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
Troy Franklin is the WR45 in fantasy points per game with three top-36 wide receiver finishes in weekly scoring (WR7, WR36, WR34). Franklin has high value roles in the Denver offense as he’s third on the team in deep targets and is fifth in the NFL in red zone targets. Franklin has a 70.7% route share with a 17.6% target share, 38.4 receiving yards per game (1.36 yards per route run), and a 19% first-read share. This week he faces a Dallas secondary that in Weeks 1-6 had the ninth-highest two high rate (58.5%). Against two high, Franklin’s first-read share has increased to 20.8%. His downfield role could come in handy this week against a pass defense that has allowed the most deep passing yards per game and the most deep passing touchdowns. Dallas has the most PPR points per target and the fifth-most receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers.
Marvin Mims is the WR57 in fantasy points per game, but he has two top-24 weekly finishes this season (WR9, WR24) and is a viable flex play this week. Mims has a 47.5% route share with a 12.1% target share, 33.4 receiving yards per game (1.76 yards per route run), and a 16.1% first-read share. This week he faces a Dallas secondary that in Weeks 1-6 had the ninth-highest two-high rate (58.5%). Against two high, he has a 13.9% target share, 1.16 yards per route run, and an 18.2% first-read share. The drop in efficiency is notable, but he could make up for that this week with his downfield role. Mims leads the team with 11 deep targets. Dallas has allowed the most deep passing yards per game and the most deep passing touchdowns. Dallas has the most PPR points per target and the fifth-most receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers. Mims could have a splash play or two this week and easily pay off as a flex in a high-scoring game environment.
Kayshon Boutte is the WR36 in fantasy points per game, but he’s been a volatile flex play this season. He has three weeks as a top-24 wide receiver (WR17, WR4, WR24), but he also has four games this season where he finished outside the top 50 wide receivers in scoring. Boutte has an 11.8% target share (17.2 aDOT) with 2.03 yards per route run and a 14% first-read share. He leads the team with eight deep targets while only seeing one red zone target. This week, he faces a Cleveland pass defense that has the third-highest rate of single high (61.2%). Against single high, Boutte has seen his target share increase to 15.5% with 2.30 yards per route run and a 15.5% first-read share. Boutte’s downfield role might not hit this week, though, against a Cleveland secondary that ranks 18th in deep completion rate and has limited offenses to the fourth-fewest deep passing yards per game. Boutte is a dice roll flex play that offers a nice ceiling, but he has an equally low floor. The Browns have allowed the tenth-most PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
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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.
