Week 12 Start/Sit Questions

By :: Mike Johnson (@mjohnson86)

Some things in fantasy football are easy. We know we should start Puka Nacua and Bijan Robinson. We know we should bench the backup running back who is only on our roster in case of injury and the guy who was ruled out early in the week. A lot of the decisions are made for us. However, there are a lot of things that are not so simple. All of the “in between” situations are what can make the difference between a few wins and losses, and therefore it can be the difference between a successful season or a failed season. Every Friday, we are here to help!!

I’ll take questions each week in our #fantasy-football channel in our Discord from people looking for Start/Sit advice and give my thoughts. This article will feature a few of those questions and responses each Friday, so join our Discord to be a part of the conversation or ask questions of your own!!

Question 1 :: Jaxson Dart or Jacoby Brissett (or Bryce with T-Mac)? I feel like if Dart plays, they're not going to have as many designed runs (but he'll probably still scramble at the goal line). (andrewl9)

Answer :: Solid analysis in the fact that the Giants are now at a point where they won’t be voluntarily having Dart run much for the rest of this season. That being said, if he plays, I would start him. Bryce probably just had his best game of the season, but they will probably go back to the running game against a soft 49ers defense, while Brissett has a tough matchup with a Jaguars defense that is playing well right now and will never give you anything with his legs.

Question 2 :: I need a defense this week and can’t decide: Packers, Falcons, or Bears? (Spawnster)

Answer :: If we just look at the matchups, these are pretty even spots as these teams face opposing QBs J.J. McCarthy, Tyler Shough, and Mason Rudolph, respectively. All three are uninspiring quarterbacks right now and all of the game environments project relatively similar. However, the Packers are the best actual defense of the group – which sometimes goes overlooked when making these decisions. The Bears defense ranks 30th in yards per play allowed while the Falcons have surrendered 30+ points in three of their last four games and have offensive injuries of their own, which make it less likely they jump out to a lead. Play the Pack for their divisional showdown at the Frozen Tundra!!

Question 3 :: Full PPR - Dallas Goedert or George Kittle?  (wordrew)

Answer :: Kittle is in “start no matter what” territory, with injury concerns the only thing that could potentially make me consider benching him in future weeks. The 49ers offense is finally at full strength and their defense is a mess. San Francisco is going to score a lot of points down the stretch and Kittle is their second-best offensive player behind only CMC.

Question 4 :: 0.5 PPR

1. Darnell Mooney or Jerry Jeudy?

2. Hunter Henry or Theo Johnson?

3. Dak Prescott or Jaxson Dart?

 (u2claytn4thewin)

Answer :: Good questions all around. For the receivers, I would go with Mooney by a hair. Neither receiver has been great this year and both are on teams who will want to run their offense primarily through their backfields, but Mooney has less target competition in the WR/TE corps, with Kyle Pitts as the only other reputable target, while Jeudy has to deal with Njoku, Tillman, and Fannin. At tight end, I would give the nod to Henry. I would consider Theo if it was full-PPR, but Henry’s role on a team that is likely to score 30 points is the deciding factor for me. At QB, I would roll with Dart. He will have no choice but to be throwing at a high rate and has 18+ fantasy points in every start this season, while Dak is facing one of the top defenses in the league right now in a game that is much more likely to be low scoring.