Week 1 Early Ed.
Games through Thursday, September 4

Finally, it’s time to kick off the 2003 season! In this week’s early edition of Start & Sit, let’s take a look at Thursday’s season opener between the Jets and the Redskins. (The week’s other games will follow after the opener).

START

Curtis Martin, RB, NYJ: With Vinny Testaverde at the helm, the only chance for the Jets to win this game might be on the ground: expect them to run the ball early and often. A healthy Curtis Martin is still a great addition to any fantasy lineup, and he should gain plenty of yards in this one.

Laveranues Coles, WR, Was: In his first game with Washington, Coles will get a chance to prove he was worth the money the Redskins spent on him. Coles is one of the best receivers, and he will be highly motivated when facing his former team. Start him.

BENCH

Vinny Testaverde, QB, NYJ: Testaverde might be a talented passer, but his best days are clearly behind him. Following Chad Pennington’s injury, he gets his chance to reach 40,000 career passing yards sooner than expected, but he still is too much a risk to insert in your lineup in his first start in almost a year.

Trung Canidate, RB, Was: The Skins hope Canidate can replace Steven Davis, but the Jets rushing defense is strong, and won’t give Canidate much room to run. He still has to prove he can be a legitimate NFL starter, so better play it safe: bench him for now and watch his progress carefully.

Any Jets receiver: The same question marks surrounding Testaverde can’t be ignored for Curtis Conway, Wayne Chrebet, Santana Moss and Co., either. The Jets will run a lot while using the pass attack to keep the Redskins defense honest. Don’t expect a great game from any receiver; the best bet might be Chrebet, who was a favorite target of Testaverde in former years.

Good luck in this week’s early games; please see here for complete Start and Sit lists for this weekend’s matchups.

Fantasy Football Cafe’s Start & Sit lists are suggestions intended to give fantasy football players an edge in their weekly matchups. Savvy owners will see these lists not as an absolute ranking, but as an indication of possible outcomes of a given week, and use them together with their own opinions and hunches to field the lineup that will give their team the greatest odds of winning. The Start & Sit lists are compiled by Dan Spazierer (not Madame Zelda). For more insights and additional fine-tuning, visit our Who to Start/Bench forum section.