Week 11 Start 'Em, Sit 'Em: Play-or-Bench Advice on Top Fantasy Football Stars
To start or to sit.
That's always the question keeping fantasy football managers up at night. As the 2022 NFL season progresses, the pressure attached to those debates only increases.
To help relieve a bit of that stress, we'll help tackle a few of those play-or-bench debates here.
Start: Justin Fields, QB, Chicago Bears (at Atlanta Falcons)
Fields might be the best quarterback in fantasy now. If that sounds at all hyperbolic, you haven't paid close enough attention.
With passing production now supporting his elite rushing ability, his ceiling has exploded. In Weeks 9 and 10, he amassed better than 83 fantasy points, per FantasyPros. No one else topped even 70, and only Patrick Mahomes (67.2) and Joe Mixon (51.1) cleared 50 in the standard scoring format.
In those outings, Fields rushed for 325 yards and three scores and passed for 290 yards and five touchdowns. He's a set-it-and-forget-it weekly lock in any matchup.
Sit: Matt Ryan, QB, Indianapolis Colts (vs. Philadelphia Eagles)
Ryan's surprise return to the starting lineup in Week 10 was kind of fun. He went 21-of-28 for 222 yards, one touchdown and zero picks, and he even tallied his first rushing touchdown of the season.
Don't expect this to continue. Not this week, anyway.
The Eagles have allowed the second-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks, per Yahoo, and they're great at getting pressure, which Ryan and the Colts have struggled with all season.
Start: Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, New England Patriots (vs. New York Jets)
Stevenson started relatively slow this season, as he didn't crack 60 scrimmage yards or find the end zone in either of his first two contests. That might have confused some fantasy folks about whether or not he's a true RB1.
There is no question on that front.
Since Week 3, he ranks 10th among running backs in standard scoring leagues and sits sixth in the point-per-reception format, per FantasyPros. He draws a tough matchup in the Jets, but he has put up big numbers against good defenses before. Just two games ago, in fact, he burned this very same New York defense for 143 scrimmage yards and 21.3 PPR points.
Sit: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, Kansas City Chiefs (at Los Angeles Chargers)
If you heard the fantasy sirens blaring in Kansas City last Sunday, hopefully you heeded their warnings.
Edwards-Helaire's days as a fantasy-relevant running back might already be over—for this season, at least.
That's a bold statement, obviously, but his disappearing act in Week 10 warranted it. He went the entire game without a touch—zero carries, zero catches on two targets. It looks like this backfield belongs to Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon now, and if that doesn't change in Week 11, Edwards-Helaire would go from a sit to a drop.