just yet, but clearly you can't start him. 

Allen is the easiest call, by far, as he enters the season as a top-10 WR in PPR formats. After that, it comes down to Sutton or Etienne. Both enter with the potential to be must-start Fantasy options, but also with questions about how exactly they stack up in their respective team's hierarchies. For what it's worth, my FFT colleagues have Sutton as a top-20 WR for Week 1, whereas he's outside of my top-24 (once you account for the Bills and Rams players I removed). I'm just not sure I buy that Sutton is definitely the top target in his offense. That being said, I have enough questions about James Robinson's involvement for Jacksonville that I would start Sutton ahead of Etienne. 

  • Scott: I'm having trouble choosing my RB2 in two different leagues, and each of my options in both leagues are sit candidates for Week 1. Each league is 10-team full PPR. 

In league one, I have the choice of Breece Hall, J.K. Dobbins, Rhamandre Stevenson, or Michael Carter. Mostly struggling between choosing a Jets player or Stevenson here.

In league two, I have to choose between Breece Hall and Dameon Pierce. They both play for bad teams and while I think Pierce might get the ball more than Hall, Hall actually had a significant role in college and is probably the better player. 

I'm fairly confident that Hall is a better player than Pierce, and I think it won't be too long before that is true in Fantasy. But Pierce seems to have a much clearer role, so I'll defer to that for now. It sounds like Michael Carter really is the starter for the Jets, and while Hall should have a role, it's not clear if that will include pass-catching or short-yardage opportunities, so I'll give Pierce the benefit of the doubt in the near term there.

As for the first question, that's a bunch of bad options, in my eyes. Even if Dobbins plays, I'm avoiding him for at least his first week, but that only eliminates one guy. It comes down to Carter or Stevenson, and I'll give Stevenson a slight edge in PPR because I do think there's a chance he gets a decent amount of third-down work for the Patriots. But, really, nothing seems settled in the Patriots or Jets backfields. We'll learn a lot this week. 

  • Kevin: RBs are Leonard Fournette, Travis Etienne, David Montgomery, Rashaad Penny and Hall – I have Akers, too, but thank goodness I didn't start him!. For a potential flex I also have Elijah Moore (my other WR are Gabe Davis and Jamar Chase both of whom I am starting). I'm locked on Fournette, but need another RB and a Flex. Suggestions?

Now here, we've got some actually-good options to sort through – which presents its own challenges! I think I might be on something of an island with Montgomery, because I'm ranking him as a top-15 back for this week, while none of my colleagues have him as a top-20 option in PPR. I just don't buy the idea that he's going to cede much playing time to Khalil Herbert, at least not early on – he played 20 of 22 snaps with the first-team offense in his lone preseason action. I expect the Bears offense to take better advantage of Justin Fields' mobility than last season, which means I expect the offense to be a bit more functional. 

The 49ers are a tough matchup, but I'll take what I view as a pretty locked in 15-18 touches from Montgomery over the question marks elsewhere. That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to starting Moore over him if you're looking for some upside. Flacco targeted Moore on 31% of his passes last season, and while it was a small sample size, Moore had 181 yards and two touchdowns on his 13 targets. I get the feeling this might be the last week of the season where there is any question of whether you should start Elijah Moore.