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
Ok, I believe in Quentin Johnston‘s monster performance in Week 1. The Bolts are utilizing him the way that he should have always been used. He’s running a ton of crossing routes and being asked to run away from defenders. His route running has also tightened up from previous seasons, as he was sharp with some stop routes. Johnston earned a 20.6% target share, 31.7% air-yard share, and a 24% first-read share in Week 1 with 2.19 yards per route run and two end zone targets. He was the WR3 for the week with 79 receiving yards and two scores. Among 77 qualifying wide receivers, he ranked 15th in separation and sixth in route win rate. In Week 1, the Raiders allowed the sixth-most receiving yards to perimeter wide receivers. Johnston will line up against Kyu Blu Kelly (75% catch rate and 99.5 passer rating allowed) and Eric Stokes (71.4% catch rate and 87.2 passer rating allowed) the entire game.
Michael Pittman Jr. (WR – IND)
Last week, Pittman Jr. was the WR8 in fantasy, soaking up a 27.6% target share and 30% first-read share from Daniel Jones. He produced 2.86 yards per route run (80 receiving yards) and 0.143 first downs per route run. Pittman Jr. will have a tough time this week as shadow coverage from Patrick Surtain is incoming. Last week, Patrick Surtain followed Calvin Ridley on 87.1% of his routes. Cam Ward only targeted Ridley once (zero receptions) with Surtain draped all over him. Pittman Jr. will have a down game in Week 2. Sit him.
While D.K. Metcalf was dealing with Sauce Gardner all day, Calvin Austin was taking advantage of softer matchups against Michael Carter and Brandon Stephens. Austin finished as the WR16 in fantasy for the week. He had a 20% target share, a 71.1% air-yard share (14.3 aDOT), 2.80 yards per route run, and a 24% first-read share. Austin will spend about half of his routes in the slot against Devon Witherspoon (2024: 71.6% catch rate and 100.3 passer rating allowed). When he’s outside, the matchups don’t get any easier against Josh Jobe (20% catch rate and 0.0 passer rating allowed) and Tariq Woolen (75% catch rate and 156.3 passer rating allowed). Last year, Seattle allowed the third-fewest PPR points per target to slot receivers. I don’t want to play Austin this week unless I’m out of other options.
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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.
