DraftKings Week 1 Picks: Eat the Jahmyr Gibbs chalk or look elsewhere? (2026)

The regular season is here!

Normally we have some pretty clear plays, especially at running back, in week one, with pricing having been out for multiple weeks and injuries popping up during training camp. We really didn't get that too much this offseason, with more players than ever actually looking like they're going to play rather than sit. The one exception is in Green Bay, where things look to be forming into a committee - with MarShawn Lloyd expected to be at the helm of it.

All of this makes for some interesting builds with a bunch of different ways you can go.

Here are my DraftKings week 1 picks that I'm considering for my DFS lineups this week. Best of luck!

Top stacks

• The Chalk: New Orleans Saints (Tyler Shough + Chris Olave + Juwan Johnson)

• The Leverage: Baltimore Ravens (Lamar Jackson + Zay Flowers + Mark Andrews)

• Makes Me Sick, But Considering It: Carolina Panthers (Bryce Young + Tetairoa McMillan + Jalen Coker)

Saints at Lions has all the ingredients to be an absolute shootout. Two high-powered offenses going against mediocre defenses in the dome is something that, most of the time, will (rightfully) garner attention - and high projections to go with it. Add in that the offenses are pretty condensed, and you'll get some easy stacks to make, with clear bringback options as well.

Meanwhile, the Ravens get what has been a tougher Colts defense, especially against the pass, with a new offensive coordinator and lots of question marks in the passing game. Is Mark Andrews cooked? Who's actually playing the WR2 position - Rashod Bateman or Ja'Kobi Lane? I like attacking these ambiguous situations, especially in week one, knowing there could easily be profit to be made here if I get it right.

And at the botton end of things, are we really going to get cute with Bryce Young in week one? Sure. The Bears defense is going to be my defense to target this season, with plenty of holes and a high-powered offense on the other side of the game. It's got shootout potential all over it, and the entire Panthers offense is cheap enough that you can basically jam whatever you want around it.

Let's talk about Jahmyr Gibbs

I fully expect Jahmyr Gibbs to be the mega chalk on this slate. He's going to be a full workhorse, with literally nobody of note behind him to spell his touches, in the aforementioned shootout game against the Saints. I'm talking like 35%+ owned in the Milly chalk.

It makes for an interesting decision tree: If he fails, the leverage you'd get on the field would be pretty insane, but his odds of failing look pretty slim outside of an injury happening, so you could also be buried if you don't have him.

If I was playing a single lineup, I'd lean to the side of playing him and getting lower ownership elsewhere in my lineup. When multi-entering, as I plan on doing this week, I'd like to be about even with the field on him, being smart about when and where I play him.

One-off DraftKings week 1 picks

• Breece Hall, RB, NYJ ($6,200)

• Drake London, WR, ATL ($6,500)

• Tyler Warren, TE, IND ($4,900)

Breece Hall is heading into the game with injury questions as an underdog in the lowest total game. All of that should heavily suppress his ownership. And yet, we've already heard multiple times from the coaching staff that they want Breece Hall to be a "workhorse" this season, and I fully expect that'll be the case right out the gate. 20+ touches feels like a lock, with many of them coming in the passing game too. High floor scenario with touchdown upside (-105 to score!) despite the total.

In another low-total game, we have target hog Drake London who's likely to get lost in the sea of options in his price range. Tua loves to throw to first-target reads, and Drake London is going to get plenty of those. I'm not overly excited to jam him in, but in those scenarios where we're playing chalk stacks, Drake London slots in nicely as a contrarian option.

On the opposite end of the Baltimore stack is Tyler Warren, who acts as a natural leverage point on Jonathan Taylor, who I expect to be highly owned. By all accounts, Daniel Jones is fully healthy and looks like he did before his injury, which is where we saw Tyler Warren at his best, too. It feels like a week where many will want to spend up at tight end with Brock Bowers or play a correlated TE in a high scoring game (see: Juwan Johnson), leaving Warren to possibly be the player in the upper-middle range who could slip through the cracks.

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