The best fantasy football sleepers for Week 1 of the season are Bernard Pierce, Stevan Ridley, Ben Tate, Kelvin Benjamin, Travis Kelce, Benny Cunningham and Carlos Hyde, as those names have the chance to be solid performers to start the year and some of those players could end up as top starters depending on how their teams perform, including Pierce, who is starting for Ray Rice, as well as Ridley, who has the chance to bounce back in 2014 after a tough season last year.
Pierce is a great start option for the first two weeks of the season, as he is coming in for domestic abuser Ray Rice and while he will get pushed aside after that, he showed last season he can be as valuable as Rice in the offense. Rice had a horrible season last year and has shown he is a terrible human being and now Pierce can step in as a fantasy option this season. Kelce and Benjamin are two players to keep an eye on, as their teams are lacking targets, while Tate and Ridley are two backs that could put up top five numbers if things break right.
Ridley comes in after dealing with some fumbling and mental issues last season and that is why he is considered a sleeper. Shane Vereen is going to get a ton of snaps and Ridley could be the second top RB for the Pats after rushing for 773 yards last season and 1263 yards the year before.
Benny Cunningham and Carlos Hyde are deeper league sleepers, but for teams looking for third or fourth running backs, those players could end up as starters if injuries go down at any point. Kelce comes in as one of the top TE sleepers this year, as the Chiefs plan on using him and Anthony Fasano in sets and they are lacking depth at wideout and may look to the tight end position quite often. Alex Smith used to have Vernon Davis and now he has some options at the position in Kansas City.
Pierce was thrust into action last season after Rice dealt with injuries and just being terrible overall and eh ended up with 436 yards rushing and 20 catches for 104 yards. Those numbers weren't great, but the Ravens were not that great rushing the ball and now they have the chance to bounce back from that. Pierce will get plenty of work in the first couple weeks and he should be a solid start for those games heading into Week 3 when Rice is eligible to return.
Ben Tate is getting his chance to start in Cleveland and he comes in after spending years as the backup to Arian Foster. The team has Terrance West, but he is a rookie and that means at least for the first few weeks, Tate will be the main in Cleveland. Last season Tate had his best stats since 2011, as he had to come in for Foster and he played in 14 games, rushing for 771 yards and he did it with broken ribs for part of the season. Tate had 34 catches and that was double what he had in the previous two seasons and if he keeps that up, he could be very valuable this year.
