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
Caleb Williams‘ rough outing in Week 1 has been well documented. His Week 2 performance offered hope that he is progressing in this new offensive system. Last week, among 34 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranked 17th in yards per attempt, 11th in catchable target rate, and he had the 13th-lowest off-target rate. He was still 27th in highly accurate throw rate, but at this point, we just want to see baby steps forward weekly. For fantasy purposes, Williams has been perfectly fine as the QB10 in fantasy points per game. His rushing output has helped in that department as he has averaged 5.5 rushing attempts and 42.5 rushing yards. Williams could be headed for a big day against a struggling Dallas secondary if Chicago can give him clean pockets. Dallas has allowed the fourth-most yards per attempt, the third-highest passer rating, and the highest CPOE. Dallas ranks 13th in pressure rate. The Bears rank 17th in pressure rate allowed. When pressured, Williams has only 5.0 yards per attempt and a 34.8 passer rating (third-worst). Williams’ range of outcomes this week is wider than most will expect because his week will depend heavily upon his offensive line.
With Austin Ekeler out for the season, Jacory Croskey-Merritt will take over more of the Washington backfield. It’s just a question of how much. I expect Jeremy McNichols to be worked in, especially on passing downs, but Croskey-Merritt (aka Bill) should have the lion’s share of the early down work moving forward. In a limited sample, Bill has been good with a 7.1% explosive run rate and 3.50 yards after contact per attempt. Bill has a tough matchup on the ground this week and likely needs a touchdown to pay off for fantasy. The Raiders have allowed the tenth-lowest explosive run rate, the 11th-lowest missed tackle rate, and the fifth-fewest yards after contact per attempt.
Harold Fannin Jr. could post another nice stat line this week. He’s the TE9 in fantasy points per game, drawing a 15.1% target share (58.6% route share) with 55.5 receiving yards per game (1.91 yards per route run) and a 20.8% first-read share (second on the team). Fannin Jr. has one red zone target. The Packers have allowed the fifth-most fantasy points per game, the 11th-highest yards per reception, and the fifth-most receiving yards to tight ends. He could be Joe Flacco‘s go-to receiver this week.
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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.
