Projecting line play — or the line’s impact on fantasy scoring — is one of the more challenging tasks in all of DFS.
While quantitative measures exist, they can be lacking to an extent. On the player level, grading services like Pro Football Focus are notoriously challenged with offensive line play. It’s difficult to know which member of a line blew an assignment on a sack, for example.
Things are a bit easier on the team level, as assessing the unit’s overall success is more practical.
However, we’ll still be taking a glance at qualitative sources. Including Action Network’s Brandon Anderson ranking all 32 NFL offensive lines. On the defensive side, PFF’s defensive line rankings will be the main source.
We also have projected sacks in our NFL Player Models.
The Data
Starting next week, we’ll have a table including the combined adjusted line yards and pressure rates for every matchup on the main slate. This will give an at-a-glance look at the strength of the matchup for both the rushing and passing offenses in every game.
However, that’s not a viable option in Week 1. Between personnel additions and subtractions, players progressing and regressing, and coaching changes, using last year’s data isn’t especially relevant. Therefore, in Week 1, we’ll stick to qualitative measures for the analysis.
Keep in mind that the aforementioned data still doesn’t account for matchups until Week 5. Until then, we’ll continue to use preseason evaluations as well as hard data – with the latter being potentially influenced by a very good (or bad) matchup early on.
Be sure to check out all the pick’ems Sleeper has to offer with our Sleeper Fantasy promo code.
Strong Offensive Line Matchups
Los Angeles Chargers OL (#4 in Anderson’s Rankings) vs. Arizona Cardinals DL (#31 PFF)
The Chargers are the somewhat obvious standout offense in Week 1. While offensive line play is not the primary driving factor behind that, it certainly makes me feel better about loading up on Chargers pieces in DFS this week.
The Cardinals are effectively tanking in 2026, or as close to it as possible in the NFL, and curiously used their top-three draft choice on a running back this year, doing little to improve a defense that was bottom-ten in nearly every metric and specifically ranked 31st in adjusted line yards. They were slightly better rushing the passer, ranking 21st in adjusted sack rate. That’s not good by any stretch, though, and definitely not good enough against a Chargers offensive line that (for now) features a healthy Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater, who collectively played about half of a season last year.
Justin Herbert ($6,100) stands out as the top QB on the board thanks to the Chargers’ slate-leading team total. However, I’m more interested in the Chargers’ running game for tournaments. Herbert will be chalky, and the Chargers have a fairly wide target distribution, so it’s not the easiest stacking option. Running back Omarion Hampton ($6,800) isn’t projecting as a top back, but with the Chargers heavily favored and Hampton potentially having a workhorse, or near-workhorse, role depending on the health of Keaton Mitchell ($4,800), he could easily have a monster game in an elite matchup.
Conversely, Hampton is a bit thin for cash games, whereas Herbert is an extremely safe option, so I’m looking more his way in cash games.
Philadelphia Eagles OL (#5 in Anderson’s Rankings) vs. Washington Commanders DL (#25 in PFF’s Rankings)
The Eagles offensive line was one of the more dominant units over the past few seasons but has slowly aged out of elite status, with players fading and/or retiring since their 2024 Super Bowl season. However, they’ve replaced much of the interior of the line with young, talented players and should be a top unit as long as they can stay healthy.
That makes Week 1 against a bad Commanders defensive line the perfect time to bet on the Eagles, specifically running back Saquon Barkley ($6,900), who was somewhat disappointing last season but is fairly priced and is taking on a team that ranked 30th in adjusted line yards last year.
Between the loss of AJ Brown to the Patriots and a limited Commanders pass rush unlikely to force Jalen Hurts ($6,600) out of the pocket, I’m less interested in the passing attack for now. It’s somewhat counterintuitive, but QBs who produce a large chunk of their points on the ground often do better against tougher pass rushes since they’re forced to scramble. We’ll touch on that idea in the “Strong defensive line matchups” section.
Strong Defensive Line Matchups
Philadelphia Eagles DL (#4 in PFF Rankings) vs. Washington Commanders OL (#29 in Anderson’s Rankings)
As mentioned above, a strong Eagles pass rush against a bad Commanders offensive line might actually be a good thing for Jayden Daniels ($6,500). Daniels’ upside comes mostly through his legs, and the Eagles’ defensive line being stronger in the interior than on the edges could potentially give him opportunities to flee the pocket.
Of course, that’s doubly bad for the Commanders run game, though you probably weren’t interested in what is likely to be a running back by committee anyway. The Eagles being roughly five-point favorites should also push the Commanders to more dropbacks.
Daniels is also mistake-prone, however, so Philadelphia ($3,200) is a solid DST option. Rostering both the Eagles’ defense and Daniels could be a fun contrarian stack for some of the supersized contests we get in Week 1, like the $5 Milly Maker with 832,000 entrants. You can even get some correlation back by throwing Barkley in the mix and betting on a script where the Commanders fall behind due to turnovers, then chase points with Daniels while Philly runs out the clock with Barkley.
Jacksonville Jaguars DL (#9 in PFF Rankings) vs. Cleveland Browns OL (#32 in Anderson’s Rankings)
The second spot in the “strong defensive line matchups” section this year could probably just belong to whoever is facing the Browns. Not only does Cleveland have the worst offensive line in the league per Anderson, but they’re a mess at quarterback, with Deshaun Watson ($4,700) starting in Week 1 after missing all of 2025 and playing terribly since being traded to Cleveland.
The Jaguars aren’t quite a top unit but have solid pass rushers in Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker. They don’t need to be great against the Browns, though, and they’re favored by 8.5 points, which should lead to a pass-heavy game script for the Browns.
Jacksonville ($3,400) is thus a fairly obvious top D/ST option, with the highest median and ceiling projections on the slate. The price tag is a bit high, which makes them tough for cash games, but they’re potentially a “pay up to be contrarian” tournament option.
Picture: Jalen Hurts, Eagles offensive line
Photo Credit: Imagn
