It is Week 1, and the last thing I want to do is incite panic among a group of fantasy football managers who have been waiting all offseason for this moment. We drafted these teams, talked ourselves into these players and have been waiting for real football to finally get here. The last thing you want to hear before setting your first lineup is somebody telling you to worry about one of the players you drafted.
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But think about it this way. There are some legitimate concerns heading into Week 1, and I would much rather know about those concerns now and set my expectations accordingly than find out when the games start. So these are panics, but they are loose panics. We are not burying anybody before the season starts. This is simply about identifying where there may be a little more risk than we anticipated when we drafted these players.
Let's start with Dak Prescott because this one caught my attention immediately. Tyler Smith is going to have surgery on his thumb and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. Smith is one of the best guards in football, and Dallas is going to open the season against the Giants, Commanders, Ravens and Texans without arguably the best player on its offensive line.
Then, you look at the rest of that offensive line and there are reasons to be concerned. Terence Steele allowed 52 pressures last season, which is not good, and now T.J. Bass is being asked to step into Smith's spot. Dallas has some difficult defensive fronts coming up early, so I understand why people may look at this situation and wonder whether Dak should be downgraded.

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