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 experts Pat Fitzmaurice and Derek Brown advise. And you can find all of DBro’s fantasy football outlook in this week’s fantasy football primer as well as Fitz’s fantasy football rankings & tiers.
- 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
Alec Pierce is an interesting flex play this week. He has a 14.4% target share with 54.8 receiving yards per game (2.07 yards per route run) and a 15.6% first-read share. Pierce comes into the flex conversation against the Chargers’ single high coverage. In four of six games this season, the Chargers have utilized single high with 51.1-59.4% of their defensive snaps. Against single high, Pierce’s target share has skyrocketed to 26.9% with 3.67 yards per route run and a 27.9% first-read share. The Chargers aren’t an easy matchup, but if Pierce does get featured versus single high and a target share bump with Josh Downs out, he could pay off in the flex. The Bolts have allowed the fourth-fewest PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
I’ll lead this off with the matchup sucks for Bourne this week, but he’s operating in the 49ers offense as this year’s Jauan Jennings. He has been the team’s clear WR1 over the last two games. Even with Jennings back last week, that was still the case. Last week, Bourne had a 23.1% target share with a 38.9% air-yard share, 142 receiving yards (3.74 yards per route run), and a 34.6% first-read share. Zoom out, and since Week 5, he has had a 22.7% target share with a 35.9% air-yard share, 3.74 yards per route run (142 receiving yards per game), and a 29% first-read share. Bourne was the WR6 and WR11 in weekly scoring over the last two weeks with two red zone targets. Bourne should still get fed volume this week and serve as a nice flex play despite the horrible matchup. Atlanta has allowed the 11th-fewest PPR points per target and the seventh-fewest receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers.
Chuba Hubbard will be back this week, but I expect Rico Dowdle to lead this backfield this week. Hubbard has been extremely inefficient this season, and Dowdle absolutely crushed in his absence. The Panthers’ offense needed a spark and an identity, and Dowdle has provided that over the last two games. Dowdle has been the RB1 and RB2 overall in weekly scoring over the last two weeks, averaging 30 touches and 236.5 total yards. Among 50 qualifying backs, he ranks 11th in explosive run rate and second in yards after contact per attempt. Dowdle should have another nice week against the Jets. New York has allowed the tenth-most rushing yards per game, the sixth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and they rank 17th in missed tackle rate.
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