Fantasy Football Start’em, Sit’em: Jayden Reed, Luther Burden, Bryce Young

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

Jayden Reed (WR – GB)

In Week 14, Jayden Reed returned from a broken collarbone and had a 65.4% route share, a 16% target share, 31 receiving yards, 1.82 yards per route run and a 25% first-read share (tied for the team lead), per Fantasy Points Data. Reed didn’t have a red-zone target or a deep target. In Week 15, Reed had a 71.6% snap share, a 67.3% route share, a 15% target share and he tied for the team lead in receiving yards with 55. The Packers could lean on him more for the rest of the season if Christian Watson‘s chest injury forces him to miss a few games. Reed is a decent PPR Flex option who could easily flirt with WR2/WR3 production for the rest of the season.

Luther Burden III (WR – CHI)

In Weeks 12-14, Luther Burden III had a 54.7% route share with a 16% target share, 48.7 receiving yards per game, 2.28 yards per route run and a 23.6% first-read share, per Fantasy Points Data. In those three games, Burden had weekly scoring finishes of WR36, WR44 and WR25. With Rome Odunze a last-minute inactive, Burden led the Bears with a 25% target share, six receptions and 84 receiving yards. Burden did this while only playing 39% of the snaps with a 50% route share, per PFF. Burden did sustain an ankle injury last week, so that could also be partially to blame for the usage. Burden could still be locked into a part-time role for the rest of the season with how much 12 and 21 personnel the Bears want to utilize. It won’t matter, though, if Burden continues to see volume like this. Burden is a solid Flex play for the rest of the season.

Bryce Young (QB – CAR)

Bryce Young was hot early on in the Panthers’ Week 15 game against the Saints, dropping a beautiful throw to Jalen Coker for his lone passing touchdown. But Young finished with only 163 passing yards in Carolina’s disappointing 20-17 loss to New Orleans, adding seven carries for 49 yards. The Panthers host the Buccaneers this week. Over the last five weeks, they have allowed the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. With the Panthers’ last three regular-season games being must-win affairs, Young will need to do everything he can to make his first NFL postseason. With the Buccaneers’ defense being very beatable, Young looks like the top streaming option for Week 16.

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.