Who to Start – Fantasy Football

How to Use the Who to Start Tool?

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The Draft Sharks “Who to Start” tool couldn’t be simpler to use.

Start by selecting the appropriate scoring format. We have pre-loaded the most common fantasy football scoring settings:

• Non-PPR or Standard
• Half-PPR
• PPR

But don’t sweat it if your league doesn’t fit neatly into any of those categories. Simply choose among any of the leagues you have synced with DraftSharks.com to get scoring and lineup settings that match exactly with the fantasy football format in which you’re deciding.

Another toggle lets you switch between 1-QB and Superflex formats, in case you plan in a format that allows another QB to play as a flex. That obviously alters QB valuations and introduces a different set of comparisons when you’re deciding who to play at your flex position(s).

The Strategy slider allows you to alter the strategy to fit your specific situation best.

Perhaps you’re favored and looking for a high-floor option to fill out your lineup. In that case, you’ll want to move the slider all the way to “Safety.”

Or maybe you’re a big underdog or already trailing in your matchup and looking for as much upside as possible. Move the slider to the other end to find guys with the highest “Ceiling” projections.

You can also settle anywhere between those two extremes – or try your search with different settings to find the perfect fit.

Once you’ve got the appropriate format and strategy settings, you’re ready to select the players you’re deciding among.

Select up to three players to compare and nail down your lineup decisions for the week. Simply start typing the player’s name into the search box, select that player from the resulting dropdown, and the Who Should I Start tool will automatically show you the best play for this week – driven by:

• Our weekly projections
• Your scoring settings
• Your chosen strategy

Fantasy Football Lineups Advice and Start/Sit Recommendations

After you’ve selected the players you wish to compare to answer your toughest start em sit em questions for a given week, you’ll get an array of data to help you dig as deeply into the analysis as you want to go.

If you’re just looking for some quick fantasy football lineup advice, then the instant projections will give you a clear picture of the top option to fill out your lineup for the week.

Want more info? Simply click on the Your Projection dropdown to find the detailed data that delivers your answer.

That data, of course, begins with the Draft Sharks projections – the most accurate in the industry!

In addition to the median projection, you’ll also see “floor” and “ceiling” projections. Although they’re always part of the formula, either end will come more into play if you lean your strategy further toward “safety” or “upside.”

Beyond the player stat projections, you’ll also find matchup data:

• The team he’s facing
• That team’s ranking vs. the player’s position
• And the specific impact that opponent has had on player scoring at that position (“Adj. Pts Allowed”)

You’ll see a graph displaying the selected player’s weekly fantasy points. You’ll also find the player’s injury status – if there’s an injury worth tracking for the week.

Finally, you’ll see our most recent Shark Bites fantasy football news updates for that player. Whether it’s injury tracking, team changes, or anything else, you’ll find the news that may – or may not – affect the player’s outlook for the current week (and beyond).

Who Should I Start Tips

We’ve obviously built the “Who Should I Start?” tool to help your weekly fantasy football start em sit em decisions. But if you’re using this page to decide every spot in your fantasy football lineup, then you’re probably wasting a bunch of time.

First of all, not every start-sit decision should be difficult. Some guys belong in your lineup every week. Other guys might be running hot, perhaps as a result of elevated usage or favorable matchups. And still others might be getting disappointingly few opportunities, or struggling through the absence of a key injured teammate.

The “Who Should I Start” page should be more of a final destination, answering that last question or two. But it’s far from the only lineup help you’ll find at DraftSharks.com…

• Your Team Intel page serves as the fantasy football lineup analyzer for any team you have synced. Just like “Who Should I Start,” it’ll apply the exact scoring and lineup settings from your league to our award-winning projections. And that combo will lay out your best fantasy football lineup for the week.
• Already know you need a replacement at a certain position? The Free Agent Finder will highlight the best options available on your fantasy football waiver wire at any time – and recommend players you can drop to get what you need.
• Or maybe you need more than just tips for this week. If you’re trying to strengthen your fantasy football lineup for the rest of your season, then you’ll want to check out the Trade Navigator – a powerful fantasy football trade analyzer. The Navigator will not only analyze potential trades but also help you find the right trade partner before you’ve even built that offer.

Understanding the Basics of a Start Decision

If you’re on this page, then you’re probably struggling with a fantasy football lineup decision this week. And we built the “Who Should I Start?” tool to help just that. But let’s dig a little deeper into that struggle…

Shouldn’t that decision be easy to make? Even if you’re not sure initially, then just play the higher-ranked guy for the week. Right?

