Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em: Brock Purdy, Khalil Shakir, Jerome Ford (Week 16)

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

Khalil Shakir (WR)

Since Week 7, Shakir has been the WR25 in fantasy points per game, drawing eight red zone targets (two scores). During the same time frame, Shakir has had a 23.9% target share, 2.40 YPRR, and a 29.7% first-read share. Since Week 9, New England has had the fifth-highest single-high rate (61.8%). Since Week 7, against single-high, Shakir has had a 22.5% target share, 2.31 YPRR, and a 27.9% first-read share. His metrics have remained stable when compared against his overall numbers. Shakir should have another strong week. Since Week 10, New England has allowed the 14th-most PPR points per target and the sixth-most fantasy points per game to slot receivers.

Brock Purdy (QB)

Purdy stunk it up last week. There’s no denying it, but let’s not act like Purdy has been disappointing or is a stay-away player this week. Purdy has finished as a QB1 in weekly fantasy scoring in five of his last eight starts. Since Week 8, among 33 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks fifth in yards per attempt, 15th in passer rating, 19th in CPOE, and 14th in fantasy points per dropback. He faces a Miami pass defense that has shown some weakness in the last few weeks. Since Week 10, Miami has allowed the 12th-most passing yards per game, the tenth-most passing touchdowns (tied), and the 12th-highest CPOE.

Jerome Ford (RB)

Last week, Ford turned his nine touches in 104 total yards as the RB9 for the week. Among 61 qualifying backs this season, Ford ranks 19th in explosive run rate and 11th in yards after contact per attempt. Ford should operate as a strong RB2/3 this week. Since Week 10, Cincy has allowed the third-highest explosive run rate, the 11th-most rushing yards per game, and the 12th-most rushing touchdowns.

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.