Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em: Sean Tucker, Bam Knight, Alec Pierce

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 dive into our start/sit lineup advice and outlook for a few of the top fantasy football waiver wire pickups of the week.

Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice

Sean Tucker (RB – TB)

If you’ve kept a close eye on the Buccaneers’ backfield, you’ve noticed that Sean Tucker‘s involvement has slowly increased over the last few weeks. Or at least it was a slow increase until Tucker went off for 140 yards from scrimmage and three scores in Week 11. Despite the big day for Tucker, Rachaad White played all third downs and two-minute drill snaps for the Buccaneers. If Bucky Irving remains out, Tucker will operate as the Buccaneers’ lead back on early downs and in goal-line situations. Irving’s injury timeline has been ambiguous, but he returned to practice last week on a limited basis. The Buccaneers’ running backs have a tough Week 12 matchup against the Rams.

Bam Knight (RB – ARI)

Jacoby Brissett has turned the Cardinals into one of the league’s most fun offenses to watch. With all the pass-catchers taking huge steps forward for fantasy, we have started to see the Arizona running game follow suit. With Trey Benson expected to return sometime in the next couple of weeks, we have seen multiple Arizona backs share the workload in Benson’s absence. Most recently, it has been Bam Knight and Emari Demercado operating as the early-down and pass-catching backs, respectively. However, in Week 11, Demercado left in the second quarter with an ankle injury. Knight carried the ball five times for 24 yards and a score and also caught four passes for 21 yards. The Cardinals’ schedule is unfriendly to running backs over the next three weeks, but as long as Benson remains out, Knight will be an RB2/RB3 play.

Alec Pierce (WR – IND)

Alec Pierce has been on a tear, with top-24 scoring finishes in three of his last four games (WR22, WR15, WR14). A big reason for the hot streak is his dominance against single-high coverage this season. Against single-high, Pierce has produced elite per-route numbers with a 28.1% target share, 3.44 yards per route run and a 32.7% first-read share, per Fantasy Points Data. The good news is that six of Pierce’s last seven games are against teams that have utilized single-high as their primary coverage, or they struggle to defend perimeter wide receivers. The only exception is the Seattle Seahawks. Pierce should continue dominating with weekly WR2 upside. He is a safe Flex floor play.

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.