Defending champs take on Saddles in season opener

Matt Huey's Pillow Biters, fresh off their best-ever finish, take on third-place finisher Blayze Hanson's squad in Week 1 spotlight game

The Pillows (10-4 last season) will be six-point favorites and looking for more of the same from RB Derrick Henry as they begin the 2021 campaign against the Saddles and their new RB, Jonathan Taylor. In other games, the Tirades are 6-point favorites over the Recliners; the Rangers are favored by 3 over the Pack in the Battle of the Lambert Brothers; the Invaiders are somehow favored by 8 against the bLAnd Aids; and the Spread Beaters go against the Gerbils. Here's a preview of the Week 1 matchups:

Pillow Biters (+5) vs Blazing Saddles: This is the marquee matchup of Week 1… last year’s champs against a semifinalist from last season. Huey sends his team, led by the most interesting draft pick of 2021, the Pillows' drafting consortium's selection of QB Baker Mayfield.

Huey's draft experts had RB Derrick Henry to start with and will pair him with Mike Davis, against Blayze’s squad led by RBs Jonathan Taylor and Najee Harriss. Blayze is hoping his Eagles connection (QB Jalen Hurts and WR DaVonta Smith) make a love connection. The TE matchup here is intriguing: rookie Kyle Pitts goes for the Saddles and Robert Tonyan of Green Bay for the Pillows. ESPN says the Pillows win this by 5, but we’re not so sure.

Spread Beaters (+7) vs Gerbils: ESPN’s pre-season favorite to win the league, the Spread Beaters open as 7-point favorites against the Gerbils, who made it to the playoffs last season. The Beaters did not. The road to correcting that begins this weekend as Matt prepares to ride RBs Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb to the promised land.

He’s got elite receivers (Stefon Diggs, Mike Evans), Darren Waller at TE and is hoping for a bounce-back year from QB Lamar Jackson. And he’s got depth (thanks, extra draft picks): on the bench are Brandon Aiyuk, Kareem Hunt, Tyler Boyd and Dak Prescott, who could start for half the other teams in the league. Chuck’s Gerbs hope to ride the Christian McCaffrey points train to the postseason. He has Chris Carson as his other RB, Amari Cooper and Chase Claypool at WRs and Ryan Tannehill at QB.

Packers (+1) vs Rangers: As the rest of the league awaits a promised Packers rummage sale (bets on Week 3, anyone?), Jeff opens the season with as good a chance at a win as he might have all season – playing his brother John and the Rangers, who are 1-point underdogs now that the Pack will be playing the NY Giants defense against Denver instead of the 49ers (against Detroit, but who am I to challenge that nonsense).

The Packers are hoping for big weeks from RBs Aaron Jones and David Montgomery while the Rangers look to win with the passing corps: WRs Tyreek Hill and Justin Jefferson, TE George Kittle and QB Justin Herbert.

The Rangers RB crew could cost them here. After first-round draft pick JK Dobbins suffered a season-ending injury shortly after he was selected, his replacement is Kenyan Drake and John's starters are Miles "I may score, but I may not" Sanders and Ronald "I probably won't score" Jones, who will play second fiddle to Leonard Fournette (who, BTW, might be available, ask Vern).

Invaiders (+8) vs bLAand Aids: Bob's team name makes even less sense now that they've moved south to Orange County, and I think that's the main reason his team is such a heavy underdog in this one. Vern and his Invaiders are 8-point favorites to win their season opener against the bOCand Aids, or whatever they should be called (maybe just Band Aids?) and they’re not shy about confirming the accuracy of that line.

“We’re prepared to dominate in all phases of the game,” said a confident Ahrendes on Thursday, while draining a 32-foot putt with one hand and pounding a Michelob Ultra with the other. This is really going out on a limb, too -- Vern has not beaten Bob in a season opener since the Aughts (that's the decade of the 2000s, for Huey's draft consortium). That means he’s hoping his former stud RB Alvin Kamara, now a Band Aid, stumbles in his opener against Green Bay. And he’s hoping Bob’s QB, Aaron Rodgers, looks really rusty in his return to action. And Vern hopes his revamped roster (Antonio Gibson and James Robinson at RB, Calvin Ridley and Davante Adams at WR and Kyler Murray at QB) are up to the challenge and he does not have to depend on kicker scoring (Rams dork, meh).

Tirades (+6) vs Recliners: Speaking of opening game struggles, the Tirades are 6-point favorites heading into their season opener against the Recliners, but they were also favored in this matchup in last season's opener and wound up losing 100-92 because Josh Jacobs had a season-high 31-point game against hapless Carolina. But it was bad lineup decisions that doomed the Tirades last season. They drafted DK Metcalf but then traded him before the opener for injured Deebo Samuel, and emotional move that owner Ron Hender vowed to never again let happen. So far, so good, as he drafted Metcalf and as yet has not traded him again. The last time the Tirades beat the Recliners in a season opener was 2017, and it's likely not a coincidence that's the last time we saw the Tirades in a postseason game.

The Tirades drafted Pat Mahomes at QB, so there’s no decision to be made on who to start like there was last season, when Hender decided to flip a coin in the opener between Drew Brees (not good, he scored 14 points) and Rodgers (benched, scored 30, which would have resulted in a Tirades win). ESPN has the QBs in this one as even: Brady for the Recliners and Mahomes for the Tirades both scoring 21. We’ll see about that… Brady goes against Dallas and Mahomes the Browns. If this one ends up being decided by the RBs again, look for things to go to the younger, faster, better (sorry Chris) Tirades, who have draft-day pickup Dalvin Cook leading the way with 4th RB selection Raheem Mostert also getting a start (he goes against Detroit). The Recliners counter with Ezekiel Elliot and Joe Mixon. The Tirades are stacked enough at WR that Adam Thielen and DJ Moore ride the bench in favor of Metcalf and Terry McScorin’.