The week has come where we are do-or-die. Win and you are in, lose and the whole season is over. I don’t need to tell you that start/sit decisions are more important than ever before for many teams out there. Today, I’ll share my rankings for the week to help you make every tough start/sit decision for your teams. I’ll update these rankings every few hours up through the weekend and those changes will show up on this page. You can use the tabs for flex or even Superflex as well as half-PPR, PPR or standard leagues to help make your start/sit decisions. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to let me know on Twitter. Now before I show you all the rankings, let me tell you about four particular rankings that might surprise you and why I have them as I do.

Create Optimal DraftKings lineups using our DFS Lineup Optimizer tool

Jordan Howard (RB #23 vs ECR #32)
You may be disappointed by Howard’s production lately and no one could blame you, but that doesn’t mean you ought to give up on him altogether. Last week was the only time all season that he had single-digit carries, and most of those weeks he was at 14+. With a positive game script likely, I’m expecting him to return to that type of workload, which when paired with the fact that Chicago takes on what may be the worst run defense in the NFL now that Damon Harrison has been traded, is a deadly combination.

Justin Jackson (RB #30 vs ECR #45)
I know everyone else seems to think Austin Ekeler is going to take over just like he did in London the last time Gordon was out, but I have several reasons to disagree. First, Ekeler didn’t do well in that role. It quickly became clear to the Chargers that he is just a third-down back like they had originally thought. Jackson hardly played in that game because he had been inactive all year. Now that he has been on the field for Los Angeles, he was thrust into the game the moment Gordon left, rushing 7 times (more than Ekeler). You can say the game was out of hand, but that never stopped the Chargers from using their best back before, as evidenced by Gordon being in the game at that stage. I’m banking on 10 to 15 carries for Jackson with the upside to explode and win fantasy leagues.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling (WR #34 vs ECR #48)
Much like Howard above, the recency bias against Valdes-Scantling reeks. So what if he had two awful games in a row. JuJu Smith Schuster, Kenny Golladay and Emmanuel Sanders all have had streaks like that this season too, but no one is benching them. The fact of the matter is that we are looking at a clear-cut #2 receiver in Aaron Rodgers‘ offense who has four strong performances and just two bad ones in seven starts this season. That is a starter to me and without hesitation.

Josh Doctson (WR #42 vs ECR #51)
There is a reason the Eagles have been getting shredded through the air lately; they are missing all three of their starting cornerbacks! Doctson, meanwhile, benefits by being the last man standing in the banged-up Washington receiver core. As a result, he has seen 17 targets over the past two weeks since Colt McCoy took over. While it hasn’t led to a score yet, that type of target share plus a tasty matchup has Doctson as a startable flex play this week.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | TuneIn | RSS