Steelers best fantasy football performers from Week 1
By Scott Long
With Week 1 concluded, we take a look back at the Steelers’ best fantasy football performers from their upset victory against the Bills.
While this may come as a surprise to many, there were not very many players on either team who made a significant fantasy football impact during the Week 1 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills.
Believe it or not, in an offensive-driven league, Pittsburgh’s defense/special teams were by far the most valuable fantasy option, especially when looking in comparison to the other D/ST options around the league and the difficulty of their opponent.
Despite not recording an interception, the Steelers defense was dominant in its first game of the season, recording three sacks, forcing two fumbles, and recovering one. The stat line could have been even more dominant, but the Bills offensive line was called for holding several times as the pass rush of T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Cameron Heyward, and Melvin Ingram was too much for the Buffalo offensive line to handle.
The pick of the Pittsburgh defense was even more valuable this week due to the fact defenses in fantasy football typically include the special teams unit for that team, and the Steelers made an impact play on special teams, too.
The play in question was when Miles Killebrew blocked a punt that was scooped up by Ulysees Gilbert III for a touchdown.
Steelers offense merely average in fantasy football production
Aside from the defense, Diontae Johnson was likely the only player who lived up to being worthy of starting in fantasy football this week. Johnson put together a line of five receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets from Ben Roethlisberger.
As for the rest of the offense, nobody blew up the stat sheet, as this was a defensive battle where the ball was spread around and only one touchdown came from the Steelers offense. Roethlisberger threw for 188 yards and one touchdown while completing four passes to JuJu Smith-Schuster for 52 yards. Chase Claypool added three catches for 45 yards of his own, while also adding in a 25-yard run.
However, despite the lackluster fantasy production, the most noteworthy performance for the Steelers offense may have been that of Najee Harris. Despite only putting up 5.9 fantasy points in PPR formats with 16 carries for 45 yards, while struggling to find any running room, Harris did not miss an offensive snap, which is rare for a rookie.
Even though Harris was disappointing in his first career game, those who selected him in their fantasy leagues can be encouraged by his impressive snap count.
The Steelers offense will look to get things going next week at home against the Las Vegas Raiders and catch up to their defense, which is already in midseason form.