Who To Start And Sit For Your Week 11 Fantasy Lineup: Running Backs And Wide Receivers

Fantasy football is weird. It seems like every year, an astute manager tallies up all the lessons and strategies possible, and then everything is thrown out the window with an offensive coordinator change, injuries, or plain bad luck. With only three games to go in the fantasy regular season, you might be feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders. Maybe you’re one of those savvy owners who had Deshaun Watson, Will Fuller, and Aaron Jones and now everything’s ruined.

That doesn’t mean the well is dry. This is where fantasy football lore is created. Win out, and as Michael Rapaport told us in the beginning of the season: destroy ’em.

• Week 11 waiver wire pickups

• Week 11 Start/Sit quarterbacks/tight ends

There are four teams on bye: Carolina, Indianapolis, New York Jets, and San Francisco.

Start/Sit

WIDE RECEIVER STARTS

Stefon Diggs: Dude is back, and Adam Thielen is taking all the pressure off of him. It’s nice to see him healthy and doing what he does best. Roll him out at home against the Rams.

Emmanuel Sanders: The best play of Brock Osweiler’s career came in the form of him throwing a ball out of bounds and drilling a coach on the sidelines, but he’s also keeping Sanders and Demaryius Thomas relevant with volume. In his second game back from an ankle sprain, Sanders had 11 targets against the Patriots, and could have targets in the 8-10 range. The Bengals can be thrown on.

Marqise Lee: We’ve mentioned him a few times in the waiver wire column, now he’s finally paying off after seeing 23 targets in the last two weeks. (Two weeks! Hey!) He’s playing Cleveland, who is willing to offer anyone fantasy points, even the receivers of Blake Bortles. Exciting stuff.

WIDE RECEIVER SITS

Davante Adams: Rogers is gone, Jordy Nelson is moving into irrelevance, and somehow, a Packer receiver is still relevant. That distinction belongs to Adams, who has seen 18 targets in the two weeks Brett Hundley has been QB. With that kind of volume, he’s going to get you something, but Baltimore is a top-3 passing defense, allowing just under 185 yards per game. If this new duo can get it done against Baltimore, then we’re good probably for the rest of the season. But for now, don’t risk it if you have another option. The Packers are at home, so if you play Adams, there’s still potential.

Robert Woods: He’s had two amazing games in a row, showed that Jared Goff is a legit QB and the Rams are a threat to everything the NFC West holds dear. Sit him this week against a Minnesota defense that doesn’t give up the big play — something Woods has relied on to enter the upper echelon of late-season studs.

You’re simply not going to see this every week, not after two career games from Goff. The Rams are good, but they have to come back down to earth (again) sometime, and that’ll probably be in Minnesota.

Kelvin Benjamin: I want to believe the six targets he got in his first real action with the Bills are a sign of what’s to come, but the fact is, unless he’s going to speed down the field like a healthy, 2016-era Sammy Watkins, I’m not sure what Benjamin is going to do that Charles Clay won’t eat into when he gets back to full health. I’m very concerned about the whole situation as someone who loves TyGod Taylor and appreciates Benjamin.

https://twitter.com/CARfancomments/status/930287348344074241

RUNNING BACK STARTS

Jamaal Williams: It looks like Ty Montgomery will miss this week and Aaron Jones will be out nearly a month with an MCL sprain, so that puts all the Green Bay rushing work on Jamaal Williams, who had 21 rushes in relief of his two RB compatriots last week. Baltimore can be stingy at times, but they’re completely middle-of-the-road when it comes to their rushing defense. In a week with a good amount of RBs on bye, Williams can hopefully stop the bleeding and get you a W. Be warned: it might not be pretty.

This is in the waiver wire column, but it deserves to be here as well:

Mark Ingram/Alvin Kamara: They’re obvious starts, but like last year’s Tevin Coleman/Devonta Freeman combo, you should feel comfortable starting both of these guys at the same time. This listing is just a reminder of that. What they’re doing as a tandem is historical.

Melvin Gordon: Austin Ekeler truthers are going to be banging their drum hard after the performance he put on against Jacksonville (we’ve been telling you to pick him up for weeks!), but after his fumble, he barely saw the field as the Chargers and Jaguars ended regulation and played overtime. Melvin Gordon is still the touch-share leader by a mile, carrying the ball 16 times and getting targeted eight times through the air, now he’s playing against a Bills without Marcell Dareus, who clearly was the anchor of that run defense. Over the last two weeks, the Bills have given up 500 yards rushing. Come on.

RUNNING BACK SITS

CJ Anderson: Since the return of Devontae Booker, the Broncos backfield has been a three-man committee of mediocrity. Anderson was one of my favorite players, but in the last few weeks, he’s seen carry totals of 9, 10, 15, 9, and 10. That’s not going to cut it. I’m not sure if any of the three would really take the job fully if one of the three oft-injured backs got injured, either.

LeSean McCoy: Listen, you’re going to start your studs, but somehow, despite giving up the second-most yards to opposing running backs, the Chargers are keeping them out of the end zone and are still a top-10 team in fantasy points allowed to opposing RBs. Considering how the Bills aren’t throwing him the ball nearly as much anymore, you have to wonder where he’ll get his points from if they’re playing from behind as well.

This is also concerning:

Jay Ajayi: There’s a chance the bye week preparation will place the shiny new Eagles RB front and center against the Cowboys, but he only saw 8 carries. The Eagles are singing his praises, but his pass blocking is still questionable, and for whatever reason, there’s a chance four (4) RBs touch the ball multiple times Sunday night. Oh, Sunday night indeed. With only three weeks left in the season and promises of a big workload that may not be kept, I’d much rather roll out Ajayi in daily than seasonal fantasy.