Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 3

Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 3

Injuries hurt football and wreck fantasy teams, but it’s part of the game, and often the aspect of fantasy football people tend to forget about the most. The NFL Season is long, and we’re just getting started. Adapt or die. 

I had a great week of Start/Sit recommendations. Before you jump to Week three starts and sits, let’s recap last week’s picks

Start/Sit Week Two Recap:

• Start Tyler Shough ✅- QB10 (252 passing yards, 2 TD)
• Start Jadarian Price – Injured, but still got 52 yards and a reception for 13 yards
• Start J.K. Dobbins – Injured
• Start Chuba Hubbard – ✅ – 14.4 PPR points
• Start Matthew Golden -Not bad, 9.8 PPR Points
• Start Dontayvion Wicks – ✅ For a flex player, Wicks did great: 12.4 PPR Points
• Start Devaughn Vele – ✅ 11.4 PPR points, good week, and now a safe starter
• Start Stefon Diggs – 🔥 What a call! 21.7 PPR points, 5 receptions for 47 yards and 2 TDs
• Start Juwan Johnson – Solid 10.4 points. Not worthy of a checkmark, though
• Start Bengals – ✅ Fantasy Defense 5 for week two
• Sit Drake Maye ✅- QB25. Great call
• Sit Jeremiyah Love ✅ – RB39. Just 29 rushing yards
• Sit Devin Singletary- ✅ – I knew week one was a fluke
• Sit Rashee Rice – ❌ He had a good week with 12.3 PPR points
• Sit Oronde Gadsden – Not bad, 9.8 PPR points. If I don’t get a check for Juwan, I’m not taking an X here

Overall Grade: A

With not much to go on, I think last week’s Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em article was a success. Let’s keep the positive energy going. 

Week 3 Recommended Starters

QB Bryce Young

Week 3 Matchup: at Browns

Young has been one of the better QBs in football through two weeks, not just a good story. He’s tied for the league lead in touchdown passes with six and sits second in passing yards. New offensive coordinator Brad Idzik has drawn real credit for the scheme, and Young looks comfortable and decisive within it. 

The Browns are feeling good after their first win of the season; time to bring them back to reality. 

QB Justin Herbert

Week 3 Matchup: at Bills

It’s now or never. The Bills are a good team to play against, as they give up a ton of yards and points, making this start more favorable. Opposing top receivers have already combined for five touchdowns against the Bills group.

Herbert has more talent than his first two weeks suggest, and if the offense has a week to turn a corner, a leaky Bills defense is the spot. This is a bounce-back bet, not a sure thing, so treat it accordingly in shallower or safer lineup builds.

RB Blake Corum

Week 3 Matchup: at Broncos

The efficiency gap in the Rams backfield is becoming hard to ignore. Through two games, Corum has 133 yards on 22 carries while Kyren Williams has needed 23 carries to get to 126. Williams also put the ball on the ground in Week 2, continuing a fumble issue that cropped up last season too.

Corum, meanwhile, had a clean 12-carry, 79-yard outing last week. Williams is still playing the bulk of the snaps, but the workload is trending toward more Corum by the week, and Los Angeles gets a Denver front that’s been beatable early in the season. This is a real handcuff-turned-flex-option situation now.

RB Jadrain Price

Week 3 Matchup: at Commanders

I’m going to die on this hill; I just know it.

Price left Seattle’s Week 2 win over Arizona early with a shoulder injury, but head coach Mike Macdonald’s update sounded more reassuring than alarming, calling it intact and not believed to be serious. Price has quietly put together back-to-back 52-yard rushing performances to open his career, flashing the explosiveness that made him a first-round pick, even in a timeshare that hasn’t fully gone his way yet. His practice participation later in the week will say a lot about where things stand, but if he’s cleared, his talent and role point to a bigger workload on the road against Washington.

WR Quentin Johnston

Week 3 Matchup: at Bills

Stacking the QB-WR bold prediction this week. Johnston’s Week 2 line wasn’t good, just one catch on five targets with a drop mixed in, and he shares blame for a Chargers passing game that’s misfired through two weeks.

