Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 9

The 2021 NFL season is already halfway over as we head into Week 9.  Benjamin (@FFRabbitDad) and Brendan (@obryanbren) are back with more players to take a look at when setting your fantasy football lineups. Check it all out here in our unique Start or Sit Faceoff, for Week 9 with Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 8.

Brendan: This week is a little more difficult to set your lineups in respect to bye weeks than last week. We have the Lions, Buccaneers, WFT, and Seahawks with byes this week, so quite a few starting players to work your lineups around. It’s not bye-mageddon or whatever you decided to call it from a few weeks ago, but for sure causing some to do some roster gymnastics. Looks like you took a swing and a miss for K.J. Osborn last week, however, I won’t rub it in too much. I did pick a player to start that put up a goose egg two weeks back (I won’t name names). Other than that I think we did pretty well and provided our loyal readers with some worthwhile advice. 

Benjamin: The one thing I hope for when writing this article is that we do help people. Whether it’s by suggesting one player over another or introducing them to the Consistency Score, the goal really is to give folks as much information as possible with those hard decisions. Steering folks away from starting Taylor Heinicke and Mike Gesicki while nudging them towards Michael Pittman and Dallas Goedert is what we aim to do for everyone, every week. We’re always willing to answer questions all the way up to game time each week, as well. Now, time to navigate these bye weeks and get people some points!

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Quarterbacks

Start: Teddy Bridgewater – Tua Tagovailoa

Benjamin: If you’re in need of a quarterback that will keep your team from losing in just about any week, look no further. Teddy Bridgewater has been uber consistent all season, outside of his concussion shortened week four output. He’s got Jerry Jeudy back on top of all his other great target choices. The matchup is a good one, too. Through the first five weeks, Dallas surrendered more than 290 passing yards in each game to quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts, Sam Darnold, and a combination of Daniel Jones and Mike Glennon. You may not get a week-winning performance from Bridgewater, but you won’t get a horrible stat line from him.

Brendan: I couldn’t resist the opportunity to completely flip my picks from last week. I had Tua Tagovailoa as a sit last week and Daniel Jones as a start. This week we’ll just flip it and reverse it. Tua has actually been playing pretty well the last few weeks, he just ran into the buzzsaw that is the Buffalo Bill defense last week. This week he has the Houston Texans, who have the fourth highest D-PAC score against quarterbacks of 10.76 and giving up over 20 fantasy points per game. Tagovailoa seems to be averaging two touchdowns per game and just shy of 300 yards passing per game over the past three games. I expect a solid performance this week against the Texans and would gladly start him.

Sit: Daniel Jones – Kirk Cousins

Brendan: Jones had a solid fantasy performance last week. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t huge numbers, but just very solid putting up 22-222-2 (No, I didn’t just make that up) with one interception. However, he is having solid performances in spite of the rash of injuries around him on the offense. Seems like any time someone comes back from injury they are out after a few plays. I’m not even going to bring up the offensive coordinator. Playcalling is fully in question. It was looking like Saquon Barkley might be coming back this week, which would be some much-needed help for Jones, but that is back up in the air. Jones has to go up against the Raiders this week, who are giving up good numbers against quarterbacks (8.59 D-PAC score and 17 points per game), but this feels like a game the Raiders defense should do well in. If you’re streaming your QB this week, drop Jones and pick up Tua.

Benjamin: There are two reasons you should avoid Kirk Cousins this week. The main reason is the lackluster play calling that is going on for Minnesota outside of the first and last drives of each game. After getting an early lead, the Vikings just aren’t putting themselves in a position to run up the score and end fizzling out on most drives. The other reason is the Baltimore defense. Signal callers like Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow have had outstanding days against them while they’ve shut down Jared Goff and even Justin Herbert. It took some time, but I believe the Ravens are back to the kind of defense fantasy players should potentially avoid. Cousins falls into that category this week.

