• Start Jared Goff: The Detroit Lions’ quarterback is having a career-year, and has multiple top-five performances in the right matchups.

• Sit Gus Edwards: The Baltimore Ravens running back has scored five touchdowns over the last two weeks, but a matchup against the Cleveland Browns in addition to Keaton Mitchell‘s emergence will make it much harder for Edwards to accumulate fantasy points.

• Start Chris Godwin: The long-time Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver has been as good as ever this season, and he could have one of his best games of the season based on his matchup.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Deciding who to start or sit can be as easy as looking at the PFF rankings and starting the player ranked higher. This start’em, sit’em column digs a step deeper, looking into why someone you might typically start might not have a good week, or why someone overlooked might have a good week. In many cases, it’s the usual starters who should star, but we want to explore the borderline players too.

Jump to a position group:

QB | RB | WR | TE | DEF/ST | K

QUARTERBACKS

START

Jared Goff, Detroit Lions

• The veteran quarterback is off to the best start of his career with an 88.3 PFF grade, which ranks third among quarterbacks.
• Goff has been a consistent quarterback throwing for at least 200 yards a game, and he’s thrown a touchdown in all but one game this season.
• That isn’t always enough for him to be a fantasy starter due to his lack of rushing. He’s gained 13 yards on 18 carries this season, but 11 of his carries have been kneel downs.
• Goff has been a top-five quarterback every week he’s thrown at least two touchdowns and finished outside the top-12 anytime he’s thrown only one.
• The Lions play the Los Angeles Chargers, who have allowed the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season.
• The Chargers have allowed 12 passing touchdowns this season — ninth-most for defenses.
• The matchup is expected to be the highest scoring of the week, which also points to Goff throwing multiple touchdowns.

Sam Howell, Washington Commanders

• Howell has scored the sixth-most fantasy points for quarterbacks this season thanks to volume.
• He’s dropped back to pass 421 times this season while the next closest quarterback is at 375. This has helped him generate the second-most passing yards at 2,471 even though his 7.0 yards per attempt is slightly below average.
• He’s finished as a top-13 quarterback in seven of nine weeks this season.
• The first exception was a 3-37 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills where he threw four interceptions and was sacked nine times.
• The other was a game against the New York Giants where he only completed 52.4% of passes, didn’t throw a touchdown and was sacked six times. Both teams ranked top seven at preventing fantasy points to quarterbacks.
• Washington faces the Seattle Seahawks, who have been average at preventing fantasy points to quarterbacks.
• They have a good secondary and pass rush, but Howell is also playing better.
• His average time to throw was at least 2.82 seconds in each of the first six games, but that’s dropped in each of the last three, leading to fewer sacks.
• The Commanders are underdogs, which means they will be passing all game long like they usually do. The volume alone should again make Howell a fantasy starter.

SIT

Russell Wilson, Denver Broncos

• While the Broncos season has been disappointing to this point, Wilson has scored the 13th-most fantasy points for a quarterback this season.
• He’s spent half of his games as a top-12 fantasy quarterback and the other half outside the top-12.
• Even with all of the quarterback injuries and quarterbacks on a bye week, this is a week to sit him due to his matchup.
• The Broncos face the Buffalo Bills, who have allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks this season.
• Only two quarterbacks facing Buffalo have achieved top-10 fantasy finishes, including Joe Burrow this past week.
• The Bills are clear favorites, which should keep the Broncos passing, but Denver runs more than the average team when playing from behind or tied.

Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns

• Watson has missed part of the season due to injury, but he’s finished as a top-12 fantasy quarterback in three of the four games that he’s played at least 90% of offensive snaps.
• While his fantasy production is up from last season, his PFF grades aren’t much better. He’s reached a 68.3 offensive grade that ranks 22nd among quarterbacks this season.
• The three teams that he’s posted good fantasy numbers against were all average-to-below-average at preventing fantasy points to quarterbacks.
• The best team he’s faced so far is the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have allowed the 11th-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks, and Watson finished as QB28 that week.
• The Browns have the fourth-worst matchup for quarterbacks this week against the Baltimore Ravens, according to our strength of schedule tool.
• The Ravens have allowed the fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks this season, allowing nearly four fewer points than any other team.
• In his one game against Baltimore last season, he completed 18-of-28 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown and was sacked six times.
• Watson could be in store for his worst game of the season against the best defense he’s faced all year.