Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Alex Collins, Tevin Coleman, or Peyton Barber?
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 whom 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 Alex Collins, Tevin Coleman, Peyton Barber?
Start or Sit Alex Collins versus Pittsburgh
No running back better embodies the “solid, but unspectacular RB2,” template than Alex Collins. Well, maybe Lamar Miller. But Miller’s picked up back-to-back 100+ yard games and has to cede his title to Collins. On the season, Collins is averaging 57 yards per game and has picked up six touchdowns. The six scores certainly buoy the ok-I-guess-I’ll-take-it 5.7 fantasy points a week through yardage he dumps on you in standard scoring. He’s been… fine. Mostly a touchdown-based RB2 or flex play. This week, however, things got more complicated in Baltimore. They added Ty Montgomery to a backfield that already features Collins and Buck Allen. This will likely siphon a few touches away from a player who can hardly afford to lose them (he’s already topped twelve rushes just twice all year). Add in a dash of the opponent this week (the Steelers have allowed just three rushing touchdowns all year) and you have a recipe for failure for Collins owners this weekend. It is a legitimate question whether you should start or sit Alex Collins every weekend. I do not own Collins anywhere, but if I did, I would sit him this weekend against the Steelers.
Start or Sit Tevin Coleman at Washington
Going into the fantasy football draft season, one of the reasons that Tevin Coleman rocketed up draft boards was his perceived ability to produce if/when Devonta Freeman went down. Well, Freeman went down, yet Coleman has produced… unspectacularly… in his absence. He’s posted top-twenty RB weeks in each of the last two weeks but is yet to post a top-ten game this year, and spent the previous three games posting games well outside the top twenty at the position. He’s become a matchup-based RB2, mostly because in the four games prior to last week, Coleman averaged a dismal 2.91 yards-per-carry. This week, Coleman & the Falcons get a Washington team that has allowed 11+ point fantasy days to just three running backs all year: David Johnson, Mark Ingram, & Saquon Barkley. I don’t know how to break this to you, but Coleman isn’t as good as those guys. He hasn’t been as-promised without Devonta Freeman, and the question of whether you should start or sit Tevin Coleman is a real sticky wicket. Against a Washington team that wants to slow the game down and prevent high-flying days, I would sit Coleman this week if given the opportunity.
Start or Sit Peyton Barber at Carolina
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, just a few games removed from sitting their starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, for Jameis Winston, have benched Jameis Winston for Ryan Fitzpatrick after 2.5 games. Good golly, what a mess. Barber’s actually performed for fantasy football owners under Jameis, posting at least 14.5 fantasy points in two of the last three games. The rub here is how the Buccaneers utilized Barber with Fitzpatrick. Or rather, how they didn’t utilize him with Fitzpatrick going 80 yards downfield on every single pass. Barber had 3.5 fantasy points or fewer in three-of-four Fitzpatrick starts. This week, he doesn’t get a good opportunity to break that pattern, either, as the Panthers allow the ninth-fewest fantasy points to opposing RBs, and have yielded just one rushing touchdown since their week four bye. According to certain shamanistic beliefs, magic power cannot be created, it must be transferred. If FitzMagic is to perform, that means the magic has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, Peyton Barber’s fantasy fuel life force powers FitzMagic. So, when it comes to whether you should start or sit Peyton Barber, he is a firm sit for me this weekend, and I wouldn’t even think twice about whether I would start or sit him.
Starting these running backs are not advisable, and wondering if you should start or sit them is worrisome. Personally, I would start them in this order:
- Tevin Coleman
- Alex Collins
- Peyton Barber
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 Doug Baldwin, Courtland Sutton, or Corey Davis?
Fantasy Football Week 9: Start or Sit Nick Chubb, Latavius Murray, or Kerryon Johnson?
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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