Fantasy Football Player Notes

Stevenson's 2023 season was a terrible disappointment, but there's hope that his 2024 campaign will be a wonderful bounce-back story. Last year, after Week 8, we saw glimpses of the Stevenson we thought we were drafting from the outset. In Weeks 9-13 (Stevenson missed the remainder of the season due to a high ankle sprain), among 48 qualifying backs, he ranked 13th in missed tackles forced per attempt and third in yards after contact per attempt. In his three full games in that span, he averaged 20.7 touches and 112.7 total yards as the RB4 in fantasy. The Patriots should look to lean on him in this opening game. Cincy's run defense was atrocious last year, allowing the seventh-highest rushing yards per game and the fifth-highest explosive run rate and missed tackles allowed per attempt. Mondre SZN begins in Week 1.

Gibson is a stash/handcuff. It's too dicey to plug him into a starting lineup in Week 1 until we see how New England divides up the workload. I will say, though, that Gibson was impressive on a per-touch basis last season, ranking first in missed tackles forced per attempt and eighth in yards after contact per attempt. While consensus is down on the Patriots' offense this year, Gibson is a strong end-of-the-bench bet.