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
Brenton Strange makes the streaming bucket for tight ends this week. Last week, he had a 60.6% route share, which, honestly, I hope we get that number to come up, but it’s workable for a streaming option. It will add to his week-to-week volatility if it doesn’t trend up, but he’s still a decent option if you’re struggling with tight end this week. In Week 1, he had a 12.9% target share, 2.95 yards per route run, and a 16% first-read share. Strange has a glorious matchup this week that should help boost his outlook. Last year, Cincy allowed the third-most receiving yards and the most fantasy points per game to tight ends. They are still struggling to defend the position in 2025, allowing the second-most receiving yards and the fourth-most fantasy points in Week 1.
What a difference a year makes. Juwan Johnson exploded in Week 1 as an integral part of the passing offense. He had a 79.6% route share with a 23.9% target share (second on the team), 1.95 yards per route run (76 receiving yards), a team-leading two red zone targets, a 28.1% first-read share (tied for the team lead), and 0.103 first downs per route run. He was the TE1 in fantasy in Week 1. I don’t think that continues obviously, but it was an awesome start for Johnson, who looks to play a big role for this team in 2025. Johnson is a strong tight end streaming option this week despite a tough matchup. He should see plenty of volume to help outkick the matchup. Last year, San Francisco allowed the eighth-fewest yards per reception and the seventh-fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends.
Is Harold Fannin Jr. 2024 Isaiah Likely? Doomed to disappoint us in fantasy after a wonderful Week 1 performance? I don’t know, to be quite honest. Ok, here’s the good. Last week, Fannin Jr. had a 20% target share, 2.17 yards per route run (63 receiving yards), and a 24% first-read share as the TE6 in fantasy. Alright, now it’s time for the negative. Fannin Jr. had only a 60.2% route share and a ridiculous 31% target per route run rate. Both of those usage metrics scream regression. It’s unlikely that he continues to see a target per route run rate that high, so unless he sees an uptick in routes, his usage is likely to come crashing back to Earth. Cleveland also utilized two tight end sets with 50.7% (second-highest in the NFL) of their offensive plays in Week 1. That’s a big difference from their 16.5% (tenth-lowest) snap usage of the same personnel grouping last season. I would sit Fannin Jr. this week to see how his usage shakes out, but I know that’s likely not the world that many people are living in after Week 1 with a BEVY of tight end injuries hitting fantasy teams. The matchup and talent are there for this usage to continue for at least one more week. Last year, Baltimore allowed the ninth-most receiving yards, the tenth-highest yards per reception, and the 12th-most fantasy points to tight ends.
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