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
Baker Mayfield has been STRUGGLING as the QB31 in fantasy points per game since Week 7. Since Week 7, among 43 qualifying quarterbacks, Mayfield has ranked 42nd in yards per attempt, 34th in passing yards per game, 27th in highly accurate throw rate, and 32nd in catchable target rate. The Falcons and the return of Mike Evans could be the “get right” elixir that Mayfield desperately needs. Since Week 10, Atlanta has allowed the third-most passing yards per game, the eighth-highest yards per attempt, the sixth-highest CPOE, and the sixth-highest success rate per dropback.
Mike Evans will be back this week. I expect him to maybe be on a snap count, but to compensate for that with a high route share, as the Bucs will just limit his workload on rushing plays if they ease him in. We have no idea what to expect in terms of usage for Evans, Chris Godwin, and Emeka Egbuka as they haven’t played a game all together in 2025. In Weeks 1-3, Evans was the clear leader of the passing attack with a 27.3% target share and 35.4% first-read share, churning out 46.7 receiving yards per game with 1.56 yards per route run. In those three games, Evans had five red zone targets and six deep targets. I expect him to see plenty of high cholesterol usage this week, even in a somewhat limited role. Since Week 10, Atlanta has allowed the second-most PPR points per target and the third-most receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers. Evans is at minimum a strong flex with WR2 upside.
In his four starts this season, Cousins has finished higher than QB22 in weekly scoring only once. He has zero games with more than 240 passing yards and only one outing with multiple passing touchdowns. Among 44 qualifying passers, he ranks 37th in yards per attempt, 40th in passer rating, 27th in hero throw rate, and 43rd in fantasy points per dropback. Cousins could surprise this week and return strong QB2 numbers. The Bucs’ pass defense has been a bottom-of-the-barrel operation. Since Week 10, they have allowed the second-most yards per attempt, the seventh-most passing yards per game, the 12th-highest CPOE, and the third-highest 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.