Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Doug Baldwin, Courtland Sutton, or Corey Davis?
It’s fantasy football week nine, and the difficulty level matches the week. This week is one of two times this year that six teams are on a Bye. With Indianapolis, Cincinnati, the New York Giants, Philadelphia, Arizona and Jacksonville all on Byes, we are left searching for temporary replacement players. We at Football Absurdity want to help you decide who you can start or sit each week, with this week probably being the most difficult so far. Each week we take a look at six players at each position (across two articles), and give you a break down as to why you should start or sit them. In this article, we hope to answer your questions about whether you should start or sit Corey Davis, Doug Baldwin, or Courtland Sutton?
Start or Sit Doug Baldwin versus the Los Angeles Chargers
The 2018 season hasn’t quite gone for Doug Baldwin how certain fantasy football prognosticators had hoped. They just… decided that his injuries didn’t matter. Two separate leg injuries cost him his entire preseason, and then knocked him out early in week one. In week four, when he returned, he posted a pedestrian five-catch, 41-yard line. Things have mostly gotten worse since then, as he’s averaged just 39 yards since then. He’s done all this with no touchdowns to salvage his stat lines. Unfortunately for Baldwin owners, things will just get worse this Sunday as he takes on the #1 team at stifling opposing wide receivers over the last five weeks, the Los Angeles Chargers. Excepting predictably massive games for the Rams Trio, the Chargers secondary has jammed up opposing wide receivers. With six teams on bye, it may be difficult to get away from him if you are trying to decide if you should start or sit Baldwin. For me, he is a sit.
Start or Sit Courtland Sutton versus Houston
Sutton is the new hotness, as his potential breakout quietly percolated under the surface, trapped behind Demaryius Thomas hoovering up all the targets. Thankfully, Demaryius will be far, far away this weekend as he will be… on the other side of the field?! Thomas is a Texan now, and Sutton is the WR2 for the Broncos. To get an idea of the opportunity he’s walking into, take Sutton’s air yards and targets. Now take 50% of DT’s (his presumed additional looks). Jam ‘em together, and you get the #12 WR in air yards, and #15 in targets. He will feast this year. While things will eventually be sunshine and teddy bears, they won’t be this weekend. The stout Houston defense has allowed just three players to top 100 yards this year, and DeVante Parker needed a ball to literally ricochet off another player to make it happen last week. They haven’t allowed a receiver a touchdown in three games, and if that trend breaks this weekend, it will likely be for Emmanuel Sanders, not Courtland Sutton. While the decision to start or sit Courtland Sutton will soon be an easy one, he’s still a sit for me. Just this weekend. Just this once, then unleash the beast.
Start or Sit Corey Davis at Dallas
Man, it’s awfully difficult to trust Corey Davis, despite his immense talent. What are you going to do when there’s a diamond in the middle of a massive dumpster, and you have to reach in and hope you reach the diamond? If it was me, I wouldn’t gamble a massive chance at grabbing a handful of old, rotten garbage on the slim opportunity to get the diamond. Corey Davis’s 71% ownership owes a ton to his week four blowup game against Philadelphia. Here’s why that’s bad: he has 44% of his fantasy football production in that one game. That means his remaining six games split 33.9 fantasy points. I’ll do the quick math: 5.65 fantasy points per game. This week he takes on a Dallas defense that has allowed just five double-digit fantasy point games to wide receivers this year, with only two players going over 77 receiving yards against them. He’s quickly falling out of the ranks of players that you should wonder if you should start or sit… or even roster. If you’re debating whether to start or sit Corey Davis, the choice is easy: Keep him firmly on your bench this week; sit Corey Davis until the dysfunctional Titans offense proves you should do anything different.
Ideally, you wouldn’t start any of these guys this weekend, but it’s understandable if you have to turn to them. If you’re trying to decide which of these fine gentlemen to start or sit, I would start them in this order:
- Courtland Sutton
- Corey Davis
- Doug Baldwin
If you need more start or sit advice, we offer plenty every week! Check out some of our week nine start or sit articles below (this list gets upgraded as it grows every week):
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Baker Mayfield, Mitchell Trubisky, or Joe Flacco?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Dak Prescott, Case Keenum, or Ben Roethlisberger?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Devin Funchess, DeVante Parker, or John Brown?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Nick Chubb, Latavius Murray, or Kerryon Johnson?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Alex Collins, Tevin Coleman, or Peyton Barber?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Greg Olsen, David Njoku, or Chris Herndon?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Rob Gronkowski, Trey Burton, or Austin Hooper?
Or, if you need a break from setting your fantasy football lineups, might I suggest checking out this week’s edition of Hot Takes From Crazy People?
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