Fantasy football waiver wire targets for Week 1

The opening week of the NFL and fantasy football regular season has finally arrived. Several months of player movements, coaching changes, and projections leads to the first meaningful weekend of games for the 2023 season. Most fantasy drafts are complete but there are still impactful players sitting on the sidelines on most sites. The purpose of this weekly series is to keep Canal Street Chronicles readers a step ahead of their competition in their home leagues. These are players available in the majority of leagues who can help on rosters each week. This is waiver wire targets for week 1 of the fantasy football regular season.

Waiver wire targets for week 1 of the fantasy football season

Deon Jackson, Running back, Indianapolis Colts

The Colts backfield is in complete disarray going into the season. After having all off-season to sort out the Jonathan Taylor situation, the Colts and Taylor came to no resolution on his future. Taylor has been placed on the PUP list, meaning he is out at least the first four games of the season. It might be for just one week, but Deon Jackson is a serviceable fill-in this week. When called upon at the end of last season, Jackson rushed for over four yards per carry while also catching 10 passes. Jackson might not be the starter for long with the return of Zack Moss to the team, but if you need a quick running back with guaranteed touches this week, Jackson is worth a pick-up.

Rob Schumacher / USA TODAY NETWORK

Marvin Mims, Wide Receiver, Denver Broncos

Pre-season training usually brings about injuries and that has happened to one of the starting wide receivers for the Broncos. Jerry Jeudy is set to miss several weeks, opening the door for rookie Marvin Mims to get into the starting lineup. Mims is blazing fast and now joins with one of the best deep throwers in the league, Russell Wilson. Wilson had a bad season last year, but Sean Payton will look to correct the wrongs. Even during a bad year, Wilson still had the third-most completions of 20+ yards last season. Mims could be Tyler Lockett for Wilson in Denver. He might not be worth a starting spot this week, but he is easily worth a speculative stash.

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Juwan Johnson, Tight end, New Orleans Saints

With tight end being such a thin position, it is slightly confusing why Johnson is owned in less than 20% of ESPN leagues and less than 40% of Yahoo fantasy leagues. Johnson was not on the field much this pre-season, signaling that he is the clear starter for Derek Carr and the Saints offense. In the one series these two played together this pre-season, Carr targeted Johnson twice on just eight total attempts. Carr has been known to key on receivers he trusts, and it appears as if he has already gelled with Johnson. Even with a bad offense last season, Johnson managed over 500 yards and seven touchdowns. Those numbers could explode with Carr this season. Johnson should be rostered in every fantasy league with standard line-ups.

Make sure you follow Canal Street Chronicles on Twitter at @SaintsCSC, “Like” us on Facebook at Canal Street Chronicles, and make sure you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel