Getty Gallery: 1/6
There is no better way to start the fantasy season than by winning Week 1. The best way to win Week 1 is to be prepared by setting the best possible lineup with the players on your team, and I am here to help you do just that with our weekly "Start-Sit" article.
This weekly feature is going to avoid giving you the obvious advice, and focus more on mid-tier options each week.
If you have players like Todd Gurley, Odell Beckham Jr., David Johnson and Aaron Rodgers, you are going to put them in your starting lineup every week. While you will always start your studs, we are here to go over players who are fringe starters each week. These are the lineup decisions that are less clear, and I try to provide starting options for players who have similar values.
My base for lineup decisions comes from a question ESPN fantasy analyst Matthew Berry often asks fantasy owners to consider. What is most likely to happen? There are going to be times when a relatively unknown wide receiver outscores Julio Jones. Most weeks, Jones is going to outscore this same receiver along with many others, which is why he should be locked into your lineup every week.
Case Keenum might outscore Tom Brady in Week 2, but most weeks Brady is going to be the no-brainer start for your team. If you are considering two different players, consider what the most likely outcome will be. Football can be an unpredictable sport, but if you can narrow down what is most likely to happen based on data and past performance, it can help you sleep a lot easier at night once your lineup is set. There will be some weeks where a player sitting on your bench will outscore a starter, but if you hold to asking yourself this simple question, you are going to make the right lineup decision more times than not.
While I have tried to make this clear in each player's write-up, it is worth emphasizing that I am not suggesting you release players just because they are on my sit list for Week 1. Early in the season, I recommend not starting certain players based on unknowns such as a new offense, or the team bringing in competition at the position.
If you leave them on your bench and they do well, this is still good news as it means your team is deeper than you originally thought. For Week 1, I'd rather lean on players whose role is clearly defined whenever this is possible.
It is impossible to outline every single lineup decision here, but I am always happy to answer specific fantasy questions on Twitter @JonDAdams. These interactions also help me highlight players in future weeks as it shows me who readers are most curious about. Click the next arrow to see my fantasy football predictions for Week 1 in this week's edition of Start-Sit.