Week 4 Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Fantasy Football

With three weeks behind us, the fantasy football landscape is starting to unfold. Whether it's parsing out a team's usage trends or identifying favorable matchups, we're starting to get some good data to help inform our fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em decisions.

With that in mind, here are The Duel's Week 4 start 'em, sit 'em picks for fantasy football.

Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 4 Quarterbacks

Start Jalen Hurts, QB, Philadelphia Eagles (vs KC): Jalen Hurts turned in a middling performance as our QB "start" in Week 3, but there's a ton of reasons to like going back to the well here. Hurts still managed 20.5 fantasy points despite tossing his first 2 interceptions of the season in Week 3, giving him 20-plus in each game this year. His 71.1 fantasy points are good for fifth among quarterbacks. Now he gets a matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, whose pass defense checks in at 32nd in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric.

Sit Baker Mayfield, QB, Cleveland Browns (at MIN): The Cleveland Browns look like they're for real in 2021, but that doesn't make Baker Mayfield an exciting fantasy football QB. He's averaging 15.7 fantasy points per game (22nd among QBs), and he's yet to hit even 20 points in a single outing despite getting some dreamy matchups already (the Chiefs in Week 1 and Houston Texans in Week 3). The Vikings have also been a good matchup (sixth most fantasy points per game to opposing QBs), but that's not enough to make Baker a strong play at this point.

Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 4 Running Backs

Start Chuba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers (at DAL): Don't hesitate to plug Chuba Hubbard into your starting lineup if you grabbed him on waivers this week. He's basically a must-start option for as long as Christian McCaffrey is out. McCaffrey made it through 22 snaps before getting hurt in Week 3. Hubbard took over, and in 55% of the Carolina Panthers' offensive snaps he racked up 16 opportunities (11 carries plus 5 targets). We saw last year when Mike Davis took over for CMC that the Panthers will feed whoever their RB1 is, so Hubbard should be in for all the work he can handle.

Sit Trey Sermon, RB, San Francisco 49ers (vs SEA): Trey Sermon has plenty of upside, but you should wait to see his role expand before plugging him into your starting lineup. His 10 carries in Week 3 were promising, but his 59% snap share left a lot to be desired, and he tallied just 48% of the San Francisco 49ers' carries. He didn't exactly prove he deserves more, either, averaging 3.1 yards per carry and gaining 52% of his 31 yards on a single carry.

Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 4 Wide Receivers

Start Brandin Cooks, WR, Houston Texans (at BUF): The Houston Texans' offense is a mess, and they're likely to get blown out this week. Those things were true last week as well, however, and Brandin Cooks showed us just how far volume can go to erasing other concerns. He turned 11 targets into 9 receptions and 112 yards, marking his third straight game with at least 18 PPR fantasy points this year. I wouldn't bank on Cooks continuing to rank sixth among all wide receivers in fantasy production for long, but he's clearly Davis Mills' favorite target, and that volume will keep his fantasy value high regardless of how bad the Texans are.

Sit Robert Woods, WR, Los Angeles Rams (vs ARI): It seems inevitable that Robert Woods' output will improve after his terrible start to the season, but this isn't the week to bank on it. Woods is second on the Los Angeles Rams in targets, but his 19 account for an underwhelming 20.4% share of the team's total. He's also converted that workload into just 11 receptions for 124 yards. Both Van Jefferson (136 yards) and DeSean Jackson (141) have out-gained Woods on lesser workloads. Now Woods gets the Arizona Cardinals, who rank No. 3 in pass defense DVOA to start the year.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.