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.
- Waiver Wire Picks
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Courtland Sutton was the WR12 in fantasy in Week 1. I was worried about a L’Jarius Sneed shadow in Week 1, but Sneed wasn’t a full-time player as Tennessee eased him into action to begin the season. Sutton dominated the passing work in Week 1 for Denver with a 22.5% target share, a 30.7% air-yard share, 0.108 first downs per route run, and a 37.5% first-read share. In Week 1, Indy utilized two high at the ninth-highest rate (52.8%). Last year, against two high, Sutton had a 24% target per route run rate and 25.9% first-read share. His efficiency took a little hit with 0.081 first downs per route run. Sutton should be a steady option for fantasy again this week. I’m not overly concerned about Charvarius Ward or Xavien Howard on the perimeter at this point in the season. Nix will still hyper-target Sutton in Week 2.
Emeka Egbuka made his presence known in Week 1. He was the WR4 in fantasy, earning an 18.8% target share with 2.03 yards per route run and a 20% first-read share. Egbuka spiked two touchdowns and saw an endzone target while running 45.5% of his routes from the slot. Among 104 qualifying wide receivers, he ranked 24th in route win rate. Egbuka has a tough matchup in Week 2, but he should be in starting lineups. Kamari Lassiter (100% catch rate and 142.4 passer rating allowed) and Derek Stingley Jr. (71.4% catch rate and 94.9 passer rating) had some hiccups last week out of the gate. If they’re still off their games, Egbuka can take advantage when outside. If not, he should still have a productive day against a defense that allowed the ninth-most PPR points per target to the slot in Week 1. Last year, Houston allowed the 12th-most PPR points per target to the slot.
Tetairoa McMillan was stifled in Week 1 by Bryce Young‘s play, but there’s a ton to be encouraged with here with his usage as the WR30 for the week. He had a 22.9% target share with a 40.6% air-yard share (16th-best), 1.94 yards per route run, a 27.3% first-read share, and 0.114 first downs per route run. McMillan looks the part of the alpha that Carolina thought they were drafting. We just need Young’s play to improve for McMillan to pay off in fantasy. The volume will be there, but McMillan has a tough test this week, lining up against Will Johnson (57.1% catch rate and 68.8 passer rating allowed) and Max Melton (50% catch rate and 68.8 passer rating allowed) all day. In Week 1, Arizona allowed the eighth-fewest PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | TuneIn
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.
