“Start your studs”. That’s the mantra that they always tell you, right? And, sure, that’s easy when you are looking at Ja'Marr Chase or Jahmyr Gibbs. But as we move through your lineup, you run into some legitimate fantasy football start/sit decisions. And that goes double for guys that are dealing with injuries and TRIPLE for unproven guys going into Week One. So we’re here to give a little fantasy football lineup advice for the most divisive players. 

Who Should You Start in Fantasy Football This Week?

It is more satisfying when you go with your heart or your gut or whatever body part wills you to make the most fun decisions. Fantasy football is supposed to be fun and it’s more fun when YOU make the decisions. That said, I’ve been using my pesky brain over here to come up with some reasons why you should or shouldn’t start some of the guys sitting on the fringe of lineups. So here is my fantasy football lineup advice for those guys.

 

 

 

Week 1 Quarterback Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

If you drafted in this range, you probably have two quarterbacks. And you will probably have a few start/sit decisions to make along the way. In this case, you get Baker Mayfield going up against the Bengals defense with a 50.5-point over/under, tied for the highest of the week. Baker told everyone on his show, Quarterback, that he was hurt during the second half of last year after getting MVP consideration in the first half. This would be a good week to prove that. 

Start: Kyler Murray, Minnesota Vikings

I actually play things pretty cautiously at other positions, as you will see below. But quarterback doesn’t really have risks of a part-time snap share or being “eased in” to games. The starting QB usually plays every snap. And Kyler Murray has all the mobility and all the weapons that we could ask for in fantasy football. I’m throwing him in there where I drafted him against the Packers this week, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may. 

Sit: Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers

There has been so much injury nonsense with this team. Ricky Pearsall is done for the year. Christian Kirk is hurt. Mike Evans and Christian McCaffrey in and out of practice. George Kittle coming off an Achilles tear. And their first game is against the best defense in the world in a stadium where an NFL game has never been played, on the other side of the world? No thank you. 

Sit: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

They can tell me all they want that Patrick Mahomes is the GOAT at recovering from destroyed knees - I bet he is. Probably sleeping in some astronaut lab while assistants rub peptides on his knee every half hour. But I need to see him play football first. And I don’t want to see it in my lineup going against the Denver Broncos defense in Week One. Too scary. 

Week 1 Running Back Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: David Montgomery, Houston Texans

Regardless of whether Woody Marks chips in or not, David Montgomery is still the starting running back for a team that has gone to the playoffs in three straight years. And the Bills seem like a scary matchup, but their run defense actually allowed a lot of yards last year, whether that was by design or not. And they didn’t add much this offseason to change that. So get Monty into those flex spots - or RB2 spots even.

Start: Rhamondre Stevenson, New England Patriots

This one is actually pretty simple, so it doesn’t need some big long write-up. At this stage, TreVeyon Henderson is in doubt for this week and, even if he is active, he could be limited with an ankle injury. Henderson was the only thing holding Stevenson down in drafts, so might as well get him in there. 

Start: Tony Pollard, Tennessee Titans

We love drafting for upside. In an ideal world, you have a combination of both floor AND upside. But our benches are ideally filled with guys who could break out big time. In our lineups, however, we like to play things cautiously in Week One. All signs are that Tony Pollard will resume his role as the starter for the Titans coming off back to back to back 1,000+ yard seasons. They have a rare plus matchup with the Jets here, so we’ll go Pollard over some of the deeper picks. 

Start: Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers

Jonathon Brooks is the hype pick. He’s the long-term upside play if he does break out like crazy. But he hasn’t played football in quite some time due to injury so they could ease him in. Not to mention, he was spotted working off to the side in practice this week. The Bears are not a good run defense, so let’s get Chuba in there.

Sit: Jadarian Price, Seattle Seahawks

This one makes us nervous. Rookie in his very first game. The team has a new offensive coordinator. That game happens to be against a great defense. And there are rumblings about George Holani splitting the backfield. I think in a lot of cases people just have to start Jadarian Price anyway based on where they drafted him. But I don’t feel super comfortable about it. This is the exact kind of guy that I LOVE to have on my team but am a little nervous about having in my lineup this week. 

