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 J.J. McCarthy still recovering from his ankle injury, Carson Wentz gets another start this week. Wentz is the QB19 in fantasy points per game. Among 41 qualifying passers, he ranks 11th in yards per attempt and fifth in passing yards per game, but that’s where the good news stops, as he’s also 22nd in highly accurate throw rate with the 12th-highest off-target rate and the 14th-highest turnover-worthy throw rate. Wentz faces a Bolts’ pass defense that has been more pliable since Week 4, allowing the tenth-most yards per attempt while ranking 18th in CPOE and 16th in success rate per dropback. Wentz should produce as a solid QB2 this week.
Aaron Jones steps back into the Minny backfield equation as a viable flex play this week. In Week 1, Jones played 46.9% of the snaps with a 37.5% route share (15% target share). He finished with 11 touches and 67 total yards. Mason handled all of the team’s red zone rushing attempts in Week 1, so Jones will have to break a big play this week to get into the end zone. In limited action, Jones has generated an 8% missed tackle rate and 2.31 yards after contact per attempt. Jones could have a nice day in Week 8. The Chargers have been a soft run defense to exploit all year, allowing the third-highest explosive run rate, the sixth-highest missed tackle rate, and the fifth-highest yards before contact per attempt. Los Angeles has also allowed the 14th-most receiving yards and the 13th-highest yards per reception to backs.
Ladd McConkey is the WR32 in fantasy points per game while being tied for 11th in the NFL in red zone targets. McConkey has shaken from his early-season funk with at least 14.9 PPR points in each of his last three games. McConkey has a 20.7% target share with 54.3 receiving yards per game (1.39 yards per route run) and a 22.9% first-read share. This week, he faces a Minnesota pass defense that has the highest two-high rate in the NFL (70.3%). Against two high, McConkey has seen his target share increase to 22.3% (tied for the team lead) with 1.31 yards per route run and a team-leading 25.3% first-read share. McConkey is a strong flex play this week as the volume could tilt in his favor, but the matchup isn’t great. Minnesota has allowed the fourth-fewest PPR points per target to slot receivers. DeVonta Smith destroyed this secondary last week, but he registered only ten of his 183 receiving yards from the slot.
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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.
