Fantasy Football Start em, Sit em: Matthew Stafford, Brenton Strange, Alexander Mattison (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

Alexander Mattison (RB)

With Sincere McCormick headed to the IR, it looks like the Raiders will divide up the backfield work this week between Mattison and Ameer Abdullah. Last week, in the second half of the game, Mattison handled 80% of the rushing play snaps, 41.9% of the passing down snaps, and none of the red zone snaps. The team only had one snap in the red zone in the second half, so I wouldn’t go nuts with that fact. I expect Mattison to handle the early down work this week and get some red zone snaps, but the game script will likely dictate how much red zone usage he sees. Among 61 qualifying backs, Mattison ranks 41st in missed tackles forced per attempt and 46th in yards after contact per attempt. Since Week 10, Jacksonville has allowed the 14th-highest explosive run rate, the fourth-most rushing yards per game, and the tenth-most yards before contact per attempt. Mattison is a solid flex play this week.

Brenton Strange (TE)

Last week, Strange had a 26.1% target share, 1.83 YPRR, and a 35.3% first-read share as he finished as the TE2 for the week. Strange finished with one red-zone target, 12 targets, 11 receptions, and 73 scoreless receiving yards. Strange is a TE1 again this week. The Raiders have allowed the fourth-most receiving yards per game, the eighth-highest yards per reception, and the fourth-most fantasy points per game to tight ends.

Matthew Stafford (QB)

Since Week 8, Stafford has been the QB14 in fantasy points per game. Among 45 qualifying quarterbacks since Week 8, Stafford ranks 12th in yards per attempt, seventh in passing yards per game and passer rating, and fifth in passing touchdowns. Stafford should carve up what has become an overrated Jets pass defense. Since Week 10, New York has given up the fifth-most passing yards per game, the sixth-most yards per attempt, and the second-highest CPOE.

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.