This article is always going to be bittersweet for us. It sure would be a lot more fun if we just highlighted fantasy football breakouts and sleepers that we are finally confident enough to start, right? We do get to do that here, and that’s the sweet part of the article.

The bitter part is having to bench guys we thought we could depend on. But you don’t get to start all these fun new players without benching someone else. And, when we look at the fringe of the fantasy football rankings, these are the players that we are looking to start and the players we are considering benching to get them into the lineup. 

Who Should You Start in Fantasy Football This Week?

One thing that will always remain true with this article or any of our content is that 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 5 Quarterback Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals

The Detroit Lions defense has not been particularly inspiring this season. The problem they are running into is that they run a lot of man-to-man, but with both of their starting safeties out, they haven’t had help over the top. Though they are eligible to come off IR, Kerby Joseph is already out for this week, and Brian Branch is still looking like a long shot as well. So Brissett isn’t a bad stream if you need it. 

Sit: Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles are in a pretty brutal spot here. A.J. Brown and Jason Kelce were already gone. Then De’Vonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, Saquon Barkley, and Tank Bigsby all got hurt. Now Lane Johnson has announced that he is calling it a career a couple of games into the 2026 season. The Jaguars defense is pretty tough, so it’s kind of hard to be super hopeful about starting Jalen Hurts. Or any Eagles, for that matter. 

Week 5 Running Back Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints

The Saints didn’t look great this weekend. But they did show us that they are willing to make Alvin Kamara their feature back once again with Travis Etienne out. He was pretty much the featured back all game outside of two instances - a brief period he left with a knee issue and the very end of the game when it was out of hand. Kamara is especially appealing in PPR, as always. 

Start: Emanuel Wilson, Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks have all sorts of big plans at running back, it seems. But none of that is really materializing fast enough for Emanuel Wilson to not be a decent start again. Joe Mixon didn’t pass his physical. New acquisitions Robert Henry and Dontae McMillan need to learn the plays. And Zach Charbonnet isn’t ready to go just yet. So Wilson is back on the menu for one more week at least. 

Sit: Omarion Hampton, Los Angeles Chargers

Scoring a touchdown last week doesn’t really move the needle for us. Not with the split that is going on. Previously, Keaton Mitchell was taking some obvious pass work - pass work that is super valuable in this scheme due to the snaps you get at WR. This week Mitchell actually pushed it so that they actually split snaps pretty evenly. With how bad the team is in general, we can’t afford any kind of split. 

Sit: David Montgomery, Houston Texans

Week One was such a promising start for David Montgomery - on the surface. Three touchdowns. But he was quietly giving up entire drives to Woody Marks as part of a planned split. That continued for the next couple of weeks: it’s Monty getting the first couple of drives of the game and the first of the half, but then a rotation one for one for the other drives. For the first three weeks, neither player gave up a snap on the other player’s drive, but this week, Woody Marks got in for some goalline work on a Monty drive. The efficiency numbers have been down for Monty, so this really is not a good sign. 

 

 

 

Week 5 Wide Receiver Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Romeo Doubs, New England Patriots

Romeo Doubs had about as disastrous a first game as you could possibly have. On only three targets, he managed to catch none of them while dropping two, one of which was picked off. Since then, however, he has turned things around and gotten on the same page with Drake Maye, culminating in a game this week with six catches on nine targets for two touchdowns. With AJ Brown and Mack Hollins banged up, Romeo Doubs is easily their best threat on the outside, which gives him a pretty decent floor all of a sudden. 

Start: Dohnte Meyers, Cincinnati Bengals

We’ve tried this on many occasions before. Starting the Bengals “next man up”. And it really has not panned out particularly well. But this time feels a little different. Meyers has already shown that he has some juice and deserves to be the WR3 for this team. He’s not some young rookie here, as he put up decent numbers in the CFL already. But, most importantly, it’s looking like BOTH Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase will be out this week. That does move the needle for us, as they can’t just throw 15 targets to one of those guys and leave crumbs for everyone else, as often happens. 

