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.
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Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em Lineup Advice
Richardson’s QB4 finish in fantasy seems like a distant memory for most right now after his QB21 and QB31 finishes over the last two weeks. Growing pains were always likely part of the deal with Richardson for 2024. While his rushing has been present, it hasn’t been to the levels we hoped. He still ranks top-six among quarterbacks in carries per game (sixth), rushing yards per game (fifth), and red zone carries per game (sixth). Among 35 qualifying quarterbacks, Richardson does rank eighth in yards per attempt, but after that, it gets ugly fast as he’s 33rd in CPOE, 31st in highly accurate throw rate, and he has the highest off-target throw rate. Richardson retains QB1 status barely this week because of his rushing ability, but it’s a tough matchup for him as a passer. Pittsburgh has allowed the 13th-lowest yards per attempt, the third-lowest CPOE, and the fourth-lowest success rate and EPA per dropback.
It looks like Akers will be the starting running back for Houston again in Week 4. Last week Akers played 43% of the snaps with ten touches and 28 total yards. He saved his day with a receiving touchdown. He handled nearly all the rushing work (91% of the rushing play snaps) while conceding to Dare Ogunbowale on passing downs (35% of snaps vs. 48%) and in the red zone (25% of snaps vs. 75%). In his limited action, Akers has posted solid tackle-breaking metrics with a 25% missed tackle rate and 2.81 yards after contact per attempt. Akers likely needs a touchdown this week to pay off again because his rushing matchup is brutal. Jacksonville has held rushers to the sixth-lowest explosive run rate, the fourth-missed tackle rate, and the third-lowest yards after contact per attempt.
Dallas Goedert had the most productive game of his seven-year NFL career last week. While it is easy to say Goedert may not post 22 fantasy points anytime soon, we cannot completely dismiss Goedert’s value. He leads all tight ends in fantasy points and is one of two at the position to score at least five points in all three weeks of the season. He also stands to benefit from the potential absences of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in Week 4. If either or both of Philadelphia’s wide receivers miss their game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fantasy managers should lock Goedert in as a top-five option with week-winning upside.
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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.
