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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- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
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Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Sam Darnold is the QB15 in fantasy points per game, but don’t let that fool you. He has QB1 outings in three of his last four games (QB2, QB9, QB5) and has been one of the most efficient passers in the NFL on a per-dropback basis. Among 41 qualifying passers, Darnold ranks first in yards per attempt, seventh in passing yards per game, fourth in CPOE, and second in highly accurate throw rate and hero throw rate. Since Week 5, Arizona has been a middle-of-the-road pass defense, ranking 14th in success rate per dropback, 13th in EPA per dropback, and allowing the tenth-highest CPOE. Don’t rule out Darnold for another QB1 week.
In the five starts, Justin Fields has played the entire game; he has finished as a QB1 four times (QB2, QB4, QB7, QB31, QB12). In those five games, he has averaged 45.2 rushing yards with three rushing scores. Among 41 qualifying passers, he ranks 29th in yards per attempt, 17th in highly accurate throw rate, 30th in catchable target rate, and 33rd in hero throw rate. Fields at this juncture is a valued fantasy play based upon his garbage time production and rushing output. Guess what…that production is all the same in fantasy football, so stop hating it. His Week 10 matchup against the Browns’ pass defense is average at best, so he’ll need to access his rushing skeleton key to be a QB1 again this week. Since Week 5, Cleveland has allowed the seventh-highest yards per attempt, but they have also ranked 15th in passer rating and CPOE and 19th in success rate per dropback allowed.
Baker Mayfield has back-to-back QB2 weekly finishes (QB20, QB26) that have dropped his season-long standing to QB14 in fantasy points per game. Among 41 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks 13th in passing yards per game, 18th in yards per attempt, 25th in highly accurate throw rate, and fifth in hero throw rate. This New England matchup doesn’t come at a great time, with Mayfield struggling some with his weaponry banged up. Since Week 5, New England has allowed the tenth-fewest yards per attempt, the 11th-fewest passing yards per game, the tenth-lowest CPOE, and the 12th-lowest success rate per dropback.
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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.
