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
Sam Darnold (QB – SEA)
Sam Darnold might be the QB18 in fantasy points per game, but he has three QB1 outings in his last four games (QB10, QB2, QB9). Darnold has quietly been amazing on a per-dropback basis this season. It has been awesome to see. Darnold is first in yards per attempt, third in passer rating, ninth in highly accurate throw rate, and third in hero throw rate. Houston has fielded a stout pass defense, but Darnold has played so well that I think he still posts solid QB2 numbers this week. Houston has allowed the fifth-fewest yards per attempt, the lowest passer rating, and the sixth-lowest success rate per dropback.
Justin Fields (QB – NYJ)
There hasn’t been much in between for Justin Fields this season. He’s either been amazing for fantasy purposes or an abject disaster. Fields has two games against strong pass defenses with less than five fantasy points, but also this season, he has three games with at least 25.9 fantasy points. Fields has still offered plenty of production weekly, with his legs averaging 7.6 rushing attempts and 47 rushing yards with three scores on the ground. Among 41 qualifying passers, he ranks 28th in yards per attempt, 20th in highly accurate throw rate, and 25th in catchable target rate. With Garrett Wilson out this week, Fields will need to rely upon his legs to get the job done in fantasy, which is easily possible. Carolina ranks 15th in yards per attempt and 19th in success rate per dropback while giving up the tenth-most passing touchdowns and ranking dead last in pressure rate. Fields should enjoy some clean pockets this week, which hasn’t been the case this season as he’s faced the second-highest pressure rate.
C.J. Stroud (QB – HOU)
C.J. Stroud has only one QB1 weekly finish this season. That’s when he demolished the Ravens’ broken pass defense before the bye as the QB1 for the week. Stroud hasn’t finished higher than QB15 in any other week. Among 41 qualifying passers, he ranks 13th in yards per attempt and catchable target rate and 14th in highly accurate throw rate. He should be able to post QB2 numbers this week against a Seattle pass defense that has allowed the sixth-most passing yards per game, the tenth-most passing touchdowns, and ranks 16th in CPOE.
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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.
