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.
Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em Lineup Advice
Demarcus Robinson (LAR – WR )
Robinson has a 14.5% target share, a 31.1% air-yard share, 1.33 YPRR, and a 14.6% first-read share. With Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp sidelined, those numbers should increase dramatically. Robinson has the talent to earn targets at a higher clip. Among 92 qualifying receivers, he is 36th in separation and 16th in route win rate. Robinson is tied for the team lead in end zone targets (two), so Stafford should be looking in his direction in high-leverage situations. The 49ers have allowed the third-most fantasy points per game to wide receivers. Robinson will run about 61% of his routes against Charvarius Ward (42.9% catch rate and 91.7 passer rating) and Isaac Yiadom (62.5% catch rate and 130.7 passer rating).
Darnell Mooney (ATL – WR)
Last week, Mooney popped off with a WR18 finish with a 24.1% target share, a 45.3% air-yard share, 2.93 YPRR, and a 26.7% first-read share. He was seventh in separation and third in route win rate against 69 qualifying receivers. His downfield skill set (15.1 aDOT last week) doesn’t lend itself to this week’s matchup. Last year Kansas City allowed the 11th-lowest passer rating and the seventh-lowest CPOE to deep passing. This fits with their two high coverage approach (second-highest two high usage, 71% of snaps). Mooney will run about 56% of his routes against Trent McDuffie (42.9% catch rate and 53.3 passer rating) and Jaylen Watson (63.6% catch rate and 135.4 passer rating). Sit Mooney this week.
Samaje Perine (KC – RB)
If you picked up Perine off of waivers, hold him on your roster, but don’t start him this week. Perine has played 14-15% of snaps this season, with his only contributions coming from the passing game (1.5 targets per game and 6.5 receiving yards per game). He didn’t play any early down snaps last week. He did have 80% of the third down snaps and 33% of the two-minute drill work. His role has to expand before he’s a possibility for fantasy lineups. The Falcons have allowed the fifth-fewest receptions and the ninth-fewest receiving yards to backs this season.
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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.