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
If you’re in need of a streaming option this week (I’m looking at you, Joe Burrow investors), you could do worse than Gardner Minshew. The mustachioed Minshew has been held under 200 passing yards in each of his last two starts, but he’s averaging 232.5 passing yards over six 2023 starts, and he’ll be facing a Buccaneers defense that’s giving up 20.0 fantasy points per game to opposing QBs. The Colts continue to run their offense at a brisk pace, averaging 26.19 seconds between plays — the second-fastest pace in the league. A faster pace means more plays, and more plays means more opportunities to score fantasy points.
Speaking of conservative rankings, I have Kyren Williams at RB28 in his first game back from an ankle injury. That might seem like a mincing, fraidy-cat ranking for a player who was averaging 18.3 touches a game before he went down. Williams also gets a favorable matchup against an Arizona defense that has allowed the third-most fantasy points to RBs. But the Rams probably aren’t giving Williams 25 touches in his first game back from an IR stint. I think we’ll see some of Royce Freeman, too. But I’ll be starting Williams myself in two leagues, so it’s not as if I think he’s unplayable.
With Michael Thomas sidelined by a knee injury, expect an uptick in targets for Rashid Shaheed, and explosive playmaker who’s averaged 17.2 yards per catch and an outrageous 12.1 yards per target since coming into the league last year. Shaheed is a high-end WR4 this week and a very playable fantasy option against the Falcons. Shaheed will probably run a lot of his routes against Dee Alford, the weak link among Atlanta’s top three cornerbacks.
You’re not going to feel comfortable starting any Cleveland pass catcher with rookie fifth-rounder Dorian Thompson-Robinson starting at quarterback for the Browns, but David Njoku has been Thompson-Robinson’s security blanket. In DTR’s two starts, 22 of his 79 passes have been directed toward Njoku, who’s produced 13-102-0 on those targets. That’s not exactly Grade A efficiency, but you can start Njoku in a pinch.
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