Fantasy Football Week 10: Start or Sit Enunwa, Goodwin, or Gabriel?

Fantasy Football Week 10: Start or Sit Quincy Enunwa, Marquise Goodwin, or Taylor Gabriel?

Nine weeks are in the books, and fantasy football leagues are starting to take shape heading into week ten. We here at Football Absurdity try to help you make your weekly start or sit decisions by highlighting players that have an abnormally good or abnormally bad matchup. We hope that we can help you make the proper start or sit decisions every week, like whether to start or sit Quincy Enunwa, Marquise Goodwin, or Taylor Gabriel.

Start or Sit Quincy Enunwa versus Buffalo

Full disclosure, this was originally Robby Anderson. However, with reports that Josh McCown will be back under center this week due to a Sam Darnold foot injury, the sit recommendation shifts to Enunwa. Why the change? McCown is a Ryan Fitzpatrick-esque YOLOslinger, and his propensity to push the ball downfield benefits Anderson. Despite the difficult matchup, Anderson turns into a good DFS play. Enunwa, however, tumbles into the unstartable ranks. He missed practice on Wednesday, but that seems to have been a maintenance day. The problem is that he had just four targets in his return to action, and (skipping his injury-shortened week six), he had just five targets (with zero catches) in his last game action. Long gone are his weeks one through four that saw him getting an average of nine targets per game. He’s been phased out in lieu of Chris Herndon, and he’s part of an offense that’s circling the drain. You may recognize the name and think that he might be a start, but if you’re considering if you should start or sit Enunwa, you’ve already lost. Sit Enunwa, and leave him on the waiver wire if you see him there.

Start or Sit Marquise Goodwin versus New York Giants

Once upon a time, Marquise Goodwin was the WR1 for a surging 49er squad. That was three quarterbacks and (seemingly) an eternity ago. This season, it’s a completely different story for Goodwin. He has at least a touchdown in two of his last four games, but he has no more than five targets all year. He’s a boom-and-bust play who had just one catch for eleven yards last week. The matchup is stout (the Giants allow the seventh-fewest fantasy points to WRs this year), but more concerning is the tempo of the offense with Nick Mullens under center. Last week, Mullens had the second quickest snap-to-throw of any quarterback all year. It’s all short, quick routes with easy reads and short throws to guys like Pierre Garcon, George Kittle, and Kyle Juszczyk. There isn’t much left for Goodwin, traditionally a deep threat, in an offense built that way. The decision to start or sit Goodwin is a legitimate question every week, as he can take advantage of plus matchups in the right situation. Unfortunately, it is a bad matchup and a negative situation. Sit Marquise Goodwin this week.

Start or Sit Taylor Gabriel versus Detroit

Taylor Gabriel announced himself onto the fantasy football scene in weeks four and six (there was a bye in week five). He pulled in all twelve of his targets for 214 yards and two scores in those games. Since then, he’s been… Taylor MIAbriel. He has just 123 yards in the last three games as he’s taken over for a banged up Allen Robinson. He’s not a top-tier WR, and he’s shown that over these games. Robinson is likely to return this week, but that won’t do much for Gabriel. The Lions defense he gets this week stifles opposing WRs, allowing the fifth-fewest fantasy points per game to the position. Most of that damage was done by the Packers in week five. If you don’t believe me, note that the Lions were the defense that broke Adam Thielen’s 100-yard game streak last week. His ability to get behind a defense makes the question of whether to start or sit Gabriel a question mark every week. This week, however, he is a sit against a strong opponent.

All three of these guys are not the best starts, but if you’re looking to decide who to start or sit among them, I would rank them as: