Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em: Bryce Young, Joe Flacco, Mason Taylor

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 dive into our start/sit lineup advice and outlook for a few of the top fantasy football waiver wire pickups of the week.

Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice

Bryce Young (QB – CAR)

Who knew that Rico Dowdle would unlock the Panthers’ offense? With back-to-back victories for the first time since November 2024, they officially have something cooking in Carolina. Highlighted by Dowdle’s 200+ yards from scrimmage in each of the last two games, this offense has new life. Although this two-game stretch came against two of the worst defenses in the league (the Dolphins and Cowboys), the Jets are not a scary Week 7 matchup. The Jets are allowing the second-most points per game. Young is a decent spot start this week for fantasy managers who might be missing either Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen during their bye weeks.

Joe Flacco (QB – CIN)

Can Joe Flacco turn the Bengals’ season around? Without Joe Burrow, this team was desperate for functional quarterback play. Although Jake Browning came through in 2023, he was not up to the task this year. On Sunday, Flacco was able to move the ball against a tough Packers defense on the road. The Bengals now have a three-game home stretch against three exploitable defenses. When you’re the quarterback of a team with the worst defense in the league and are throwing to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, there will be fantasy points to go around. Flacco is a good streaming option for each of the next three weeks in good matchups.

Mason Taylor (TE – NYJ)

Well, after two nice performances, Mason Taylor came crashing back to earth in Week 6, as Justin Fields turned into a rotten pumpkin. In the two games prior to the Denver debacle, Taylor was a focal point of the Jets’ passing attack as the TE9 in fantasy points per game. In Weeks 4-5, Taylor had a 26% target share, 66 receiving yards per game (1.89 yards per route run) and a 27.8% first-read share, per Fantasy Points Data. In Week 6, he turned his only target into two receiving yards. Don’t fear: Taylor will bounce back in the next two weeks with cupcake matchups incoming. Carolina and Cincinnati have respectively allowed the third-most and second-most schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game to tight ends.

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.