Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season is finally here and the campaign will kick off on Thursday night with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.
Javonte Williams start or sit: Week 1 fantasy football advice
We break down the fantasy football outlook of Javonte Williams ahead of the Cowboys’ Week 1 opener against the Eagles.
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The spotlight of the football world is on the Cowboys in the aftermath of the Micah Parsons trade and there’s genuine curiosity into how they will perform against the reigning Super Bowl champions to open the season. The offense will feature a handful of new faces, one of which being running back Javonte Williams. He enters the season as with an ADP (average draft position) of 37 in both standard and PPR formats according to FantasyPros and will most likely split touches in the backfield with Miles Sanders and rookie Jaydon Blue this season.
Below, we’ll go over Williams’ outlook in fantasy football for Week 1.
Fantasy Football analysis: Cowboys RB Javonte Williams
Williams signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys in March after the Denver Broncos let him walk in free agency this offseason. The 2021 second-round pick ended up leading what was a middling rushing attack in Denver last season, taking 139 carries for 537 rushing yards (3.7 ypc) and four touchdowns on the ground. As ESPN’s Jeff Longwold pointed out, Williams maximum speed when crossing the line of scrimmage in 2024 was 15.34 MPH according to NextGen Stats, making him the slowest running back with at least 113 carries.
While he wasn’t necessarily explosive on the ground, he did provide some value as a pass-catcher with 52 receptions for 346 receiving yards on the year. That made him the No. 30 RB in PPR leagues with an average of 9.3 fantasy points per game.
Start or sit in Week 1 standard leagues?
Sit. Williams is listed as the starter entering this matchup but as mentioned before, he will most likely share touches with Sanders and Blue. He has lost a great deal of explosiveness since suffering a torn ACL, MCL, and PCL in 2022 and has averaged under 4.0 yards a carry for the past two seasons. And that’s not even mentioning that he’ll be going up against a ferocious Philly defense that had the fourth-best defensive rushing EPA in the entire league last season.
Start or sit in Week 1 PPR leagues?
Sit. Fantasy managers were able to extract some value out of Williams in PPR leagues last season but he didn’t necessarily post eye-popping numbers. He only netted 15+ fantasy points three times in 2024 and his value goes down by sharing a backfield with the aforementioned Sanders and Blue. Hard pass.
