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’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Sadly, we were all wrong about Tyrone Tracy Jr. With Cam Skattego going down, Tracy was expected to inherit the everydown role again, but Devin Singletary outpaced him last week. Last week, Tracy had a 44.6% snap rate, five of 13 running back rushing attempts, a 46.2% route share (12.1% target share). He finished with eight touches and 37 total yards. I expect the backfield split to continue. Tracy hasn’t been impressive this season on a per-touch basis with a 10% missed tackle rate and only 2.08 yards after contact per attempt. This week, he’ll be a low-end flex against an improved Chicago run defense. Since Week 5, Chicago has allowed the 11th-fewest rushing yards per game, the lowest yards after contact per attempt, and the eighth-lowest missed tackle rate.
Since Week 6, Kimani Vidal has been the RB19 in fantasy points per game with 17.5 touches and 82.6 total yards per game. Among 62 qualifying backs, he ranks sixth in explosive run rate and 20th in yards after contact per attempt. This week, he faces a Pittsburgh run defense that, since Week 5, has allowed the 14th-lowest explosive run rate, the seventh-fewest rushing yards per game, and ranked 17th in missed tackle rate. During the same span, the Steelers have also had the sixth-lowest stuff rate and allowed the tenth-most yards after contact per attempt. They are all over the map with analytical markers, so there’s a path for Vidal to have a solid game this week, but behind the Bolts’ beat-up offensive line, I don’t know if they’ll be able to clear the way for him consistently, but I could be wrong.
Last week, Zonovan Knight led the backfield with a 56.9% snap rate, three red zone rushing attempts, and a 45.9% route share (6.5% target share). He finished with only 11 touches and 47 total yards. Knight hasn’t been good on a per-touch basis with a 5% missed tackle rate and 1.58 yards after contact per attempt. This isn’t the week to look to his backfield for a flex play. Since Week 5, Seattle has remained an elite run defense, giving up the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game, the second-lowest explosive run rate, the fifth-lowest missed tackle rate, and the third-lowest yards after contact per attempt. Sit Knight.
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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.