As a rule, Week 1 shouldn’t impact Dynasty rankings all that much. Sure, the 2021 projections for Jerru Jeudy and Michael Gallup took a big hit, which drives down their value. And I did boost the 2021 projection for Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, Courtland Sutton, K.J. Hamler, and Tim Patrick, resulting in a small boost in their Dynasty value. Bur barring injury there shouldn’t be a big swing in value.
Except for San Francisco.
Brandon Aiyuk was projected by most to be the No. 1 wide receiver for the 49ers this season. In Week 1, the only time he touched the ball was on a punt return. Instead, Deebo Samuel caught nine of 12 targets for 189 yards and a score. Considering I had Aiyuk at WR20 in Dynasty coming into the year, and Samuel at WR43, an adjustment was definitely needed.
As you’ll see below, the two are much closer, but Aiyuk is still ranked higher. After Week 1, that probably seems odd, or at least worthy of an explanation.
For starters, Aiyuk is a 23-year-old former first round pick who averaged 68.7 total yards per game and scored five touchdowns in his rookie season. Samuel is two years older, was drafted a round later, averaged 62.6 yards per game in his first two seasons, and the touchdown he scored on Sunday was his fifth in 23 career games.
Before Sunday I would have told you Aiyuk was a better prospect who had shown better in the NFL, and was the only one of the pair who had the profile that suggested he could one day be a No. 1 wide receiver. Does one game change that much? Well, it changes some. The difference between the two basically shrunk in half. If Week 2 is a repeat of Week 1, I’d move Samuel ahead of Aiyuk. That seems highly unlikely, but no one could have predicted what we saw from San Francisco in Week 1.
The one actionable piece of advice I have is that I would make a buy-low offer in Dynasty for Aiyuk. I’m not quite as sure I would sell high on Samuel.
Here are my updated Dynasty wide receiver rankings:
