By Dave Moore (@davieremixed)
Without doubt, the biggest head scratcher of a fantasy football player is deciding who to start in their line-up each week. There is nothing worse than leaving a game on your bench and spending the entirety of the next week dwelling in hindsight.
Whether you’re in 1 league or 100 leagues, setting your line-ups is the most crucial part of your fantasy week and we’re here to let you know which players are in the best environments to boom and which are most likely destined to bust.
Don’t forget to keep your #EyesPeeled for tomorrow’s podcast where we dive into a full preview of the weekend games and make sure you head over to Twitter (@F10YFantasy) for “Start ‘em, sit ‘em, GIF ‘EM!”.
Spoiler alert: Blake Jarwin is a start ‘em.
Sunday Late Games
Matchup: Los Angeles Chargers @ Cincinnati Bengals
Start of the Game
Joe Mixon – Running Back – Cincinnati Bengals
The post-bye week Joe Mixon of 2019 was terrific, only scoring single-digit fantasy points two out of eight times. This year, with a shortened pre-season and a rookie QB, I expect the Bengals to go run-heavy which won’t be a problem with a guy I think has the potential to be a top 5 fantasy back this season.
Other Notable Starts
Los Angeles – Austin Ekeler – Running Back
Cincinnati – N/A
Sit of the Game
A.J. Green – Wide Receiver – Cincinnati Bengals
I know this is out there but stay with me, we’ve no idea what version of A.J Green we’re going to get as he’s not practiced much during camp. This just seems too risky to start him this week.
Other Notable Sits
Los Angeles – N/A
Cincinnati – Joe Burrow – Quarterback
Matchup: Arizona Cardinals @ San Francisco 49ers
Start of the Game
Kyler Murray – Quarterback – Arizona Cardinals
I’m high on the Cardinals this year and therefore Murray also. They have the potential to be one of the most enjoyable teams to watch this year with the sophomore quarterback being at the forefront of that. He scored 23 and 26 points in his starts against the 49ers this year and now has DeAndre
Hopkins to throw to. Get involved.
Other Notable Starts
Arizona – DeAndre Hopkins – Wide Receiver
San Francisco – George Kittle – Tight End
Sit of the Game
Raheem Mostert – Running Back – San Francisco 49ers
Raheem Mostert’s combined fantasy score against Arizona last year? Three. Points. San Francisco have Tevin Coleman and the returning Jerick McKinnon that’ll be taking snaps away from Mostert and I can’t with good heart start him when I just don’t know who the true RB1 is.
Other Notable Sits
Arizona – Larry Fitzgerald – Wide Receiver
San Francisco – Jimmy Garappolo – Quarterback
Matchup: Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints
Start of the Game
Michael Thomas – Wide Receiver – New Orleans Saints
Had it not been for Lamar Jackson and the league’s quarterback bias, we’d be talking about the returning MVP but we’ll just make do with the premier WR1 of Fantasy Football and I fully expect Thomas to continue his 2019 form this week.
Other Notable Starts
Tampa Bay – Chris Godwin – Wide Receiver
New Orleans – N/A
Sit of the Game
Rob Gronkowski – Tight End – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I’m not buying into this reunion for one second. A fading Tom Brady throwing short completions to someone who missed 2019 due to injuries whilst also going up against of the best teams in the league? No thank you.
Other Notable Sits
Tampa Bay – Tom Brady – Quarterback, Leonard Fournette – Running Back, Mike Evans – Wide Receiver
New Orleans – Alvin Kamara – Running Back
Sunday Night Football
Matchup: Dallas Cowboys @ Los Angeles Rams
Start of the Game
Dak Prescott – Quarterback – Dallas Cowboys
I know I know, you’re screaming “WHAT, NO JARWIN?!” but with such a wealth of options for Dak to choose from it was hard to nail down a particular receiver so I went with the
signal-caller himself who I think is in for a huge season. Cooper, Gallup, Lamb, Jarwin, Elliott. Wowsers.
Other Notable Starts
Dallas – Michael Gallup – Wide Receiver, #AlwaysJarwin
Los Angeles – Tyler Higbee – Tight End
Sit of the Game
Cam Akers – Running Back – Los Angeles Rams
I can’t imagine that too many people have stock in Akers as an RB1/2 but even for your flex I would just hold off for a week or two before we get a look at what sort of usage he’ll get. I could apply this sit to the whole Rams running back corps but for now, we’ll just unfairly single out Akers.
Other Notable Sits
Dallas – N/A
Los Angeles – Jared Goff – Quarterback
Monday Night Football
Matchup: Pittsburgh Steelers @ New York Giants
Start of the Game
JuJu Smith-Schuster – Wide Receiver – Pittsburgh Steelers
A superb 2018 was followed by a pretty mediocre 2019 for JuJu but what can you do when Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges are throwing you the ball? Whilst Roethlisberger isn’t the player he was, he can at least help JuJu to some easy yardage this week against a Giants secondary that’s paper-thin.
Other Notable Starts
Pittsburgh – James Connor – Running Back
New York – Saquon Barkley – Running Back
Sit of the Game
DST – New York Giants
You cannot start this DST this week or any other week. Even against Washington. We’re going to have a lot of fun watching the Giants in some shootouts this year but steer clear of them on this side of the ball.
Other Notable Sits
Pittsburgh – DST
New York – Golden Tate – Wide Receiver
Matchup: Tennessee Titans @ Denver Broncos
Start of the Game
A.J. Brown – Wide Receiver – Tennessee Titans
With the loss of Chris Harris Jr in free agency and Von Miller going down for the season, the Broncos don’t look as defensively strong going into the season as they’d have hoped. On the other side of that, there is a chance for the Titans to regress offensively but there’s also the chance that AJ Brown comes on leaps and bounds this year. I’m going with the latter and expect a big game.
Other Notable Starts
Tennessee – Derrick Henry – Running Back
Denver – N/A
Sit of the Game
Phillip Lindsay – Running Back – Denver Broncos
With Melvin Gordon III being thrown into the mix in the backfield this leaves Lindsay’s snap count a bit of a mystery. I’d err on the side of caution this week until we see a pattern of how he and MGIII will be used start to develop.
Other Notable Sits
Tennessee – Jonnu Smith – Tight End
Denver – Drew Lock – Quarterback
For the latest on each player’s start and sit status, make sure you checkout @F10YFantasy on Twitter. Remember, keep those #EyesPeeled.