NFL Week 1 DFS: Matchups, Slates & Lineup Strategy
Week 1 opens on a Wednesday this year: New England at Seattle, then the NFL's first regular-season game in Australia the next night, San Francisco against the Rams in Melbourne. The rest of the league plays its usual Sunday-Monday schedule, so the DFS week doesn't really start until the Sunday slate two days later.
Sixteen games, all 32 teams in action, and zero in-season data to lean on. That combination makes Week 1 the most distinct DFS week of the year — the strategy section below covers what actually changes, not just the schedule.
Full Week 1 schedule
| Matchup | Date | Kickoff | DFS window |
|---|---|---|---|
| New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks | Wednesday, September 9 | 8:20 PM ET | Special — Season opener |
| San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams | Thursday, September 10 | 8:35 PM ET | Special — Melbourne, Australia — the NFL's first regular-season game there |
| Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Cincinnati Bengals | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| New Orleans Saints at Detroit Lions | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Cleveland Browns at Jacksonville Jaguars | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| New York Jets at Tennessee Titans | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers | Sunday, September 13 | 1:00 PM ET | Early window |
| Miami Dolphins at Las Vegas Raiders | Sunday, September 13 | 4:25 PM ET | Late afternoon |
| Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles | Sunday, September 13 | 4:25 PM ET | Late afternoon |
| Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Chargers | Sunday, September 13 | 4:25 PM ET | Late afternoon |
| Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings | Sunday, September 13 | 4:25 PM ET | Late afternoon |
| Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants | Sunday, September 13 | 8:20 PM ET | Sunday Night — Sunday Night Football |
| Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs | Monday, September 14 | 8:15 PM ET | Monday Night — Monday Night Football |
How the Week 1 slates break down
Early slate — six games, 1:00 PM ET
Chicago at Carolina, Tampa Bay at Cincinnati, Baltimore at Indianapolis, New Orleans at Detroit, Buffalo at Houston, and Cleveland at Jacksonville. This is the standard early-window pool most main-slate builds are drawn from.
Afternoon slate — four games, 4:25 PM ET
Miami at Las Vegas, Washington at Philadelphia, Arizona at the Chargers, and Green Bay at Minnesota. Roll these into the early games and you get the 10-game Sunday main slate DraftKings and FanDuel both run.
Primetime and showdown options
Dallas at the Giants closes Sunday on Sunday Night Football, and Denver at Kansas City is Monday Night Football — each is its own single-game showdown slate alongside the main build. New York Jets at Tennessee and Atlanta at Pittsburgh also kick at 1:00 PM ET and count toward the early window above.
Lineup strategy for Week 1
There's no season data yet — treat every projection as a wider range
Every other week of the year, a player's snap count and target share from the prior week narrows the range on this week's projection. Week 1 doesn't have that. Beat-writer camp reports and preseason usage are the closest substitute, and they're a lot noisier. Build around players whose roles are locked by scheme or contract, not by a stat line that doesn't exist yet.
Ownership is flatter than a normal week
With less public signal to chase, Week 1 field ownership tends to spread out more evenly across a slate than a typical week where the field piles onto whoever had the best game log the week before. That usually favors a more balanced roster-construction approach in tournaments over an aggressive contrarian build — there's less obvious chalk to fade. Salary alone does more of the ownership-shaping work than usual, since there's no recent box score to push the field toward a specific name.
Weather is a smaller factor than it'll be in December
September slates are dome-neutral and warm almost everywhere the early window is played. Wind and cold start mattering more from Week 6 or 7 on. For Week 1, spend that attention on offensive line continuity and new-scheme installs instead — those move a player's efficiency more than the forecast does this early.
The Wednesday and Thursday games are their own thing
New England-Seattle and San Francisco-Rams tip off before the rest of the slate builds, so they're usually played as their own single-game showdown or left out of a Sunday-only main-slate build entirely. If you're rostering into the Melbourne game, note the unusual local kickoff — check the lineup builder's lock time for that slate specifically before you build around it.
Build your Week 1 lineup
Take these matchups into the NFL lineup builder to lock in players and build for DraftKings or FanDuel, check this week's projections before you lock anyone in, and scan the injury report for status changes that land after this page publishes.
Common Week 1 DFS questions
- What's the best NFL DFS strategy for Week 1?
- Weight roles that are locked in by scheme, depth chart, or contract over anything that looks like a hot-stat chase — there isn't a game log yet to chase. Expect ownership to spread out more than usual, which favors a balanced build over an aggressive contrarian one in tournaments.
- Which Week 1 games work best as showdown slates?
- The two games that kick off outside the normal Sunday-Monday window — New England at Seattle (Wednesday) and San Francisco at the Rams in Melbourne (Thursday) — are usually built as single-game showdowns rather than folded into a Sunday main slate, along with the Sunday Night and Monday Night games as usual.
- How many games are on the Week 1 main slate?
- Ten: the six 1:00 PM ET games and the four 4:25 PM ET games. Sunday Night (Dallas-Giants) and Monday Night (Denver-Kansas City) run as separate slates.
- Is Week 1 better for cash games or tournaments?
- The lack of in-season data cuts both ways: it widens the range on every projection, which is exactly the volatility tournaments are built to exploit and cash games are built to avoid. If you're newer to Week 1 specifically, leaning tournament-heavy and treating cash lineups as more conservative than usual is the safer split.