Even though you drafted your team with certain hopes and intentions, your weekly lineup decisions shouldn't be determined by the order you picked your players in. You need to check who your players play and make sure you've got the right guys in -- and the wrong guys on the bench. It's too early to be absolutely sure which matchups will be easy and which will be tough, but we can make some educated guesses based on healthy personnel, defensive schemes, track records and key details of offenses.
The things we know can help us minimize the impact of the things we don't know. This should lead to better decision-making. Let's go through every game and highlight the players who aren't obvious starts and sits (because you don't need to be told to start Bijan Robinson).
You should feel more comfortable starting or sitting players based on the information given, and feeling comfortable with your Fantasy lineup before the games start is the best feeling in the world. Dave Richard's Week 4 rankings: Top 150 | QB | RB | WR | TE | K | DST It was cool to see Harold Fannin Jr. score twice last week, but he wasn't the primary read on either play, and Watson had plenty of time to throw on both plays, stressed by the pass rush on just one of the two. The Steelers have allowed three long receptions to tight ends in their past two games, typically because of poor coverage, which Fannin could always draw, but Fannin has run 10-plus yards downfield on 10 of his 86 routes so far this season.
I would buy into his target volume staying at or above six, however, because he has a 22% target-per-route-run rate against zone coverage, the Steelers lead the NFL in zone-coverage snaps, and they stick with it when they're winning or in a competitive game. He just hasn't done a lot with his catches versus zone: 7.0 yards per target and 1.47 yards per route run. I'd rather roll the dice on Darren Waller in a great matchup or Kenyon Sadiq banking on another good week.
DK Metcalf tends to see a few more opportunities when facing defenses that play a heavy amount of single-high safety coverage. Eight of his 10 targets in Week 1 and four of his five targets in Week 3 came against one-high. No one plays more single-high coverage than the Browns, and they've already allowed five touchdowns to wideouts on the year, though just one in each of their past two games.
I would guess the Browns will dial up the blitz rate and try to get Aaron Rodgers uncomfortable quickly, but as sneaky good as this defense is, it played 77 snaps on Sunday against the Panthers and could be ripe to allow some numbers. It's a rare time when I'd be OK starting Metcalf as a No. 3 receiver or flex. Through three weeks, the Commanders have allowed five touchdowns to tight ends and six touchdowns to wide receivers.
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