Sit: Jeremiyah Love, Arizona Cardinals

Are you sensing a trend here? This is another unproven NFL back going into his first game. Though this time he’s dealing with an ankle issue where we don’t know what kind of usage to expect. The Cardinals are MASSIVE underdogs here, so even if he’s a go, does it really make sense to run this guy over and over and over again and risk re-injury? I think we see plenty of Tyler Allgeier here, as we mentioned in the waiver wire article. 

Sit: Jonathon Brooks, Carolina Panthers

Given what we just said above, it goes without saying that we are a little nervous about starting Jonathon Brooks. Let’s give it a week to see what it looks like wherever possible. When you draft high-risk, high-reward picks like this, you should have other options available. 

Sit: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Washington Commanders

I actually don’t want to start any of the Commanders running backs if I can avoid it. Not only do they have the Eagles this week, but the Commanders' offensive line has been in shambles. They lost Laremy Tunsil to a torn triceps, and the reviews of the remaining unit have been rough all offseason. We don’t even know for sure who is going to get the bulk of the work between JCM, Rachaad White, and rookie Kaytron Allen. Plus, Jayden Daniels could vulture any goal-line work. Just going to pass here.

 

 

 

Week 1 Wide Receiver Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Last year, Chris Godwin was not healthy. Neither was Baker Mayfield. This year, they are both healthy, while Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan are not. So Baker may need to lean on Godwin this week the way he did the year before last when Godwin was the WR2 in all of fantasy football. And this game has shootout potential vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. Probably the best overall fantasy matchup of the week.

Start: Parker Washington, Jacksonville Jaguars

The whole thesis on starting Chris Godwin is based on new OC Zac Robinson going back to the scheme that Liam Coen ran in Jacksonville in 2024. That slot role in this scheme is a money maker. So why would we not want to start the current slot guy for Liam Coen? Even if Parker Washington is a part-time guy, his floor is fantastic. His ceiling could be very high if he’s a full-time guy.

Start: Michael Pittman Jr, Indianapolis Colts

Say what you will about Aaron Rodgers; he can still spin a football. He doesn’t like to hold onto it very long, but the arm talent is still there. To ease things for Rodgers, the Steelers went out and traded for Michael Pittman from the Colts, then immediately extended him. This is a pretty good matchup with the Falcons here for throwing, and Pittman should be a pretty solid play here, especially in full PPR. People act like this guy is old or he’s washed - he’s 28 years old.

Start: Jerry Jeudy, Cleveland Browns

Speaking of players that people think are old and washed, I have a feeling Jerry Jeudy is going to play a lot more early on than people want him to. Everyone wants him to just disappear in favor of rookies KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston when Jeudy himself is a 27-year-old WR smack in the age apex for the position, only one year removed from a top-12 WR season. He’s PROBABLY going to play over one of the rookies early on and be involved. I play in some really deep leagues with multiple flexes where I’m grateful to have someone like Jeudy to actually start.

Sit: Malik Nabers, New York Giants

This one is low-hanging fruit to some degree, but we have serious concerns about this guy playing a full workload in Week One. You might just need to start him in deeper leagues, but if you have any reasonably viable combination of floor and upside available, it would be nice to hang back and see how things look this first week, no?

Sit: Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

We mentioned this with Chris Godwin, but Egbuka is going to attempt to play here after missing nearly a month with a toe injury. The injury is scary enough that we were avoiding him at ADP because this could be a situation where Egbuka just deals with this all year long and tries to play through any sort of discomfort. Hopefully he just looks good Week One, and we can go back to starting him with confidence, but right now, we are not super confident. 

Sit: Rome Odunze, Chicago Bears

There is good news and bad news here. The bad news first: Rome Odunze is dealing with a foot issue that has had him missing some practice time. The good news is that it is not a re-aggravation of last year’s foot issue, as it is actually his other foot. After Odunze concerned fans with some comments this offseason about his other foot, we were worried it was the same one. Still, we don’t know for sure how the targets will sort out between Odunze, Luther Burden, and Colston Loveland, so we’d like to avoid this one where possible. 

