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/Sit Advice
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Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Kareen Hunt will lead the backfield this week with Isiah Pacheco sidelined. He has averaged 8.8 touches and 37.7 total yards this season as the RB40 in fantasy points per game. Hunt has three top-24 weekly finishes this season already (RB22, RB8, RB12). Hunt hasn’t been impressive on a per-touch basis, with only a 10% missed tackle rate and 2.16 yards after contact per attempt. He could still have a strong fantasy day in Week 9 just based on volume and touchdown equity that he has in the offense. Hunt is tied for 15th in the NFL in rushing attempts inside the five-yard line. Since Week 4, Buffalo has allowed the sixth-most rushing yards per game, the tenth-highest explosive run rate, and the second-highest missed tackle rate.
Zonovan Knight should lead the backfield this week, especially on early downs. In his last two games, he has averaged 47.7% of the snaps with 14.5 touches and 59 total yards. Knight has not been efficient with his work, with zero explosive runs, a 7% missed tackle rate, and only 1.31 yards after contact per attempt. That might not matter in Week 9. That’s how bad the Dallas run defense has been. The best trick the Green Bay Packers ever pulled was convincing Jerry Jones that Kenny Clark would solve their run defense problems. Dallas has allowed the fourth-most rushing yards per game, the second-highest explosive run rate, the ninth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and they have the lowest stuff rate. Knight should flirt with low-end RB2 production this week with a strong flex floor.
Over the last two games, Rico Dowdle has worked as the 1B in the Carolina backfield with two red zone rushing attempts (Hubbard, four), a 40.3% snap rate, and a 25% route share (1.8% target share). He has averaged 13 touches and 75 total yards over the last two games. He’s still crushing it on a per-touch basis. Among 60 qualifying rushers, Dowdle ranks 16th in explosive run rate, 17th in missed tackle rate, and third in yards after contact per attempt. Dowdle will have to overcome a tough matchup, but he could get a boost of volume with the coaching staff insinuating that workload could shift back to him more this week. Plugging him in as a flex play this week is a bet on talent and the hope that his volume and backfield share increase this week. It’s a risky play no matter how ya slice it. Since Week 4, Green Bay has allowed the sixth-fewest rushing yards per game, the fourth-lowest explosive run rate, the second-lowest missed tackle rate, and the third-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.
