Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em: Tucker Kraft, Sam Darnold, Darnell Mooney (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

Tucker Kraft (TE)

Kraft is the TE7 in fantasy points per game, ranking fifth among tight ends in red zone targets. He has commanded a 12.5% target share and 10.3% first-read share with 1.90 YPRR. Kraft remains a TE1 this week, but don’t expect smash numbers against a Detroit defense that has allowed the second-fewest receiving yards and fantasy points per game to the position.

Sam Darnold (QB)

Darnold continues to surprise in the fantasy realm as the QB12 in fantasy points per game. Among 37 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks fourth in yards per attempt, fifth in passing touchdowns, sixth in CPOE, and eighth in highly accurate throw rate. He should keep the QB1 train rolling down the tracks this week. Indy continues to bleed out production to passers, giving up the ninth-highest yards per attempt, the tenth-highest passer rating, the 11th-highest CPOE, and the eighth-most fantasy points via passing.

Darnell Mooney (WR)

Mooney has turned out to be one of the best late-round picks you could have made in drafts this offseason. He is the WR21 in fantasy points per game with five top 36 fantasy scoring weeks among wide receivers (WR18, WR10, WR27, WR3, WR32). He has seen four red zone targets over the last four games and overall ranks tenth in deep targets among wide receivers. Mooney has a 20.5% target share, a 35.5% air-yard share, 1.92 YPRR, and a 27.2% first-read share. Since Week 2, Dallas has had the fourth-highest single-high rate in the NFL (61.4%). Against single high, Mooney has seen his target share fall to 16.9% with 0.95 YPRR and a 22.3% first-read share. While I don’t project a huge day for Mooney this week, it only takes one converted deep target for him to prove me wrong, and the Dallas secondary has bled out production to wide receivers. Dallas has allowed the 14th-highest fantasy points per game and the ninth-highest receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers.

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.