Sit: De'Zhaun Stribling, San Francisco 49ers

I have a lot of De'Zhaun Stribling. He could break out in a big way. But there is risk here. This offense uses a fullback and a lot of tight ends. That means a lot of two-WR sets rather than three-WR sets. If it’s Mike Evans and Stribling in the two WR sets, it’s wheels up. If it’s Evans and Deebo Samuel, Stribling could be on the back burner. I’d rather just see what that looks like this week first. If he’s a full-time WR for the 49ers, we will be starting him all year, so I can live with missing out on one week, given the floor could be low. 

Week 1 Tight End Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints

Johnson was drafted by many as a fringe TE1 or even TE2. But the draft is over, and conditions for Week One are actually really favorable here. Jordyn Tyson is set to miss the first month minimum with a hamstring issue. The matchup with the Lions has a 50.5-point over/under, and the Saints are dogs, so they will be throwing. And the Saints are missing BOTH of their starting safeties, Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph. So we’re throwing Johnson in lineups where needed. 

Start: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

As far as offseasons go, things could have been worse for Mark Andrews. They brought in a new high-tempo OC. They got rid of Isiah Likely and Charlie Kolar. They didn’t sign any meaningful veteran WRs. And they didn’t draft any until the WR13 and WR19 off the board. We like stashing Ja’Kobi Lane, but it’s probably still Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews early on. We like stashing Ja’Kobi Lane, but starting Mark Andrews makes sense this week. 

Sit: George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

We don’t mind playing it fast and loose with hyped plays or good opportunities. But injuries are a different beast. We’d actually start a guy like Juwan Johnson above Tucker Kraft, and he’s far safer than Kittle. Kittle is coming off a torn Achilles and hasn’t practiced much all offseason, so we’d much rather start anyone reliable. It’s not even a good matchup this week against arguably the best defense in the entire league. 

Sit: Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys

Last year, Jake Ferguson was the TE2 PPR points per game in the five games CeeDee Lamb was hurt. In the other games, he was the TE20. With George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb healthy, Ferguson isn’t that appealing of a start in fantasy. The Giants also have pretty good safeties and were a tough team against tight ends last year. Ferguson will have his weeks. 

Sit: Terrance Ferguson, Los Angeles Rams

Terrance Ferguson is a HOT pick in fantasy. But I don’t think folks realize what the bet is. It’s not just Terrance Ferguson vs. Colby Parkinson. If he wins that battle, it’s now Terrance Ferguson vs. Davante Adams to be the second target behind Puka Nacua. That’s a tough ask, and it makes “T Ferg” more of a handcuff play in case one of those guys gets hurt than an upside play. 

 

 

 

Week 1 D/ST Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Tennessee Titans DST

The Titans defense is actually pretty decent. But this is less about them and more about just starting whoever is playing against bad teams. A couple of bad teams are playing each other: the Raiders and Dolphins (not bad options either). But I think the Titans defense is better than those defenses, and they get the Jets. 

Sit: New England Patriots DST

I think the Patriots have a good unit. And I’m rolling them out in a couple spots where I don’t feel like rostering two defenses or dropping them. But asking a team to go on the road against a team that just beat them in the Super Bowl is a tough ask. Sam Darnold also doesn’t really make many mistakes, which is not good for DST scoring. We want mobile gunslingers bumbling around, not guys who just execute the plays from the pocket then go home and have a grilled cheese and a glass of milk.

How To Handle The Toughest Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Decisions?

This is actually simpler than you’d think. Because Fantasy Alarm has three different ways for you to handle your tought start sit decisions:

  • Weekly Rankings - I do these rankings personally every week and keep them updated based on the news and rumors
  • League Sync - Sync up your actual league to our systems so you can receive custom advice for your own settings. 
  • Start/Sit Tool - Plug in the two players and see what our projections and matchup analysis have to say.