6) Lamar Jackson vs. Bengals
Lamar isn’t looking very good right now. Plain and simple, he doesn’t seem completely healthy, and unless he aged about a decade overnight, his various leg injuries have piled up and have slowed him down. I seriously wasn’t going to even consider him as a starter until I considered his opponent. The Bengals defense is simply the worst unit in the league, and Lamar’s stock is further enhanced by the fact that Joe Burrow will be returning to the other side of the field. It may be a ton of Derrick Henry, but it also could be a classic Ravens/Bengals shootout as we saw twice last year. In two games last year, these two teams combined for a total of 148 points. Yeah, we want a piece of that, any place we can get it.
7) Jacoby Brissett vs. Buccaneers
Brissett has been a top 10 quarterback since taking over for Kyler Murray five weeks ago. In fact, in just five games, Brissett has scored more fantasy points than players like CJ Stroud, Jaydin Daniels, and Michael Penix, who have all played more games than he has. This weekend, he gets a Buccaneers defense that has been getting shredded lately by opposing QBs. The fact that Teddy Bridgewater is going to start for Tampa puts a slight damper on our hopes for a shootout, but Brissett should keep it going and finish inside our top 10 quarterback rankings again this week.
8) Matthew Stafford vs. Panthers
He’s the front-runner for the league MVP award, and his team is the overall #1 seed in the NFC. What’s not to love? Stafford has been as steady as they come and is an easy top 10 start for us this week. As always, I advise using a small measure of caution as his numbers will suffer if Kyren Williams scores multiple touchdowns. Stafford relies on volume and throwing TDs to get us fantasy points, and if the Rams thump the Panthers out of the building from the get-go, he may not need to pile up stats.
