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.
- Waiver Wire Picks
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em Lineup Advice
Last week, C.J. Stroud started strong against the Chiefs before they turned up the blitz heat, and the Texans decided to take the air out of the ball and sit on a lead. As the QB29 in fantasy points per game with only two QB1 outings this season, I know that Stroud feels like a player that should never be in a fantasy lineup, but he could revisit QB1 land this week. Among 44 qualifying passers, Stroud ranks 20th in yards per attempt, 19th in passing yards per game, 32nd in highly accurate throw rate, 36th in catchable target rate, and 22nd in hero throw rate. The Arizona pass defense has been abysmal. Stroud isn’t playing great football, but he could cook this secondary this week. Since Week 10, Arizona has allowed the most yards per attempt, the most passing touchdowns, the highest success rate per dropback, and had the fourth-lowest pressure rate.
We must be living in the upside-down because Tyler Shough has finished as a QB1 in weekly scoring in three of his five NFL starts (QB12, QB12, QB6). I don’t think Shough’s two rushing touchdowns last week or his 55 rushing yards were replicable moving forward, but he has flashed a rushing floor with at least 18 rushing yards in each of his last three games. Among 40 qualifying quarterbacks, Shough ranks 15th in yards per attempt, ninth in catchable target rate, 27th in highly accurate throw rate, and 13th in hero throw rate. Shough could post another QB1 performance this week. Since Week 10, Carolina has allowed the fifth-highest success rate per dropback, the sixth-most yards per attempt, and the seventh-highest CPOE.
Last week, Shedeur Sanders flashed the type of potential that I’ve known that he has. He was the QB2 for the week behind only Josh Allen as he finished with 364 passing yards, three passing scores, 8.7 yards per attempt, 29 rushing yards, and a rushing score. Last week, among 29 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranked sixth in yards per attempt, tenth in highly accurate throw rate, and eighth in hero throw rate. It was amazing to watch. This week, he has a chance to stack another nice game and prove he should be the Browns’ answer at quarterback for 2026. Since Week 10, Chicago has had the seventh-lowest pressure rate while giving up the tenth-most passing touchdowns (tied), the 13th-highest CPOE, and ranking 19th in passing yards per game. Sanders is a QB2 that could easily be a QB1 again this week.
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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.
