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
Xavier Legette (CAR)
I’m not putting a ton of stock into Xavier Legette‘s performance last week. We have a much longer track record of Legette being a league-average wide receiver than one that will post nine receptions and 92 receiving yards. Legette has a 15.8% target share, 28.4 receiving yards per game (0.90 yards per route run), and a 22.4% first-read share. He’s tied for the team lead in red zone targets while also seeing four deep targets. This week, he faces a Bills’ secondary that has utilized two high at the sixth-highest rate (56.7%). Against two high, Legette has seen his target share remain stable at 15.6% with 0.79 yards per route run and a 21.4% first-read share. Legette is a low-end flex option this week with a nice matchup.
Marvin Mims Jr. (DEN)
Marvin Mims is the WR57 in fantasy points per game, but he has two top-24 weekly finishes this season (WR9, WR24) and is a viable flex play this week. Mims has a 47.5% route share with a 12.1% target share, 33.4 receiving yards per game (1.76 yards per route run), and a 16.1% first-read share. This week he faces a Dallas secondary that in Weeks 1-6 had the ninth-highest two-high rate (58.5%). Against two high, he has a 13.9% target share, 1.16 yards per route run, and an 18.2% first-read share. The drop in efficiency is notable, but he could make up for that this week with his downfield role. Mims leads the team with 11 deep targets. Dallas has allowed the most deep passing yards per game and the most deep passing touchdowns. Dallas has the most PPR points per target and the fifth-most receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers. Mims could have a splash play or two this week and easily pay off as a flex in a high-scoring game environment.
Kayshon Boutte (NE)
Kayshon Boutte is the WR36 in fantasy points per game, but he’s been a volatile flex play this season. He has three weeks as a top-24 wide receiver (WR17, WR4, WR24), but he also has four games this season where he finished outside the top 50 wide receivers in scoring. Boutte has an 11.8% target share (17.2 aDOT) with 2.03 yards per route run and a 14% first-read share. He leads the team with eight deep targets while only seeing one red zone target. This week, he faces a Cleveland pass defense that has the third-highest rate of single high (61.2%). Against single high, Boutte has seen his target share increase to 15.5% with 2.30 yards per route run and a 15.5% first-read share. Boutte’s downfield role might not hit this week, though, against a Cleveland secondary that ranks 18th in deep completion rate and has limited offenses to the fourth-fewest deep passing yards per game. Boutte is a dice roll flex play that offers a nice ceiling, but he has an equally low floor. The Browns have allowed the tenth-most PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers.
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