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.
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Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Kimani Vidal figures to help fill the hole in the Chargers’ backfield created by the foot injury that landed Omarion Hampton on IR. Vidal and Haskins each played 14 snaps in Week 5. Vidal had 4-18-0 rushing and 1-1-0 receiving on one target. Haskins had 5-13-0 rushing and 1-2-0 receiving on one target. Haskins had out-snapped Vidal 14-2 before Week 5. Vidal, Troy University’s all-time rushing leader, is faster than Haskins and has better pass-catching chops, so there’s a decent chance Vidal will get passing-down work.
Troy Franklin has two top-36 wide receiver finishes this season (WR7, WR36). He entered Week 5 with a 72.8% route share, a 19.7% target share, a 30.6% air-yard share, 1.78 yards per route run (49 receiving yards per game) and a 21.3% first-read share, per Fantasy Points Data. Franklin walked away from Week 5 with a strong 79% route share, but he only had a 12.8% target share and 35 receiving yards, per Pro Football Focus (PFF). Franklin should provide solid Flex value this week against a Jets secondary that, aside from cornerback Sauce Gardner, scares no one. Franklin follows that up with plus matchups against the Giants and Cowboys, who entered Week 5 having given up the most and fifth-most fantasy points per game to perimeter wide receivers, respectively.
If you picked up Kendrick Bourne last week, whether out of desperation or on a hunch with all of the injuries to the 49ers’ receivers, and started him, take a bow. Bourne had a wonderful game in the 49ers’ upset of the Rams. He soaked up a 22.4% target share (11 targets), finishing with 142 receiving yards (3.74 yards per route run) and a 25% first-read share, per Fantasy Points Data. I obviously won’t tell you that Bourne will continue this type of production, but the 49ers’ pass-catchers are severely banged up. Wide receivers Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings are still nursing injuries, and tight end George Kittle is at least another week away from returning. Bourne, at the very least, could be a plug-and-play Flex option this week if Pearsall and Jennings remain out. The Buccaneers’ secondary is dealing with a rash of injuries and just got shredded by Sam Darnold and the Seahawks.
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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.