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
Kyler Murray is having a disappointing season. He is the QB19 in fantasy points per game. His rushing has been stable with his previous levels since 2021 (6.7 attempts per game, 35.7 rushing yards per game), but his passing numbers remain atrocious. Among 37 qualifying passers, he ranks 28th in yards per attempt, 34th in aDOT, 22nd in highly accurate throw rate, 17th in catchable target rate, and 22nd in fantasy points per dropback. Murray looks headed for another tough day. Seattle has held passers to the 13th-lowest yards per attempt, the sixth-lowest passer rating, and the ninth-lowest CPOE.
Sam Darnold is playing good football in Seattle, but it hasn’t translated into a ton of fantasy points as he is the QB30 in fantasy points per game. Among 37 qualifying passers, Darnold ranks fourth in yards per attempt and CPOE, 16th in highly accurate throw rate and catchable target rate, and 13th in fantasy points per dropback. Sadly, he’s headed for another middling fantasy outing against the Cardinals. Arizona has allowed the seventh-fewest yards per attempt, the 11th-lowest passer rating, and the tenth-fewest passing touchdowns.
Last week’s blowout win against the Saints muddied Kenneth Walker’s final usage line. In the first half, he played 70% of the snaps with 88.9% of the rushing attempts and a 54.5% route share. He should be projected as the leader of this backfield moving forward. Over the last two weeks, Walker has averaged 15.5 touches and 84 total yards as the RB8 in fantasy points per game. Among 48 qualifying rushers, Walker ranks eighth in explosive run rate and 13th in missed tackles forced per attempt. Seattle’s offensive line remains a work in progress, generating the 13th-fewest yards before contact per attempt for their backfield. This week’s matchup for Walker isn’t a great one. Despite Arizona giving up the 11th-highest explosive run rate and the 12th-highest missed tackle rate, they have also held the opposition to the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game, the tenth-fewest yards before contact per attempt, and the fourth-highest stuff rate. Walker will need to get by with touchdown equity and volume this week unless he can break a big run or two.
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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.
