Welcome to the NFL DFS Week 1 Playbook for the 2026 NFL season. After five months of preparing you for your season-long fantasy football teams, this is truly where the rubber meets the road. Season-long fantasy is the long game. DFS is instant gratification. In season-long, we win our matchup and start thinking about waivers and the following week. In DFS, we win our contests and we change our lives overnight. The Fantasy Alarm team has spent countless hours enhancing our NFL DFS tools, honing our NFL DFS projections  and researching every angle of every game to bring you our favorite NFL DFS Week 1 Picks. We want to help you change your life, both mentally and monetarily. So, buckle up and get ready. Our NFL DFS Week 1 picks are here.

NFL Week 1 DFS Picks & Preview for DraftKings & FanDuel: Sunday, 9/13

Before we dish out our NFL DFS Week 1 Picks, let's take a quick look through everything you need to know. If you are a longtime subscriber, welcome back. If you haven't noticed already, you will find a variety of upgrades throughout our menus and site offerings. Voted Best Written Content in 2025, all that we produce -- content, tools and everything else that has made us the leading site for all of your DFS needs – is here and even more accessible.

We have also made significant enhancements to our NFL DFS tools. We continue to tweak the algorithms and adjust our numbers continuously so that our NFL DFS projections are the best in the industry. That has subsequently improved things like our Lineup Generator/DFS Optimizer and our NFL DFS Ownership Projections.  Everything you need to succeed – a one-stop shop for your NFL DFS Week 1 Picks and beyond.

If you are new to the #FAmily, welcome! Everything you just read is, obviously, at your disposal as well, but please allow me to point you towards more of the content and tools we provide to help you crush your NFL DFS Week 1 Picks each week. It also makes for a nice introduction to our DFS team.

In addition to the positional coaches, you also have plenty of other research content to use like the weekly DFS Watch List, where I provide you with a daily-updated list of players I am looking at throughout the week. You will also find my weekly DFS Dart Board which is filled with the best in DFS bargains and value picks. And, of course, you will also want to watch our weekly NFL DFS Show with me and Jon Impemba as we break down every position, highlight our favorite NFL DFS Week 1 Picks, offer a core group of players to build around and then drop an example lineup into out NFL DFS channel on Discord. And yes, I will have NFL DFS Example Lineups posted every Sunday morning for you to compare your own builds.

Sound good? Do you feel prepared for NFL DFS Week 1? Are you ready to dive in? Then let's get going with our research for the Sunday Main Slate and help you find the best NFL DFS Week 1 Picks for this week.

 

 

NFL Weather: Week 1 DFS Impact

Good news! Weather conditions are expected to have minimal impact on most of the NFL Week 1 games this Sunday. Late-summer heat and humidity will test the conditioning of the players, but actual precipitation – enough to truly impact a game – seems unlikely, according to most weather reports. Here is a look at games that could see some effects from the weather:

NFL Injuries: What To Know for Week 1 DFS

Before you sit down to make any sort of NFL DFS Week 1 lineup decisions, you should always check out our NFL Injury Report. Not every listed injury will have a major impact, but you should always be on the lookout for impact players at the skill positions as well as key offensive line issues. Yes, there are certain injuries on defense to could come into play, so if there is something impactful, we will highlight it in this section each week. Here are some of the latest injury notes for you to keep tabs on as you do your research.

NFL DFS Week 1 Picks: Howard Bender's Favorites

You can let this serve as a primer for the full player pool. As you scroll down, you will see the full list of my own personal NFL DFS Week 1 player pool. I've studied everything about the matchups, combed through our NFL DFS projections and put together a list of candidates from which I am building all of my lineups. Still, people have asked me for my favorites, as if you don't already know reading the DFS Watch List and listening to me on both SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and Alarm Fantasy Football.

So, in this section, I'm just going to highlight a few from a variety of categories. One caveat – this in no way means that all of my lineups will consist of these players. Don't freak out if I post an example lineup or, even better, a winning lineup, that doesn't include some of these players. Will they be in a lot of them? Absolutely. But in the time between posting this Playbook and the first Sunday kickoff, things can change. Ownership percentages can change. Weather can change. Gut feelings can change. These might be some of my favorite NFL DFS Week 1 Picks, but this is a guideline, not the gospel.

NFL DFS Week 1 Picks: Core Plays

NFL DFS Week 1 Picks: Mid-Tier Plays

NFL DFS Week 1 Picks: Value Plays

 

 

NFL DFS Player Pool: Week 1

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