Sit: Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Emeka Egbuka was already struggling in Zac Robinson’s offense. The playcalling hasn’t been inspiring, and he’s been having a tough time facing the top corner every week. Now Jalon Daniels is under center while Baker Mayfield is out, and it’s an even tougher bet with the higher aDot routes that Egbuka runs. We are looking elsewhere this week wherever possible. 

Sit: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos

Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton have been completely unable to get on the same page this year. I mean, I don’t need to explain to you how bad four yards on six targets was last week for Sutton. Waddle and RJ Harvey seem to be getting all the easier looks while Nix has been unable to complete any meaningful passes downfield. It’s just a tough bet right now for that to turn around and for him to now complete multiple to Sutton. We are hoping it does, but Sutton will be on our bench until then.

Week 5 Tight End Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Mike Gesicki, Cincinnati Bengals

Anyone who has followed my content for a while now knows that this is not a game we like to play. But desperate times call for desperate measures, especially if you have Travis Kelce on bye. Not only are the wide receivers banged up, as we mentioned, but the matchup is a good one. The Lions have allowed the most fantasy points to the tight end this year, but the Dolphins are third and are currently ranked dead last in DVOA, which attempts to adjust for level of competition faced. In fact, both these defenses are terrible vs. tight end if you have the stones to start Greg Dulcich. We’ll probably leave that one for DFS. 

Start: Kenyon Sadiq, New York Jets

This one is an even bigger leap of faith than the Kincaid play. I mean, Sadiq scored zero points last week. Part of that was the Jets running an absurdly low 32 offensive snaps, the lowest I have seen in multiple years now. The interesting thing about that is Sadiq actually played his highest percentage of snaps and ran his highest percentage of routes on the season; it just didn’t seem like much because it was a percentage of a small number. So, despite the bad outcome, we actually like the direction Sadiq is trending in. 

Sit: Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills

There are a lot of situations where we probably just have to hold our noses and start Kincaid. But if we have any other decent option, we might shy away. Kincaid hit the ground running over the first two games with a 70% route participation, which was the best he’s essentially ever had. Over the last two, however, he’s come back to earth with that number closer to his usual 50%. And that’s reflected in the box scores. The Rams also happen to be ranked first against the TE in DVOA, and they are allowing the second fewest raw fantasy points to tight end, so it’s really not a great matchup either. 

Sit: Hunter Henry, New England Patriots

I know Hunter Henry just had a solid game. But there’s been one issue we have run into with Henry so far. The Patriots signed Julian Hill, who was supposed to be their inline blocking tight end, but he suffered a season-ending injury this summer. That has seen Henry play more inline than we would typically see from a pass-catching tight end. And that has seen him asked to hang in and pass-block at times. In Week One against the Seahawks, he was asked to pass-block on 11 snaps, which was 30.6% of his pass plays that week. With Maxx Crosby coming to town, I’m a little nervous Henry is asked to help out with the line a little more than he did this past week. 

 

 

 

Week 5 D/ST Start 'Em, Sit 'Em

Start: Cincinnati Bengals DST

This is going to seem odd to some folks, given that the Bengals aren’t really known for their defense. But they have actually been getting after the quarterback a bit better this year after some maneuvering this offseason. And they’ve generated some turnovers as well. More importantly, however, they play the worst team in the league this week. 

Sit: Baltimore Ravens DST

It’s crazy how quickly the NFL changes. If you asked me only two weeks ago, I would have said that the Ravens DST would have been an absolute smash against the Atlanta Falcons. But that was the old Atlanta Falcons, before Michael Penix returned. Now the Falcons are looking like a pretty terrible matchup. Add in that Trey Hendrickson has been playing through a broken finger and Marlon Humphrey just hurt his calf, and all of a sudden we don’t really love the Ravens defense this week. 

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 tough 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.