Fantasy Football 2024: 4 Stars You Can Confidently Sit in Week 4 After Slow Start

Fantasy Football 2024: 4 Stars You Can Confidently Sit in Week 4 After Slow Start0 of 4

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Every fantasy football season is full of surprises. That is no different in 2024, as the beginning of this new NFL campaign has played out far differently than many expected for some of the league’s more notable players.

These well-regarded talents have gotten off to poor starts, hindering the managers who have been hoping it was just a rough patch or anomaly. Unfortunately, after three weeks, there is more than enough data with which to make some tough decisions.

While it’s never easy to send a player selected in the early-to-mid portions of a draft to the bench, it’s the right call for the players who have yet to have a single respectable performance in September.

With that in mind, here are four stars you should sit in Week 4 and beyond following a painfully slow start.

Points, rankings and other fantasy data courtesy of FantasyPros using a PPR format.

QB Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers1 of 4

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Justin Herbert has gone from being a gun-slinging fantasy point manufacturer to a more prudent game manager in the Los Angeles Chargers’ new-look offense. With head coach Jim Harbaugh now calling the shots, one of the league’s weaker receiving corps at his disposal and a middling offense line and rushing attack for support, it appears Herbert’s days as a top fantasy quarterback are over—at least for now.

L.A.’s offense looks vastly different under Harbaugh than it has in recent years. The team is passing on 44.51 percent of its offensive plays this year, a massive shift in philosophy from last year when the team threw on 61.03 percent of offensive snaps and in 2022 when the Bolts had the league’s second-highest passing rate at 65.09 percent.

Due in no small part to this schematic shift, Herbert has yet to record a weekly finish inside the top 20 this year. It’s well off the standard he established during his first four NFL seasons, a stretch in which he never finished below the QB11 when healthy and even logged a QB2 campaign in 2021. Even last year, when he missed the final three weeks of a trying Bolts season, Herbert still posted a respectable QB17 finish.

To make matters worse, Herbert is now dealing with a lingering ankle issue. It first flared up in Week 2 and was reaggravated in the team’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, keeping him out the entire second half.

Even when he’s been in the game, Herbert isn’t being tasked with throwing enough to make him a top fantasy signal-caller. The Chargers are focused on establishing the run, ranking No. 7 with a 152 yards per game average on the ground while recording a collective 91 totes—the ninth-most in the NFL right now.

Until Herbert is healthy and the Chargers indicate they’ll be throwing more, managers should keep the quarterback on their bench and dip into the free-agent pool to find a replacement.

RB Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals2 of 4

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The Cincinnati Bengals made a franchise-altering decision to move on from Joe Mixon, the team’s starting running back for the better part of the previous seven seasons, ahead of the 2024 campaign. That transaction seemed to open the door for backup Chase Brown to become a key contributor despite rarely seeing the field during his rookie season, but thus far that role has yet to materialize.

Brown has instead remained a lightly utilized backup, although he’s now working behind free-agent pickup Zack Moss instead of Mixon.

While Brown is getting slightly more playing time in Year 2—he’s earned a 25 percent snap share compared to 12 percent as a rookie—he’s only logged 19 touches over the first three weeks. Moss is well ahead in these categories, seeing a career-high 74 percent snap share and receiving 41 touches over the first three games. Moss has been effective with his touches as well, garnering 136 yards and two scores on 33 totes and adding another 69 yards on eight receptions.

Brown’s production on his limited volume doesn’t inspire much confidence for an increase in workload either. He’s earned 123 yards from scrimmage and has yet to find pay dirt. While he did just finish as the RB32 after putting up season-best marks in Week 3, that showing came in a Monday Night Football barnburner against the Washington Commanders—a team that ranks No. 29 in both total and scoring defense in 2024.

There is a decent chance for Brown to record another top-40 finish against the Carolina Panthers next week—their defense has given up more points than any other season—but it will likely take an injury to Moss for this backup to start seeing the type of volume required to be a fixture in starting fantasy lineups. It’s safe to bench Brown while Moss is showing out as the clear RB1 in Cincinnati.

WR Michael Pittman Jr., Indianapolis Colts3 of 4

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The Indianapolis Colts may have notched their first win of 2024 this past weekend, but Michael Pittman Jr.’s managers took yet another “L” in Week 3.

Despite his status as the team’s No. 1 wideout—and the massive contract he signed this offseason to match—Pittman has been struggling to establish a rapport with second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson and isn’t putting up his usually impressive fantasy marks.

Pittman is currently the WR78, a large fall from the WR25 finish he posted in 2023 and well off the career-best WR16 finish he had as a rookie in 2021. He’s mustered just 8.8 fantasy points on the year, with a meager 3.6-point outing this past Sunday representing his best performance of 2024.

While Pittman is seeing a decent number of targets—he leads the Colts with 20, eight more than No. 2 wideout Alec Pierce—he’s simply not producing. He’s only averaging eight yards per reception and has yet to reel in his first touchdown reception since Week 13 of last year.

With Richardson going through a rough sophomore slump, it’s best to avoid Pittman and the Colts’ pass-catchers for now. The young signal-caller is completing fewer than half of his throws and is being intercepted on a concerning 8.2 percent of his attempts.

Until Richardson improves as a passer and Indy finds a spark offensively, Pittman is borderline unusable in most fantasy lineups.

TE Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens4 of 4

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Mark Andrews was one of the few tight ends who fantasy
managers could count on for consistent production over the last half-decade. Unfortunately for the managers who drafted the Baltimore Ravens star, that reliable status appears to be gone in 2024.

Through three weeks, Andrews rates as the TE31 with a meager 6.5 fantasy points to his name. He failed to record a single point in Week 3, the first time he’s ever been held scoreless in a contest he suited up.

It’s quite a fall from grace for a player who ranked as a top-five player at his position in his last three healthy seasons and even finished as the TE12 despite missing seven games in 2023.

It seems that Baltimore’s offense has evolved and isn’t planning to utilize Andrews as heavily on a regular basis going forward. Even Andrews’ head coach, John Harbaugh, warned fantasy managers to expect inconsistent performances from the fading star.

During a recent press conference, Harbaugh addressed Andrews’ dwindling snap count—he’s seen the field for just 58 percent of the offensive snaps this year, his lowest mark since 2019—by noting the high volume of heavy personnel Baltimore has been using to establish the run. Harbaugh also revealed that tight ends will be rotated based on the weekly game plan, indicating more inconsistent production is on the horizon.

Given Harbaugh’s comments and his pitiful showings to start the season, Andrews can be safely left on the bench in most leagues. He may not be worth dropping quite yet simply due to the sheer lack of quality replacements in free agency, but keep him out of your lineup until there is a significant change in Baltimore’s offensive philosophy.