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
Outside of Week 3, Mark Andrews has been unplayable this season. Take out that massive and what unfortunately looks like an outlier game, and he has a 14.9% target share, 14.8 receiving yards per game (0.81 yards per route run), and a 20% first-read share. In his four other games this season, Andrews has averaged only 4.3 PPR points per game with two red zone targets. Maybe he turns it around this week, but I highly doubt it. The Rams are 14th in receiving yards and 16th in yards per reception and schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game allowed to tight ends.
Darren Waller is BACK! Over the last two weeks, he has finished as the TE4 and TE6 in weekly scoring while seeing three red zone targets and scoring three touchdowns. Overall, he has a 53.7% route share with a 14.8% target share with 52.5 receiving yards per game (2.92 yards per route run) and a 19.6% first-read share. Last week, he saw his route share increase to 65%. Waller could live in the 60-70% route share area code weekly, which is fine. I’m not projecting for Waller to have a big game in Week 6, though. Since Week 3, the Bolts have the tenth-highest single high rate (57.4%). Since Week 4, against single high, Waller has had only one target (4% target share) and a 5.9% first-read share. The Chargers have been one of the toughest teams against tight ends, giving up the sixth-fewest fantasy points per game and the fourth-fewest receiving yards to the position. Waller needs a touchdown to save his Week 6.
Kyle Pitts has been a nice surprise this season as the TE9 in fantasy points per game. He has only one deep target and a red zone target so far. Pitts has an 18.2% target share, 1.64 yards per route run (51.3 receiving yards per game), and a 15.7% first-read share. Fantasy GMs shouldn’t expect much from Pitts this week, though. The Bills have the fourth-highest rate of two high (61%). Against two high, Pitts has seen his target share drop to 15.4% with 1.58 yards per route run and a 14.3% first-read share. Buffalo has been tough on tight ends over the last few seasons. This year, Buffalo has allowed the fewest schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game and the second-fewest receiving yards to the position. Look for a streamer this week instead of starting Pitts.
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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.