However, the same Buffalo secondary is dragging down Herbert’s case above, and it cuts both ways. A defense that’s allowed 546 passing yards and five touchdowns to opposing top receivers through two games is exactly the kind of matchup where a talented but slumping receiver (and QB) can break out. Johnston remains part of a crowded three-way rotation with Ladd McConkey and Tre’ Harris, so the target competition is real, but the ceiling is there if the Chargers’ passing game finds any rhythm at all this week.

WR Khalil Shakir

Week 3 Matchup: Chargers

DJ Moore left Buffalo’s Thursday night win over Detroit with an AC joint injury, and while it isn’t being described as severe, Adam Schefter has reported his status for Week 3 is genuinely up in the air.

Shakir is the direct beneficiary if Moore can’t go, having already carved out a steady role in Buffalo’s passing game this season. Check the injury report before locking in a lineup, but Shakir is a name worth rostering and watching closely as the week develops, with real upside if Moore sits.

WR Dontayvion Wicks

Week 3 Matchup: at Bears

Wicks keeps delivering. He followed up a 91 percent snap share in his Eagles debut with five catches for 74 yards on six targets in Philadelphia’s Week 2 win over Tennessee. That’s back-to-back weeks of real, earned production in an offense that’s playing well, and it’s now three straight weeks he’s worth a spot in the lineup. Keep riding it against Chicago.

WR Romeo Doubs

Week 3 Matchup: at Jacksonville

Nice bounce-back performance last week. Doubs’ opportunity is only growing. A.J. Brown is out, and that opens up real target volume in a Patriots passing game that still needs playmakers around Drake Maye. Doubs travels to face Jacksonville in Week 3, and the role he’s building out makes him a legitimate add in most formats right now.

TE Colston Loveland

Week 3 Matchup: at Eagles

Very bold call, but I’m sticking to it. A backup QB’s best friend is the tight end. I expect a ton of check-down targets for Loveland

Chicago’s quarterback situation has gone from a minor concern to a genuine emergency. Caleb Williams is considered unlikely to play through his hamstring injury, and backup Tyson Bagent has since landed in concussion protocol behind him, which puts third-stringer Case Keenum in line to start against Philadelphia.

Week 3 Recommended Sits

RB Travis Etienne

Week 3 Matchup: Raiders

The matchup is fine on paper against a beatable Raiders front, but the shared workload is the real issue. Etienne played 53 percent of the snaps in Week 2, which lines up with the modest role, but Kamara actually out-touched him in both rushing and passing-game work that week. That’s a real split backfield, not a bell cow situation, and it’s a light workload for a back who signed for the money Etienne did.

Treat this as a committee back, not a lock, even in a favorable matchup.

WR Rome Odunze

Week 3 Matchup: Eagles

This matchup was already tough on paper against one of the league’s better early-season defenses, and it gets worse with Chicago’s quarterback uncertainty. With Caleb Williams unlikely to play and Case Keenum, a third-string arm, now in line to start, it’s hard to trust volume or efficiency out of any Bears receiver not named Loveland this week. Odunze has the talent to be a focal point in this passing game long-term, but this is a tough week to lean on him.

My theory here is the Eagles’ top corners will keep the Bears WRs quiet, and Loveland gets all the targets. 

WR Courtland Sutton

Week 3 Matchup: Rams

Sutton’s role has genuinely shrunk in Denver. He managed just two catches for 11 yards in Week 1 and three for 25 in Week 2, a far cry from the numbers he was putting up a year ago.

The Broncos traded for Jaylen Waddle this offseason and have seen second-year receiver Pat Bryant carve into the target competition as well, Sutton now looks like a matchup-dependent piece of the passing game rather than an every-week starter. Better options are available, and the numbers back that up.

WR DK Metcalf 

Week 3 Matchup: Bengals

The concern isn’t that Rodgers can’t get him the ball; Metcalf actually led Pittsburgh in targets in Week 2 with nine and has 15 through two games. The real issue is what happens once the ball gets to him. He dropped two passes in the Week 2 loss to New England, including a costly one on third down, and he’s averaging just 2.8 yards per target on the season. The volume is there, which keeps him rosterable, but the efficiency problems are real and make him a shaky lineup lock right now.