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
Kenneth Walker saw his snap share drop from Week 1 to Week 2 (40% to 35%), but he was more productive with his volume. He finished with 14 touches with the 23 snaps he played with 118 total yards as the RB5 for the week. Walker had three red zone rushing attempts while Zach Charbonnet had two. His rushing efficiency has still been outstanding. Among 35 qualifying backs, Walker ranks second in explosive run rate, sixth in missed tackles forced per attempt, and 13th in yards after contact per attempt. I wouldn’t be shocked if Walker saw his usage increase in the coming weeks if he continues to outplay Charbonnet. This week’s matchup offers another low-key opportunity for Walker to break off some big plays. The Saints are 16th in rushing yards per game allowed while also giving up the third-highest missed tackle rate and the 11th-most yards after contact per attempt.
James Conner has touchdowns in back-to-back games to save his fantasy outings as the RB17 in fantasy points per game. He has averaged only 14 touches and 48 total yards this season. Last week, Conner played 52.1% of the snaps with 11 of 14 carries for the running backs and a 27.6% route share. This season, he has four red zone carries and all of the team’s inside the five-yard line carries (three). His 17% missed tackle rate is decent, but his 1.91 yards after contact per attempt is lacking. If Conner’s role is this minuscule, as a committee back, and he loses nearly all of his passing game usage, he’ll need to continue to run hot with touchdowns to keep his fantasy stock from tanking. The 49ers should allow him to make some noise on the ground this week, though. San Francisco has allowed the eighth-highest missed tackle rate, the ninth-most yards after contact per attempt, and logged the fourth-lowest stuff rate.
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.
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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.