Fantasy Football 2018: Start or sit for Week 11

Start

Carson Wentz at New Orleans- According to ESPN, Carson Wentz is starting in less than half of fantasy leagues for his Week 11 tilt against New Orleans. With the Saints ranking in the bottom five in terms of passing yards allowed, completion percentage and passer rating, a healthy Wentz should be considered an automatic start despite what can be considered a disappointing performance last week vs Dallas (Wentz still threw for 360 yards and two touchdowns despite an interception).

Since Week 4, Wentz has averaged 25.16 fantasy points per contest while failing to dip below the 22-point mark. Wentz’s ability to keep his production up despite a decimated backfield and a shaky defensive unit is remarkable, and with newly acquired Golden Tate having another week to digest the playbook, all runways are cleared for Wentz to see one of the top performances by a quarterback in Week 11.

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Marcus Mariota at Indianapolis- Admittedly so, Marcus Mariota isn’t the super confident play this week such as Wentz is. Mariota has been shaky when taking his full season into account, yet I’ll let some recency bias creep in here after two great fantasy outings against Dallas and New England, churning out 26 points in both meetings.

Has Mariota turned a corner in his season? The hope is his progress will continue against the Colts in a game that will likely have Mariota playing keep-up with Andrew Luck’s offense on the other side of the field. Mariota’s dual-threat abilities also add another level of attractiveness to him this week against a defense that still struggles significantly against the pass.

Sit

Ryan Fitzpatrick at New York Giants- Actually, I take back what I said about Mariota. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the true definition of streaky at the quarterback position. After balling out the first few weeks of the season, Fitzpatrick came back down to earth…only to win the starting job back and continue throwing heat. Yet, Week 10 saw him score a mere 13 fantasy points against Washington’s defense, despite throwing for over 400 yards. The issue? Turnovers.

Fitzpatrick, in 3-of-6 starts this season, has committed multiple turnovers. Fitzmagic and the Bucs now travel to New York to battle a New York pass defense that has been statistically better than the Redskins thus far in passing yards allowed per game, opposing passer rating and completion percentage. I’ll have to pass on an unstable Fitzpatrick traveling on the road against a better pass defense than the one that previously limited him the week prior.

Kirk Cousins at Chicago- Through 10 games played, Kirk Cousins has been sacked a total of 24 times, which is currently has him tied for ninth in the league in the respective category. Chicago’s defense welcomed back Khalil Mack last week from injury, which is enough probable cause to send Cousins down to the “sit” category this week.

Only scoring eight fantasy points in Week 9 before a bye week, there’s a semi-decent chance Cousins will be able to bounce back in the windy city. The fear for Cousins is his offense becoming too one-dimensional against the Bears tough defensive front. Combine that with the suggested little time he’ll have to get balls off to his receivers, and Cousins temporarily sees himself outside of start territory despite an otherwise great 2018 season.