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
With Aaron Jones out, Jordan Mason should be the Vikings’ clear workhorse back. He has averaged 13.5 touches and 56.5 total yards. Those numbers should both go up, and I expect Mason to flirt with 17-20 touches this week. He has been efficient on the ground with his work. Among 50 qualifying backs, Mason ranks 13th in explosive run rate, sixth in missed tackles forced per attempt, and 20th in yards after contact per attempt. Mason should have a productive day against a run defense that has the 11th-lowest stuff rate while ranking 14th in yards after contact per attempt and 15th in yards before contact per attempt.
Javonte Williams is the RB3 in fantasy points per game. Yep, you read that right. Williams proved in Week 2 that his Week 1 outing was just a taste of things to come with a 17% missed tackle rate and awesome every-down usage. He has averaged 20.5 touches and 97 total yards, while ranking 11th in snapshare (74.8%), seventh in route share (57.6%), and 14th in target share (10.5%) among running backs. Overall, he ranks 17th in explosive run rate and eighth-best in yards after contact per attempt. He’s set up for another strong outing in Week 3 against a run defense that has allowed the fifth-highest explosive run rate, the sixth-most rushing yards per game, and the tenth-highest missed tackle rate.
Travis Etienne is the RB9 in fantasy points per game. Last week, he still easily led this backfield with a 66% snap rate, 14 of the 24 running back carries, and a 45.5% route share (7.1% target share). Etienne has averaged 17.5 touches and 122.5 total yards. Among 50 qualifying backs, Etienne ranks sixth in explosive run rate and third in yards after contact per attempt. Etienne should have another strong game against a run defense that has allowed the 12th-highest explosive run rate, the 11th-most rushing yards per game, and the fourth-highest missed tackle rate.
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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.