Well, many factors go into the weekly projections that drive those rankings. They might include…

• The player’s past production
• His current situation, including team and teammate performance, as well as his role
• The matchup
• Opponent details that could impact the matchup, such as player injury on that defense
• Weather
• Expected game flow

And then other factors might enter into your specific decision, such as…

• Being a heavy favorite and thus looking for the “safe” play
• Being the underdog and thus chasing upside over safety
• Any scoring quirks for your league (long-TD bonus?) that might alter the upside calculation
• Whether you already have a teammate of that player in your lineup
• Whether you have someone from the other team in that player’s matchup (i.e. “game stacking”)

It’s important to pay attention to the specifics of your lineup decision, especially the available options and matchup data.

Don’t let a good matchup sway you too much in favor of a much worse player. But also don’t get caught up in how many fantasy points a player scored (or didn’t) just last week.

Fantasy football is awash in small-sample data. That’s why we present season-to-date fantasy production in each player result above. And it’s why we include items such as target share and snap rate in every player projection we do every week.

Frequently Asked Questions About Who to Start in Fantasy Football

How Many Players Can I Compare?

The Draft Sharks Who Should I Start tool allows you to compare up to three players to help your fantasy football lineup decisions.

Your toughest calls will most commonly come down to two players at the same position – or perhaps two players from different positions for your flex spot.

Figuring out that flex spot can be crucial to your weekly lineup. And comparing players from different positions can complicate that decision.

That’s why we show detailed analysis for each player you choose to compare – numbers that go beyond just the straight fantasy-point projection for the week in question.

What about Consensus Rankings in Start Decisions?

Consensus rankings are a helpful tool in making your lineup decisions every week. That’s the best available measure of how the market values a given player for the week.

We consider consensus rankings in producing our weekly projections and rankings. It’s a way of using the “wisdom of the crowd” to help balance expectations.

That said, it’s also just one component.

Those consensus rankings are simply based on industry-wide median projections for the players involved. And even that sentence assumes that all the rankers contributing to the consensus actually make their own player projections. (Spoiler alert: They don’t.)

More should go into your weekly start-sit decisions … as discussed in the other sections on this page.

In A Flex Position, Should I Start a Wide Receiver or a Running Back?

This is a basic question with a complex answer. To simplify it a little bit, let’s at least assume you’ve gotten to the point of comparing players of a similar level.

Are you playing in a non-PPR format? If so, then you probably want to lean toward the RB. He’s likely to touch the ball more than the receiver. And he’s more likely to get TD-scoring chances. A single TD dramatically impacts player scoring in this format.

Are you playing full-PPR? If so, then you should probably favor the WR. Getting a point per reception swings that touch balance to the receiving side. If both players finish with 60 total yards, but the wideout does so on five receptions while the RB gets there on 13 carries and one reception, then the WR probably had a better day.

Or are we talking about an RB who gets a lot of targets? Or are we talking about half-PPR scoring – or some other variation that doesn’t fit in any of the three buckets?

Who has the better matchup?
Is either guy playing with a backup QB?
Does either have a path to a larger role this week because of an injury to a teammate?

You get it. Sometimes, there will be a clear answer to this question. Other times, you might need to answer five more questions to reach that initial answer.

In any case, we’ve factored all the angles into the numbers that drive the “Who Should I Start” tool.

How Does the Who Should I Start Tool Calculate Its Recommendations?

Most fantasy football rankings rely on simple weekly projections for each player. Think of that as a player’s median projection, a reasonable expectation of what he’ll produce this week. But we go beyond that.

The Draft Sharks process also includes:

• Projecting a player’s ceiling, how he might score if everything breaks right for him
• Projecting his healthy floor, looking at the downside risk (without assuming an injury knocks him out of the game)

The Who Should I Start tool combines those three factors to generate Your Projection for every player you include in your comparison.

That projection, of course, will depend on the specifics of your scoring system. You can choose among three preset formats – all with either 1-QB or superflex settings. You can also select any league you have synced at DraftSharks.com to apply that league’s specific setting.

You can use the Strategy slider to alter how heavily that projection factors in the ceiling (aka upside) and floor (aka risk). You’ll find five different settings available within that spectrum.

Which Fantasy Formats Are Supported?

The Draft Sharks Who Should I Start tool supports just about any scoring format you use.

You can stick with one of three common fantasy football formats:

• Non-PPR or Standard
• Half-PPR
• PPR

Or you can click the “Use My League” dropdown to apply scoring settings from any league you have synced with DraftSharks.com.

Syncing your league will ensure that this and all the other team-management tools at DraftSharks.com apply your specific scoring and lineup settings to help you make decisions along the way.

Whether you use a superflex position, two QBs, return yardage, IDPs, or other variations, the Who Should I Start tool is ready to guide your toughest lineup decisions.