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
Last week, Brown took the lead in the Cincy backfield. He finished as the RB18 for the week with 12 touches and 64 total yards (one score). He played 62% of the snaps, 72% of the rushing play snaps, 56% of the passing down snaps, and he had 100% of the red zone backfield snaps. Among 61 qualifying backs, Brown has crushed every efficiency stat I can find, ranking tenth in explosive run rate, second in missed tackles forced per attempt, and tenth in yards after contact per attempt. Brown could build upon last week’s stats against the Browns. Cleveland has allowed the fifth-highest explosive run rate, the 12th-most rushing yards per game, the 13th-highest yards after contact per attempt, and the 14th-highest rushing success rate.
Richardson almost suited up in Week 6, but Indy played it safe. Richardson should be back this week. He has been uneven this season with weekly finishes of QB4, QB21, QB31 in his three full games played. Richardson has struggled as a passer. Among 37 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks fourth in yards per attempt and fifth in fantasy points per dropback, but he is also 36th in passer rating and CPOE. HIs rushing equity has been solid but not outstanding ranking eighth in carries per game (5.2) and seventh in rushing yards per game (35.2) among quarterbacks. Miami has been solid as a pass defense overall, but they struggle with defending a core principle of Richardson’s game at this point. Miami has yielded the 11th-lowest yards per attempt and the seventh-lowest passer rating while ranking 16th in success rate per dropback. The Dolphins big weakness has been at defending the deep ball. They have allowed the fourth-highest passer rating, the 11th-most passing yards, and the tenth-highest adjusted completion rate to deep passing. 18.2% of Richardson’s passes (the highest mark in the NFL) have been throws of 20 or more yards. This is a quiet get right spot for Richardson.
Achane is practicing in full as he returns from a concussion. We only have one game this season as a sample, with Achane and Mostert both active and playing a full game. In Week 1, Achane played 52% of the snaps with 17 touches and 100 total yards. In that game, Achance and Mostert split the red zone snaps 50/50. Achane’s fall from grace as one of the most efficient rushers in the NFL last year to one of the most inefficient this season has been tough to watch. Among 61 qualifying backs, he ranks 51st in missed tackles forced per attempt and 56th in yards after contact per attempt. Indy could help cure what ails this ground game, though. Indy has allowed the second-most rushing yards per game, the eighth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and the 11th-highest yards before contact per attempt.
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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.