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
Mayfield is the QB5 in fantasy points per game, but he has only one QB1 finish across his last four games, as most of the touchdown production has gone to the running backs over the last month. Mayfield hasn’t thrown for multiple touchdowns since Week 9. Overall, among 42 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks seventh in passing yards per game, 16th in yards per attempt, ninth in passer rating, and 18th in CPOE. Mayfield should turn in QB1 numbers this week against Las Vegas. Since Week 8, the Raiders secondary has allowed the sixth-most passing yards per game, the second-most passing touchdowns, and the second-highest success rate per dropback.
The last time the Browns played the Steelers, Jeudy only saw Joey Porter Jr. on 36% of his routes, so I’m not projecting him to shadow Jeudy this week. I could easily be wrong here, so factor the possibility of Porter Jr. following him into his range of outcomes this week. Since Week 8, Jeudy has been on fire as the WR3 in fantasy points per game, seeing a 21.9% target share with 2.84 YPRR and a 24.1% first-read share. Pittsburgh utilizes single high at the highest rate in the NFL (70.8%). Against single high, since Week 8, Jeudy has had a 24.5% target share with 3.33 YPRR and a 27.5% first-read share. Jeudy should slay again this week. Since Week 8, Pittsburgh has allowed the second-most receiving yards per game and the 13th-most PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
Since Week 8, Smith has been the TE5 in fantasy points per game, soaking up a 20.8% target share with 2.53 YPRR and a 25.7% first-read share. He has had three end zone targets in this span and scored three times. Since Week 8, Smith has run 46.6% of his routes from the slot. Since Week 8, the Jets have held slot receivers to the sixth-fewest fantasy points per game while ranking 15th in PPR points per target allowed. Smith should continue to get volume this week while keeping him in the TE1 good graces, but don’t expect a smash game.
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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.
