Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em: Keon Coleman, Cedric Tillman, Josh Downs (Week 9)

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

Keon Coleman (WR)

Coleman is the WR46 in fantasy points per game while ranking 18th in deep targets and 20th in red zone looks among wide receivers. Since Amari Cooper‘s arrival, he has had a 20.9% target share, a 34.9% air-yard share, 3.68 YPRR, and a 21.7% first-read share. He has seen three end zone targets over the last two games. Miami has flip-flopped between single high and two high all year (53.8% single high). Buffalo has faced the second-highest rate of single high this season (60.9%), so I’m projecting Miami to use single high this week to defend Buffalo. In their last meeting, Miami utilized single high on 60% of their defensive snaps. Against single high, Coleman has a 21% TPRR, 2.97 YPRR, and a 20.2% first-read share (second-best). Miami has allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points per game and receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers.

Cedric Tillman (WR)

Tillman has been awesome over the last two weeks as the WR10 and WR3 in weekly fantasy scoring. He has drawn a 22.6% target share (tied for the team lead), a 36.8% air-yard share, and a 27.3% first-read share (team-leading) with 2.22 YPRR and 90 receiving yards per game. He also tied for the team lead with three end-zone targets over the last two games. The Chargers have the third-highest two high rate in the NFL (59.5%). Since Week 7, against two high, Tillman ranks third on the team with an 18.8% target share, first with 2.63 YPRR, and third with an 18.2% first-read share. Tillman could keep the train rolling this week, but he’ll have to overcome a tough matchup. The Chargers have allowed the fifth-fewest fantasy points per game and the ninth-fewest receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers.

Josh Downs (WR)

Downs has been playing out of his mind this season as the WR20 in fantasy points per game while seeing seven red zone targets in his six games played. He’s been a top 20 wide receiver in weekly scoring in four of six games. In Flacco’s two starts, Downs has had a 25.3% target share, 2.14 YPRR, and a 31.7% first-read share. All of these metrics are elite. Minnesota has been gashed by slot receivers this season and will be again in Week 9 by Downs. The Vikings have allowed the third-highest fantasy points per game and the sixth-highest receiving yards per game to the position.

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.

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