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Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em: Matthew Stafford, Colby Parkinson, Sam Darnold (Week 8)

Start em or sit em? Fantasy football start or sit decisions can be excruciating. While it feels great to make the right call and cruise to fantasy glory, it hurts just as much when you have someone erupt while on your bench. You can use our Who Should I Start? tool to gauge advice from fantasy football experts as you make your lineup decisions. And you can also sync your fantasy football league for free using our My Playbook tool for custom advice, rankings and analysis.

Let’s take a look at a few polarizing players and what fantasy football expert Derek Brown advises. And you can find all of DBro’s fantasy football outlook in this week’s fantasy football primer.

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Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em Lineup Advice

Sam Darnold (QB)

Darnold is a strong streaming option this week. He is the QB15 in fantasy points per game and excels in nearly every per-dropback metric you can find. Among 39 qualifying quarterbacks, Darnold is fifth in yards per attempt, seventh in passer rating, and sixth in CPOE. He is also fourth in passing touchdowns. Darnold faces a burnable secondary for the Rams, who have allowed the sixth-highest yards per attempt, the tenth-highest passer rating, and the ninth-highest success rate per dropback.

Colby Parkinson (TE)

Parkinson has been a matchup-based streaming option this season. The matchup is right this week, so we should consider going back to the well. Parkinson is the TE22 in fantasy points per game with a 16.6% target share, 1.20 YPRR, and a 14.9% first-read share. Minnesota has the highest two high rate in the NFL (71.8%). Against two high, Parkinson has seen his target share bump to 18.4% and his YPRR slightly rise to 1.33. The Vikings have allowed the 11th-highest fantasy points per game to tight ends.

Matthew Stafford (QB)

Stafford is an easy sit candidate this week. He is the QB34 in fantasy points per game and hasn’t had at least 16 fantasy points in any start this season. Among 39 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks 20th in yards per attempt, 34th in fantasy points per dropback, and has the eighth-fewest passing touchdowns. Minnesota has been a pass funnel this season as their run defense has been elite, so they are allowing production with the second-most passing yards per game and the seventh-most passing touchdowns allowed. The per-dropback efficiency hasn’t been there for passers, though, as they have held quarterbacks to the fourth-lowest passer rating and the 13th-lowest yards per attempt. Stafford could post healthy passing yardage numbers this week, but the touchdowns could still go to the ground game. Los Angeles ranks 11th in red zone rushing rate.

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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

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