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 didn’t pan out the way we all hoped for Wicks. I’m not fading Wicks after one down game where the Rams changed up their corners and found success in stopping Green Bay. He had a 62% route share while tying Jayden Reed for the team lead in target share (23.1%) while leading the way with a 44.2% air-yard share and ranking second in first-read share (23.8%). Wicks is second on the team in red-zone targets while leading the way in end-zone targets. This week, we should get the Wicks game that we all pinned for last week. Since Week 3, Arizona has had the ninth-highest single-high rate in the NFL (59.2%). Against single-high, Wicks leads the team with a 34% TPRR while posting a solid 2.18 YPRR and 0.105 FD/RR. Arizona has allowed the third-highest PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers. Wick will run about 59% of his routes against Starling Thomas (55.6% catch rate and 119.9 passer rating) and Sean Murphy-Bunting (76.5% catch rate and 102.1 passe rating).
At this time of writing this, Fields looks like the Week 6 starting quarterback for the Steelers. He is the QB11 in fantasy points per game. Among 35 qualifying quarterbacks, he is 21st in yards per attempt, 11th in passer rating, 14th in CPOE, and seventh in fantasy points per dropback. He remains top-seven among quarterbacks in carries per game (fourth), red zone carries per game (third), rushing yards per game (seventh), and rushing touchdowns (second). Fields should rebound with a better game this week. The Raiders pass defense has allowed the ninth most passing touchdowns, the ninth-highest passer rating, and the second-highest CPOE. He should have plenty of time in the pocket against a defense that ranks 17th in time to pressure.
Dowdle is coming off his best game of the season. He had a season-high 50% snap share with 22 touches and 114 total yards. Over the last two weeks, among 41 qualifying backs, he has shown some glimmer of hope, ranking 20th in yards after contact per attempt. Overall, this season, he’s the RB34 in fantasy points per game, averaging 13 touches and 64.4 total yards. This isn’t the week to go chasing last week’s results for Dowdle. He has a horrible matchup this week against Detroit’s top-shelf run defense. The Lions have allowed the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game, the fourth-lowest yards after contact per attempt, and the lowest yards per carry and success rate to zone runs (Dowdle 55.6% zone).
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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.