Running Backs

Start: Boston Scott – Michael Carter

Brendan: While Miles Sanders has been out, Boston Scott has taken the lead role in this Eagles offense. He leads the team in touches with 19 over the last two weeks and has rewarded the Eagles with three touchdowns on those 19 touches. He also has a pretty favorable matchup this week with the Chargers, who are giving up 27.47 points per game to running backs. Scott should be solidly inserted into your lineup until Sanders returns.

Benjamin: With Mike White at the helm for New York, Michael Carter had his breakout in an upset of Cincinnati last week. He had 24 touches and his 95 receiving yards led all NFL running backs. White is a check-down quarterback which means he will target his teammates in the backfield often. With three consecutive games inside of the top 24 of fantasy running backs in PPR formats, the time that all the Carter truthers have been waiting for has arrived. Hopefully, Zach Wilson takes some notes so this trend can continue when he returns in a few weeks. Even against a stalwart Colts defense and on a short week, I would feel comfortable with Carter in my starting lineup.

Sit: Kenneth Gainwell – Jeremy McNichols

Benjamin: Yeah, the matchup is nice if you’re a running back who actually gets a good number of carries. Unfortunately, Kenneth Gainwell isn’t that. He has been mostly relegated to pass-catching work. The Chargers, however, have been quite firm against pass-catchers out of the backfield. No running back has tallied more than 31 receiving yards against the Chargers this year, even Kareem Hunt was held to 38 yards on five catches. Despite not having to compete with Sanders for touches, Jordan Howard is in the mix and he’s stealing touchdowns again. If I can help it, I’m not getting anywhere near this backfield mess, especially Gainwell.

Brendan: I had a guy in my home league drop 65% of his FAAB this week to pick up Jeremy McNichols. This is just freaking mind-blowing, especially when he already has Jonathan Taylor, Elijah Mitchell, and Myles Gaskin starting in his lineup. I get the excitement of a new running back being the perceived primary back in a run-heavy scheme, but you should temper that enthusiasm just a bit. The Titans also signed Adrian Peterson this week, and probably will increase the roles of their receiving weapons to compensate for the loss of Derrick Henry. McNichols has the potential for a solid performance here, with the Rams giving up 24 points per game to running backs, but I don’t trust him. Peterson is going to have a role and the wide receivers are going to see increased usage. I hope you didn’t give up 65% of your FAAB and hold off for at least a week on starting McNichols.

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Wide Receivers

Start: Emmanuel Sanders – Robert Woods

Brendan: If you have Emmanuel Sanders on your team, I know what you’re thinking, “Sanders gave me a zero burger last week!” I completely understand your hesitation to trust Sanders this week after dropping that on you last week, but for whatever reason, it seems like the Dolphins have his number this season. His previous season-low for fantasy points came against the Dolphins earlier in the year. However, if there is one nugget to gleam from last week is that he was still targeted 10 times. The Bills offense is going to feast this week, and especially their wide receivers. The Jaguars are giving up 39.61 points per game to opposing wide receivers and have a league-high 24.1 D-PAC score. So please, re-place your trust in Sanders and leave him in your lineup this week.

Benjamin: You want to talk about D-PAC score? I’ve got another gem for you. Robert Woods and the Rams face off with a Tennessee defense that is allowing fantasy points per game to the wide receiver position, the most in the league. Cooper Kupp has been wonderful, but he can’t get all the targets. Woods is getting a healthy share of them with 34 in the last four games while averaging 12.4 yards per reception. He is also tied for the fifth most wide receiver receptions over the last four weeks. The Rams offense is firing on all cylinders week after week, leaving plenty of opportunities for both receivers to shine in an awesome matchup.

Sit: Mike Williams – Marvin Jones Jr.

