As always, Start 'Em, Sit 'Em is geared toward helping fantasy managers make difficult roster decisions. You won't see "start Jahmyr Gibbs" here. Instead, I'm exploring the players closer to the perceived fringe and aiming to optimize your lineup for a win each week. Importantly, the new "Start of the Week" and "Sit of the Week" are the calls I have deemed the most notable in each category, not necessarily the most essential players to start or sit.
Also, you'll see quite a few references in this year's column to NFL Pro, spotlighting insights provided through Next Gen Stats data dashboards, matchup evaluations, All-22 film and the uniquely trained Fantasy AI Assistant. You can get access to all of those tools yourself with an NFL+ Premium subscription!
P.S. Feel free to follow me on X (@MattOkada) or Instagram (@mattokadaNFL) and hit me with your questions, congratulations or complaints throughout the year.
Start 'Em
Start of the Week
Prescott was a "Start" last week, and he responded with three touchdowns and 23.38 fantasy points on Monday night. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have been an excellent matchup for quarterbacks this season. They've allowed more than 16 fantasy points to six straight starters, yielding more than 21 to four of those six (a list that includes Drew Lock and Bo Nix). Arizona has surrendered the most touchdown passes in the league (17) and is a bottom-five defense in passer rating (112.5), yards per attempt (8.5), EPA/dropback (0.24), explosive pass rate (18.4%) and pressure rate (31.8%). Prescott is a high-end QB1 at home in Week 8.
Notable starts
While Murray hasn't had a vintage fantasy explosion in Minnesota, he's rushed for 90 yards over his last two outings and has zero turnovers in three straight starts. Now he draws the Lions, who've allowed 25.63 fantasy points per game to QBs. The breakout is coming.
What will it take for fantasy managers to buy into Cousins? He's scored more than 18.5 fantasy points in five of his last six games, is the QB5 over that span and is one of three QBs averaging more than 250 passing yards and two touchdown passes per game.
Brissett unsurprisingly has been up and down for fantasy, but a matchup with the Cowboys should inspire confidence in Week 8. They've allowed the sixth-most points per game to the position, including 20-plus to every opposing QB besides backups Jalon Daniels and Tanner McKee.
Sit 'Em
Sit of the Week
Goff has been consistently excellent this season ... but this Vikings defense is an absolute terror. Minnesota is No. 1 in almost every relevant passing metric, including TD-to-INT ratio (3:7), completion percentage over expected (-7.5%), success rate (35.4%), EPA/dropback (-0.26) and fantasy points to quarterbacks ... at an absurd 7.58 per game. And yes, the Vikes sport the league's highest pressure rate (48.8%), which has historically been the best way to throw Goff off his game. This matchup drops Goff from a top-five play to somewhere just outside QB1 range, which means there are streamers worth playing over him in Week 8.
Notable sits
This is Mahomes' third straight appearance in the "Sit" section ... and he's totaled just 16.48 points over those last two weeks. He has zero TDs and two INTs since Week 6 and draws a Broncos defense (in Denver) that has snagged seven interceptions and allowed just eight TDs in seven games.
Don't fall for Nix's "breakout game" against the Cardinals. He scored nearly half of his fantasy points on one fluky run in Week 7 and was inefficient as a passer (again). Kansas City's defense is far tougher than Arizona's, and Nix will slip back to low-end QB2 territory in this game.
Watson might look like a viable Week 8 streamer after topping 18 fantasy points against Tennessee, but he needed his first rushing touchdown of the year to get there. Watson's thrown just two touchdown passes over the last four weeks -- a stretch that started with 12.92 fantasy points against this Pittsburgh defense.
