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.
Fantasy Football Rankings
Fitz’s Fantasy Football Takes
Quarterbacks
What I was most eager to see in Kyler Murray‘s return last week was how much running he’d do on his surgically repaired knee. He ran six times for 33 yards and a touchdown in the cardinals’ 25-23 win over the Falcons. And if there were any doubts about Murray’s mobility post-surgery, check out this cool overhead view of one of Murray’s scrambles last week, courtesy of the Cardinals’ social-media team. It should remove any doubts about whether Murray has lost any of his mobility.
Running Backs
Since 2021, 65% of the running backs who sustained a concussion in a game have been sidelined the following week. (Hat tip to Dr. Edwin Porras for that bit of data.) There’s a good chance that Ty Chandler is Minnesota’s lead RB when the Vikings take on the Broncos on Sunday. The 5-11, 204-pound Chandler is probably too small to get 20 or more touches and is likely to share some work with Kene Nwangwu and/or Myles Gaskin. But Chandler has big-play speed, and he’ll be facing a flawed Denver run defense that just let speedy Bills RB James Cook run for 109 yards on only 12 carries.
Wide Receivers
We haven’t gotten many ceiling games from perennial stalwart Chris Godwin this season. He has just one top-12 positional finish. Godwin is currently WR41 in fantasy points per game (0.5 PPR) among receivers who have played at least four games. But Godwin offers a reasonably sturdy floor, with at least 50 receiving yards in 7-of-9 games this year. I’m slightly optimistic that Godwin’s usage could be enhanced this week against the 49ers and their fierce pass rush. If Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield is forced to get rid of the ball quickly, that could favor Godwin and his 8.7-yard average depth of target rather than Mike Evans and his 14.3-yard aDOT. I’m ranking Godwin as a midrange WR3.
Tight Ends
Welcome to must-start status, Trey McBride. The Cardinals’ second-year tight end had already become a viable fantasy option with Josh Dobbs temporarily serving as Arizona’s quarterback. But with Kyler Murray returning to action last week, McBride went ballistic, dropping 8-131-0 on the Cardinals. McBride now gets a juicy matchup against a Texans defense that has given up the third-most fantasy points to TEs.
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