Week 4 is on deck and with it comes another round of tough start/sit decisions. These are the players I’m getting in my linesup and the players I’m fading on Sunday.
▶ Quarterback
Start: Kyler Murray, Vikings
Murray’s return to the lineup was a train wreck, even though the Vikings came away with the win over Tampa. There’s no easier way to get back on track than a date with the Dolphins. Miami’s defense is dead last in EPA per dropback allowed. They have given up the ninth-most fantasy points to opposing passers despite facing the fewest pass attempts in the league. Vegas is in on the Vikings this week with a 24.5-point implied team total. It’s now or never for Kyler.
Start: Daniel Jones, Colts
Jones is also in for a one-week buy-low as he takes on the Commanders. Washington ranks 28th in EPA per dropback and has allowed the second-most fantasy points to QBs. The sportsbooks are even more interested in the Colts, giving them a 26-point projection in a game with a 48.5-point total, the third-highest of the week. Both defenses in the Colts/Commanders game have allowed a top-five rate of explosive passing plays. This is a game to target for Week 4.
Sit: Jalen Hurts, Eagles
The Eagles have been dreadful this year. They rank 22nd in EPA per play on offense and that is weighed down by their No. 25 rank in passing efficiency. Philly is a bottom-10 scoring offense and a bottom-10 offense at simply producing yards. Now DeVonta Smith is highly questionable for Week 4 with his lingering hamstring issue. Dallas Goedert is also expected to miss Sunday’s game. Hurts was struggling to hang on to QB1 relevancy before these injuries. I don’t want to see what things look like without Smith.
Sit: Justin Herbert, Chargers
Vegas is calling it quits on the Bolts. Their 17.75 implied team total is lower than all but two teams, the Dolphins and Titans. Three teams are starting their backup quarterback and Vegas still projects them all to outscore LA. Herbert ranks 31st in EPA per dropback and 29th in CPOE. He’s the QB26 for fantasy purposes and there has been no sign of any changes in the offense.
▶ Running Back
Start: Aaron Jones, Vikings
I’m pretty sure I’ve had Jones in this article two weeks in a row with no success. But. Hear me out. What if I’m right this time?
Jones has the second-highest carry share in the NFL over the past two weeks at 83 percent. His 52 percent route rate and 14 percent target share are also top-10 during that stretch. Without Jordan Mason, the Vikings are simply treating Jones like a workhorse. Now they are favored by 10.5 points over the lowly Dolphins.
Start: David Montgomery, Texans
Montgomery’s Week 1 explosion is quickly feeling like a distant memory, largely because the Texans immediately turned him into a committee back after that performance. The good news is that he still leads the team in routes and goal line carries. Houston is favored by 2.5 points this week against a Dallas defense that is allowing explosive rushing plays at a higher rate than any other team in the league.
Sit: Omarion Hampton, Chargers
The Chargers are winding down the Hampton experiment. His carry share and route rate have fallen in back-to-back weeks. He earned 58 percent of the carries and ran a grand total of six routes last week. In theory, it would be good news that he saw all of the team’s goal line attempts. In practice, if Vegas is right and the Chargers are one of the worst offenses again this week, there won’t be many of those to go around.
Sit: RJ Harvey, Broncos
The sample size of Harvey playing alongside J.K. Dobbins is growing and it continues to look grim. He is averaging under five rush attempts per game when Dobbins is active.
Harvey hasn’t seen a goal line all year. He had two goal line attempts in 10 games with Dobbins healthy in 2025. Harvey has a solid PPR floor based on his receiving workload, but the ceiling is nonexistent as long as Dobbins is out there.
▶ Wide Receiver
Start: Luther Burden, Bears
I wrote more about the Bears’ offense in 10 Takeaways. A big conclusion from their Week 3 outing was that, without Caleb Williams, there will be a lot more targets to go around. That will likely hold up even if the Bears somehow bench Case Keenum for Tyson Bagent. In their first game without Williams, Ben Johnson dialed up loads of easy completions to Burden. He led the team with a 33 percent target share and 28 percent of the first-read targets. Now pulling away as the team’s top target-earner, Burden is a solid WR2 bet, even with a backup quarterback on the sticks.
Start: Jakobi Meyers, Jaguars
The Jags have jumped on the 12-personnel bandwagon, using the extra tight end on 21.3 percent of their passing plays. Meyers leads the team with 18 routes out of this look, tied with Parker Washington. He also leads the team in 11-personnel routes. His efficiency numbers are nothing to write home about, but the team trusts him more than Brian Thomas Jr. in all situations. That leads to games like Week 3, when he earned a 31 percent target share and 44 percent of the Jags’ air yards. Now he gets the Bengals in a game with the highest total of the week at 51.5 points.
Sit: Chris Godwin, Bucs
Godwin is fourth out of four qualified Bucs wideouts in yards per route run (1.1). He’s also last by a wide margin in targets per route at .11. Since the start of 2025, Godwin is 51st in YPRR and 72nd in TPRR among all wide receivers. Godwin is a 30-year-old receiver who hasn’t been the same since suffering a catastrophic injury in 2024. He’s a sit for Week 4 and a sell-low for the rest of the season.
Sit: Courtland Sutton, Broncos
Sutton’s efficiency took a small hit last year and is bottoming out through three weeks of the 2026 season. His .9 yards per route run ranks 78th among all wideouts and is last among the four Denver receivers with at least 20 routes. ESPN’s player tracking data has him with the third-worst Open Score in the league. It wouldn’t be surprising for Pat Bryant to overtake him as the team’s WR2 in the coming weeks.
▶ Tight End
Start: Kenyon Sadiq, Jets
Sadiq was primarily used on gimmick touches in his first two games. With Adonai Mitchell and Mason Taylor out of Week 3, Sadiq took on the Jets’ WR2 role. He ran 47 percent of his routes from the slot and another 13 percent lined up out wide. The rookie was phenomenal as an extra receiver, averaging 4.2 yards per route with a wideout-caliber target depth of 10. Mitchell and Taylor are out for Week 4, putting Sadiq in line for another TE1 performance.
Start: Darren Waller, Panthers
The Panthers got Waller more involved with Jalen Coker banged up last week. His target share doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent. He was the intended target on 18 percent of Bryce Young’s first-read throws. Waller has run 53 percent of his routes from the slot, the fifth-highest rate among all tight ends. The Lions—his Week 4 opponent—have allowed more targets to slot receivers than all but one team.
Sit: Mark Andrews, Ravens
Andrews has averaged a monstrous 2.3 yards per route with Zay Flowers off the field this year. That falls to a dismal 1.1 when the superstar wideout is on the pitch. Flowers was on a snap count in Week 3 but still managed to run 64 percent of the routes. That should keep rising this week, sending Andrews to the back of the TE2 ranks.
Sit: Kyle Pitts, Falcons
The evidence is overwhelmingly clear. When Drake London is healthy, Kyle Pitts can’t earn targets. Since the start of last year, Pitts has averaged 1.2 YPRR and .17 targets per route when London is out there. Those numbers soar to 2.4 and .27 when London is off the field. Pitts is averaging eight PPR points per game with London active during that stretch. He simply isn’t playable until he proves capable of earning targets on his own.
