Fantasy Football Start/Sit Lineup Advice: Drake London, DJ Moore, Cam Akers (Week 2)

Welcome to Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season. Week 1 was a rollercoaster; plenty of teams looked rusty, and others served up some surprises with their player usage. As we look ahead to Week 2, this column will help you try and navigate the pitfalls and traps of fantasy football, avoiding those who could crater your matchups and pointing you towards safer options instead.

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Fantasy Football Start/Sit Lineup Advice

Drake London (WR – ATL)

It felt possible that the Falcons could be a very fantasy-friendly team if Arthur Smith was able to get even a mediocre jump from Desmond Ridder heading into the quarterback’s second year. Sadly, against the Falcons, Ridder displayed no sign of a step forward, with 53% of his completions occurring behind the line of scrimmage. Ridder has yet to turn the ball over in the NFL, but this type of safe quarterbacking isn’t going to work for the likes of Drake London or Kyle Pitts, who might have spike weeks, but with the Falcons ranking second-last in situation-neutral pass rate, it’s clear that the Falcons intend to keep this offense on the ground.

DJ Moore (WR – CHI)

During the preseason, DJ Moore and Justin Fields saw both of their ADPs jump by a full round after one badly thrown screen pass was taken to the house by Moore. Sadly, in Week 1, they couldn’t replicate the magic, and five other Bears players saw more targets than Moore’s two, resulting in a 5.6% target share. The Bears seemed to call a dink-and-dunk game, with 15 of Fields’s 37 passes going to running backs. While the shackles are on Fields, it could prove hard to trust DJ Moore until we see otherwise.

Cam Akers (RB – LAR)

If you were only looking at the box score, you might not think that Cam Akers had such a bad Week 1; after all, he salvaged his day with a late touchdown, which padded things out, but if you dig into the game, it becomes a very different picture. Kyren Williams out-touched Akers with 14 touches to Akers’ 11 until the Rams were up by 11 points. At that point, the Rams took Williams off the field for all but one touch and let Akers salt the game away. Williams also ran a route on 72% of dropbacks, compared to Akers’s 5%. Against a tough 49ers defense, neither player might be worth a play, but Akers certainly doesn’t look like a good one.