Courtesy of NFL Fantasy, Gridiron’s Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em is your weekly guide to how real-life match-ups influence your fantasy football squads.

Players like Antonio Brown, Todd Gurley and Rob Gronkowski will never be featured in this article because they should be in your line-up every week, regardless of match-up. Instead, we’ll touch on some borderline fantasy start-sit decisions.

(All fantasy data is based on point-per-reception (PPR) scoring)

Quarterback

Sit: Dak Prescott (vs. Giants)

In four career games against the Giants, Dak Prescott has averaged a putrid 6.8 Pass YPA and completed just 56.8% of his passes. In Week 1, Dallas was completely discombobulated as their first-down offense faltered. Dallas ran the ball on 6-of-10 first downs in the first half vs. Carolina, resulting in just seven yards (0% success rate). Dallas also rotated their WRs, playing Cole Beasley on 67 percent of snaps, Allen Hurns at a 60 percent clip, former-Bill Deonte Thompson 48 percent of the time, and rookie Michael Gallup just 45 percent of the time. With terrible career efficiency against the Giants and an offensive scheme in ruins, Prescott is a Week 2 fade.

Running Back

Start: Dion Lewis (vs. Houston)

In Week 1, it was Dion Lewis – not Derrick Henry – who was the Titans’ lead back. Against Miami, Lewis out-snapped Henry 70% to 30%. Per Next Gen Stats tracking, Lewis out-snapped Henry 14 to 0 on third-downs and the Titans red-zone snaps also went in his favour (6 to 2). Now, the Titans come back home for an in-division date against a Texans front seven that was just whacked for 178 yards from scrimmage and one TD on 37 touches in Week 1 against the Patriots.

Wide Receiver

Sit: Amari Cooper (at Denver)

Fresh off a 1/9 (on three targets) receiving line in Week 1 vs. the Rams, Amari Cooper and Co. now travel to Mile High to face Denver’s vaunted front seven and elite secondary. In six career games against the Broncos, Cooper’s statistical output is as follows: 4/47 (four targets), 0/0 (eight targets), 6/56 (eight targets), 4/39/1 (eight targets), 2/9 (eight targets), and 1/9 (one target). Over his last 25 games dating back to 2016, Cooper has been held under 50 receiving yards 15 times and averaged 3.8 receptions on 6.8 targets per game during this span. You are on your own if you want to start Cooper in Week 2.

Tight End

Start: Trey Burton (vs. Seattle)

Burton (1/15 receiving) disappointed in the Week 1 box score, but his usage did not. Burton was a featured aspect of Chicago’s attack against Green Bay on SNF, playing on 87% of team snaps and seeing the field for 40 of Mitch Trubisky’s 46 drop backs (87%). He only caught one of his six passing looks, but Burton finished second behind Allen Robinson in both team share of air yards (27%) and target share (17%). With fantastic usage in place, we have to go back to the well once more in Week 2.