Brendan: Earlier this year it looked like a massive breakout season for Mike Williams. Then a few weeks back the Chargers’ offense seemed to hit a wall and defenses started to shut them down. In the last two weeks, he is averaging two catches for 24 yards and zero touchdowns. Not exactly a stat line you want left in your lineup. He has another very tough matchup this week against the Eagles, who have a second-best D-PAC score of 10.15 and only allow 29 points per game to opposing wide receivers. I wouldn’t bank on a break-out performance from Williams this week and look for other options if possible.

Benjamin: Jones has surpassed 35 receiving yards once in his last four games with just one score in his last five. From seasons past, we know he can be fairly hit-or-miss. The Bills, who face the Jaguars this week, are no joke when it comes to confounding opposing pass-catchers. Only two wide receivers have scored and only four have surpassed 63 yards receiving. Hopefully, you have someone on your fantasy team that you can start ahead of Jones this week.

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Tight Ends

Start: Mike Gesicki – Zach Ertz

Brendan: I got in a little tit-for-tat in Twitter last week over my call to bench Mike Gesicki and I still stand by it. He caught 3 passes for 48 yards and looked uncharacteristically lost at times on the field. On one play, he caused a fumble while being off time on his motion in front of the center/quarterback exchange. He also got lucky with his one long reception not being called back by a helmet flying, illegal hands to the face, no call. I think Benjamin will back me up on this, we’re merely making educated suggestions here. We look at the numbers and make suggestions based on what we are seeing. Ultimately it’s your call on the start/sit in your lineups, we’re just hoping to help you out with your decision. This week? Start Gesicki! As mentioned before, Tagovailoa is looking good in this offense the last few weeks, and can’t argue against the Texans matchup. Texans have the fifth-worst D-PAC score against tight ends in the league at 6.27 and give up 16.91 points per game. With Tua’s preference for dink-and-dunk, I expect a Gesicki touchdown this week.

Benjamin: Finally with a team and quarterback that appreciates and knows how to use his skill set, Zach Ertz is on his way to becoming an upper-tier tight end again. Through his first two games with the Cardinals, Ertz is averaging 15.4 yards per reception. Last week, Ertz saw his second-highest snap percentage of the year, second only to Week 6 when Goedert was out. And while the 49ers seem like a stout defense against tight ends, they are still allowing 10.07 fantasy points to the position and there is no competition for Ertz’s playing time in Arizona. He’ll continue to see a healthy number of snaps and targets which allow him to be a great start for fantasy managers.

Sit: C.J. Uzomah – Pat Freiermuth

Benjamin: CJ Uzomah came back down to Earth last week after posting his second day of over 90 receiving yards and two touchdowns this season. That’s his ceiling, however, scoring twice in one game. You can’t predict that for any tight end and you certainly can’t expect it from the vast majority. Cleveland will head to Cincinnati this week and it’s not a promising matchup. The Browns have the eighth toughest D-Pac score (2.92) against tight ends and that is inflated due to the 76 yards and two touchdowns by Travis Kelce in Week 1. No other tight end has tallied more than 44 receiving yards against them and they’ve only allowed two others to score against them. Uzomah is an anomaly for a Bengals offense with so many elite weapons. Don’t start him this week unless you’re streaming and don’t have any decent options.

Brendan: In a time where it can be hard-pressed to find a decent tight end option, Pat Freiermuth put up a decent fantasy performance last week. He was targeted seven times, caught four of them for 44 yards and a touchdown. So you have to be thinking, well maybe he can improve on that. Not this week! This week he has a tough matchup against the Bears who have the second-lowest D-PAC score against tight ends of 2.07 and only allow 6.69 points per game. I would sit Freiermuth if you have him on your roster but think about keeping him on your bench. He might just have a few good games in him down the stretch.

Don’t forget to hit us up on Twitter with any of your lineup questions. You can find Benjamin @FFRabbitDad and Brendan @OBryanBren. You have a question, we will give you some guidance. After all, we want you to win!

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What is the Consistency Score?

Consistency Score Home

Consistency Score: Running Backs

Consistency Score: Wide Receivers

Consistency Score: Tight Ends

Consistency Score: DST

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