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
Woody Marks has fully taken over the Houston backfield. Across the last two games, he has had all seven of the team’s red zone rushing attempts while playing 72.3 % of the snaps with a 37.5% route share (4.7% target share), 17.5 touches per game, and 66 total yards per game. Marks has been a top-20 back in weekly scoring in three of his last five games (RB16, RB15, RB11). He hasn’t been impressive on a per-touch basis, ranking 24th in explosive run rate and 33rd in yards after contact per attempt (among 54 qualifying backs). He should have a strong showing this week against the Bills’ Swiss cheese run defense. Since Week 7, they have allowed the fifth-most rushing yards per game, the highest missed tackle rate, and the second-highest yards after contact per attempt.
Last week, Khalil Shakir had the highest route share out of any of the Bills’ wide receivers with only a 62.5% clip. No other Bills wide receiver eclipsed a 47% route share. He’s the only Bills’ receiving option worth considering for fantasy this week. Overall, Shakir is the WR37 in fantasy points per game, leading the team with a 19.7% target share while posting 45.4 receiving yards per game, 1.81 yards per route run, and a 23.1% first-read share. Shakir leads the team with eight red zone targets and ranks second on the team with only five deep targets. Shakir is a solid flex again this week. Since Week 7, Houston has ranked 15th in PPR points per target allowed to slot receivers while giving up the 13th-most PPR points per target to the position.
Across his last three games, Jayden Higgins‘ route share has climbed from 40.8% to 53.2%. Since Week 10, he has had a 16.3% target share (29% target per route run rate), 48.5 receiving yards per game, 1.98 yards per route run, and an 18.5% first-read share (third on the team). In those two games, Higgins has had two red zone targets and three deep targets. Buffalo has the seventh-highest two-high rate in the NFL (54.7%). Since Week 10, against two high, Higgins has led the team with a 33% target per route run rate against two high while also posting 1.93 yards per route run. He’s a viable flex this week, but the matchup isn’t great. Since Week 7, Buffalo has allowed the 13th-fewest PPR points per target and the fifth-fewest receiving yards per game 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.
