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
In only his second NFL game, Quinshon Judkins took over the Cleveland backfield. Last week, he played 58% of the snaps, finishing with 19 touches and 95 total yards, finishing as the RB11 for the week. He handled 18 of 19 running back carries and had a 31.6% route share. Jerome Ford took most of the remaining passing-down reps as Dylan Sampson played only four snaps. Among 48 qualifying backs, Judkins ranks ninth in explosive run rate, 11th in missed tackles forced per attempt, and sixth in yards after contact per attempt. He should flirt with 16-20 touches in this game, but he’ll need the volume in a brutal matchup. Detroit has the ninth-best stuff rate while allowing the fourth-lowest missed tackle rate and the sixth-lowest yards after contact per attempt.
Geno Smith is the QB15 in fantasy points per game, but passing volume is propping up some mediocre per-dropback stats. Smith is eighth in passing attempts, fourth in passing yards per game, and tenth in yards per attempt. Among 37 qualifying quarterbacks, he also ranks 23rd in highly accurate throw rate, 31st in catchable target rate, and he has the third-highest off-target rate. Smith could still light up the Bears’ struggling secondary this week despite his shortcomings. Chicago has allowed the seventh-most passing yards per game, the sixth-most yards per attempt, and the third-highest CPOE.
Juwan Johnson has been a pleasant surprise this season. He is the TE2 in fantasy points per game, ranking second in red zone targets (three), second in targets (28), second in receptions (19), and fifth in receiving yards (176) among tight ends. Johnson has a 23.1% target share (second on the team) with 1.71 yards per route run (58.7 receiving yards per game), and a 28.7% first-read share (second to only Chris Olave). He should still see plenty of volume this week, but Buffalo has shut down opposing tight ends, giving up the fewest receiving yards and yards per reception and the second-fewest fantasy points per game to the position.
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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.
