Our own Pat Fitzmaurice has been among the most accurate fantasy football experts in the industry over the last several years. Fitz was THE most accurate in-season ranker in 2020. What better way to prepare for your fantasy football start/sit lineup decisions than by reviewing his rankings? You can do just that below.
You can also find our expert consensus fantasy football rankings for the week here. And you can sync your fantasy football league for free using our My Playbook tool for custom advice, rankings, and analysis.
- Fitz’s Rankings, Tiers & Start/Sit Advice
Fantasy Football Rankings
Fitz’s Fantasy Football Takes
Quarterbacks
After throwing six TD passes in his first two games, Jordan Love has thrown only two TD passes in his last three — along with six interceptions. But the Denver defense is an 11-man get-well card. The Broncos have yielded the most touchdown passes (14), the second-most passing yards (1,608), the highest completion percentage (76.4%), the highest yards per attempt (8.2), and the highest opponent passer rating (117.8). Despite his recent struggles, treat Love as a low-end QB1 this week.
Running Backs
Tier 3 looks pretty sketchy this week, and what’s scary is that Tier 3 forms the bulk of our RB2 group. As uninspiring as Alexander Mattison and Rachaad White have been so far, I can’t imagine benching either unless you play in an eight-team league. Mattison averages 16.7 touches a game, White 17.2 touches. Volume is king at the RB position, especially in a six-team bye week. Mattison and White are pretty close to auto-starts this week.
Wide Receivers
Diontae Johnson is back from a hamstring injury that landed the Pittsburgh possession receiver on injured reserve. We’ve seen no indication that Johnson will be on any sort of snap count, and he’s told the media he’s good to go. Never mind that Johnson hasn’t scored a touchdown since 2021; in the bye-pocalypse, he’s a midrange WR3. And I have no fears that Johnson’s return will diminish the value of George Pickens. That genie is out of the bottle. Pickens averaged 4.9 targets per game last year, but he’s averaging 8.0 targets a game in 2023. Pickens is WR18 in fantasy points per game (0.5 PPR), and I’m ranking him WR16 even in a tricky matchup vs. a Rams defense that has allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points per game to WRs.
Tight Ends
Packer rookie Luke Musgrave hasn’t popped yet, but consider him a low-end TE1 this week in a tasty matchup against the porous Denver defense. The Broncos have given up a league-high 454 receiving yards and 13.7 fantasy points per game to TEs.
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