It was a rough weekend for my franchise when roster cuts came around. Cornellius Carradine was listed as the Dolphins’ starting DE before he was released and Michael Pierce was moved from DE to DT, losing me both of my starting DEs. I had also hoped for week 1 contributions from John Kelly and Jachai Polite, but both were released by their respective teams.

These moves meant that I had to search the waiver wire just to find players you are actually rostered going into week 1.

Players added:

Nate Orchard, LB, free agent

Tony McRae, CB, Bengals

Otaro Alaka, LB, Ravens

Keith Smith, RB (FB), Falcons

Nick Bellore. RB (FB), Seahawks

CJ Board, WR, Jaguars

Kyle Phillips, DE, Jets

I have very little hope that any of these players can contribute any points this week, but it would not make any sense for me to start players who are not even on a roster, so I had to pick someone up. Adding these players gives them a contract of $1 so I also save a little bit on my salary, but nothing significant. To make room on my roster I had to drop the following players:

Nate Orchard, LB, free agent

Jeremiah Attaochu, DE, free agent

Eric Lee, DE, free agent

Hunter Sharp, WR, free agent

Cornellius Carradine, DE, free agent

These moves leaves my final week 1 lineup looking like this:

Falcons team QB

Ryquell Armstead, RB, Jaguars

DJ Foster, RB, Cardinals

Nick Bellore, RB, Seahawks

DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Texans

Keke Coutee, WR, Texans

Josh Reynolds, WR, Rams

Austin Hooper, TE, Falcons

Jordan Akins, TE, Texans

Patriots team kicker

Redskins team punter

Andrew Billings, DT, Bengals

Maxx Crosby, DE, Raiders

Kyle Phillips, DE, Jets

Devin Bush, LB, Steelers

Samson Ebukam, LB, Rams

Kamu Grugier-Hill, LB, Eagles

Tony McRae, CB, Bengals

LeShaun Sims, CB, Titans

John Johnson, S, Rams

Morgan Burnett, S, Browns

Tashaun Gipson, S, Texans

RB, DE and CB are by far my weakest positions. I’ll have to hope that Crosby is fit enough to play and that he’ll receive some snaps, otherwise I’ll most likely get 0 points from DE. CB is probably the hardest position for me to decide my starters for week 1. Rookies Jimmy Moreland and Sean Bunting aren’t listed at starters for their teams, but they road to playing time could be fairly short. Sims and McRae aren’t starters either, but look more likely to see the field. At RB my hopes rest on rookie Ryquell Armstead. He’s the number one backup ti Fournette so he could possibly see a few carries and if Fournette should get hurt he might become a must start in fantasy.

All-in-all setting my week 1 lineup was more about finding players who are on a roster than about researching opponent matchups for who to start.