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
Javonte Williams looks like Dallas’s new workhorse running back. He played 80.4% of the snaps in Week 1 with a 68.2% rushing share and a 71.4% route share. He finished with 20.4 PPR points, much of that due to his two-score day, but he also had 17 touches and 64 total yards. We didn’t see much in the name of efficiency as he had zero explosive runs, zero missed tackles forced, and only 2.13 yards after contact per attempt. Williams was constantly slammed into the A gaps in Week 1, so I hope there are better days ahead for his efficiency running behind an offensive line that ranked second-best in yards before contact per attempt. Williams could also be aided by what looks like another year of the Giants fielding a pitiful run defense. Last week, which lined up with their rough 2024 metrics, the Giants allowed the sixth-highest explosive run rate, the fourth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and they had the second-lowest stuff rate.
Well, Week 1 was wild, and the Seattle backfield was a shocker. Zach Charbonnet led the way with a 58% snap rate, 12 touches, and 47 total yards. He had 54.5% of the rushing attempts, a 36% route share, and led the team with four red zone rushing attempts (Walker had two). Charbonnet wasn’t impressive on a per-touch basis with an 8% missed tackle rate and only 1.67 yards after contact per attempt. We’ll see if Charbonnet still leads the backfield this week or if Kenneth Walker takes more of the work. The matchup is good this week for someone from this backfield to show some life. Last week, Pittsburgh allowed the fourth-highest missed tackle rate, the sixth-most yards before contact per attempt, and they had the tenth-lowest stuff rate. Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker are both risky flex plays this week.
Tony Pollard was the workhorse we thought he’d be to open the season, but the fantasy results didn’t follow. Pollard played 90% of the snaps, finishing with 19 touches and 89 total yards. He only had an 11% missed tackle rate, but his yards after contact per attempt was solid with 2.61. Pollard should find more running room this week against a Rams run defense that, in Week 1, allowed the 13th-most rushing yards while giving up the third-highest missed tackle rate and sitting at 16th in stuff rate. Pollard is a strong volume play again this week, and with a better matchup, he should pay off this week.
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