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
Oronde Gadsden II (TE – LAC)
Last week, Oronde Gadsden became the Bolts full-time tight end with a 69.2% route share, a 21.1% target share, 68 receiving yards (2.52 yards per route run), and a 31.6% first-read share. He even saw an end zone target. He was the TE12 for the week. Indy has utilized single-high with 51.2-62.5% of their defensive snaps in four of their six games. Against single high, Gadsden has a 26% target per route run rate and 1.72 yards per route run. Among 52 qualifying tight ends, against single high, those marks rank fifth-best and 13th. Gadsden Jr. could easily post another TE1 stat line this week against an Indy defense that has allowed the tenth-most receiving yards and the 13th-most schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game to tight ends.
Cade Otton (TE – TB)
Cade Otton has been a ghost for much of this year as the TE33 in fantasy points per game. He has reemerged in the passing offense over the last two weeks with 12.1 and 10.1 PPR points as the TE13 and TE17 in weekly scoring. He has only one red zone target this season, though. Over the last two games, Otton has had a 19.6% target share, 66 receiving yards per game (3.07 yards per route run), and an 11.1% first-read share. Otton is a strong streaming option at tight end this week against a Lions’ defense that has allowed the 14th-most receiving yards per game, the seventh-highest yards per reception, and the 12th-most fantasy points per game to tight ends.
Michael Mayer (TE – LV)
Last week, as the Raiders’ starting tight end, Michael Mayer had an 80% route share, a 30.4% target share, 50 receiving yards (2.50 yards per route run), and a 23.1% first-read share. He had one red zone target (one score) and was the TE6 in fantasy. Mayer is a low-end streaming option only this week. The Chiefs have allowed the fifth-fewest schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game and the seventh-fewest receiving yards per game to tight ends.
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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.
