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
Last week, Carolina rotated Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard, with each player getting entire drives to themselves all game. We’ll see if that continues in Week 8. If anything, I think the backfield could shift more in Dowdle’s favor if anything considering his per-touch effectiveness, which continues to dwarf Hubbard’s. Last week, Dowdle played 46.5% of the snaps overall, finishing with 18 touches and 96 total yards as the RB21 for the week. Dowdle has been awesome this season on a per-touch basis. Among 57 qualifying backs, he ranks 19th in explosive run rate and missed tackle rate and fourth in yards after contact per attempt. Assuming that Carolina will continue to feed their ground game and can keep this contest relatively close, Dowdle should eat this week against a run defense that has allowed the second-highest rushing yards per game, explosive run rate, and yards after contact per attempt.
Since Week 6, Chase Brown has averaged a 58.2% snap rate with 20 of 33 running back rushing attempts, a 48.4% route share, and a 6.5% target share. He has had four of five red zone rushing attempts in these two games. Over the last two weeks, he has had 12 touches and 74.5 total yards per game. Among 57 qualifying backs, he ranks 16th in missed tackle rate and 17th in yards after contact per attempt. The Cincy offensive line has actually done a fine job over the last two weeks of opening up holes for Brown with the third-best yards before contact per attempt. Brown should have a solid stat line this week against a Jets’ defense that has allowed the tenth-most rushing yards per game, the eighth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and ranks 14th in yards per reception allowed to backs.
Last week, Woody Marks regained his lead job in the backfield with a 61% snap rate, a 35.2% route share, both red zone rushing attempts, and a 10.2% target share. He finished with 13 touches, 35 total yards, and a score as the RB16 for the week. Marks has posted only a 7% missed tackle rate and 2.20 yards after contact per attempt. Volume is really what you’re relying upon with him if you’re plugging him into a lineup. Marks will need all of the volume he can get this week. The 49ers’ run defense has been improving and has allowed the 13th-fewest rushing yards per game, the 12th-lowest explosive run rate, and the tenth-fewest yards after contact per attempt.
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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.