Perhaps the biggest surprise of Week 1 was Daniel Jones’ performance against the Dolphins. He led the Colts to a 33-8 victory at home.
Many people had their eyes on this game as the team’s decision to start Jones over Anthony Richardson was bold. Now, it seems like it may be the correct decision. Jones completed 22-of-29 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for two more scores.
The offense was well-rounded with multiple players involved in both the pass and run games. Michael Pittman had a great outing, finishing with 80 receiving yards and a touchdown on six receptions.
Could Pittman be a WR1 with Jones at quarterback? Here’s the breakdown.
Does Daniel Jones make Michael Pittman a fantasy football WR1?
Week 1 is the time for overreactions. No game means more to fantasy owners than the first one of the season.
Jones looked like a quality quarterback on Sunday, and he connected with Pittman six times for 80 yards and a touchdown. It was impressive, and it makes people wonder how valuable Pittman is in fantasy football.
Pittman has been a fairly consistent receiver throughout his career. He debuted in 2020, totaling 503 receiving yards on 40 receptions in 13 games. Since then, he finished with 1,082, 925, 1,152 and 808 yards. These are quality outputs, especially since he’s had a different starting quarterback in each of his six seasons.
That’s a major problem for Pittman because he hasn’t been able to build any continuity with a quarterback in his career. Nonetheless, he still puts up solid yardage. The main concern isn’t how many yards or targets he gets — it’s his touchdown total. In his four full seasons, he finished with six, four, four and three receiving touchdowns.
While he may be doing enough to be the Colts’ No. 1 wide receiver, he needs to score more to be considered a WR1 in most fantasy football leagues.
His Week 1 performance was impressive, but it was against the Dolphins. Miami’s defense isn’t great, and it could have been a factor in why Jones played so well. It’s far too early to consider Pittman a WR1 in fantasy football because of this.
The verdict
While overreacting can be fun, let’s not forget who Jones and Pittman are as players. Pittman is a solid receiver, who has put up good numbers despite having different quarterbacks in each year of his career.
Jones, on the other hand, is mostly a struggling quarterback outside of one good year in New York. Just a couple weeks ago, the consensus was the decision to start Jones over Richardson was strange. After one good week against Miami, the world’s opinion is willing to change?
I don’t think so. Jones needs to do a lot more to earn the trust of fantasy owners. Until Jones is a quality starting quarterback, Pittman is not a WR1.