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.
- 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
Joe Flacco finished his first week as the Bengals’ starter as the QB15 for the week. While he finished with 219 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, his per-dropback metrics weren’t great. Flacco had only 4.8 yards per attempt, a 5.2 aDOT, and a 71.1% catchable target rate. The name of the game last week was to get the ball out of his hands quickly, as he had only 2.37 seconds as a time to throw. The approach will likely be the same this week against a Pittsburgh defense that ranks fifth in pressure rate. The Steelers have found their stride in the pass defense department since Week 4, allowing the second-lowest success rate per dropback, the fourth-fewest yards per attempt, and the third-lowest passer rating. Flacco could be in trouble this week.
The hits keep coming for Chase Brown as the RB33 in fantasy points per game. At least in previous weeks, we could cling to Brown’s volume as a saving grace, but that isn’t the case anymore. Over the last two weeks, he has averaged 53.5% of the snaps with 13 touches and 48.5 total yards. Last week, he had only nine of 15 running back carries with a 45.7% route share (4.4% target share). He did have the team’s only red zone carry. He’s a sit this week against what looks like a revitalized Steelers run defense. Since Week 3, they have allowed the tenth-lowest explosive run rate and yards after contact per attempt and the fifth-fewest rushing yards per game.
Last week, with Joe Flacco under center, Higgins was the WR26 for the week. He had a 15.6% target share, a 32.2% air-yard share, 62 receiving yards (1.68 yards per route run), and a 25.9% first-read share. It was a fairly nice showing for Higgins with a new quarterback and against a tough opponent. Higgins could come crashing back to earth this week against a secondary that is playing better ball lately. Since Week 3, Pittsburgh has allowed the second-fewest PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | TuneIn
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.
