Start Em / Sit Em - Week 13 - Thursday Game

By Brad Kruse

In this Start Em / Sit Em column each week, I'm looking to find some fringe players that you might consider starting each week and comment based on their matchups. Early on, I'll base my selection of candidates on where they were with respect to ADP. I'm not going to try to pad my stats by suggestin your start Drew Brees each week, but instead trying to dig deep and find some nuggets for players to avoid or to go after. These are coin flip guys and if I can finish the year at better than 60% I'll consider it a success. My metrics to get the start decision are: QB 20 pts or more, RB, WR or TE need to score 12 pts or more for a successful endorsement. Defense/Special Teams should put in 8 points or more to get those picks right. I'll look at ~4-6 players on each Thursday night's game and ~ 6 players for the rest of the week to get you going. Good Luck this year!

Player	Pos	Team	Opp	Start / Sit	Comment
Jay Cutler	QB	CHI	DET	SIT	Cutler has been a disapointment this last month. He's been startable in 7 of his 11 weeks. However, he gets Detroit on a short week in week 13. This is not a good matchup for Cutler in spite of his array of weapons. Chicago's offensive line will be challenged by Detroit's front four. If Chicago can't get their offense turned around this could be ugly for them.
Matt Stafford	QB	DET	CHI	START	Similar to Cutler, Stafford has struggled this year. He's only had 5 of 11 startable weeks. Chicago should give him an opportunity for a bounce back game coming of a couple of tough performances.
Frank Gore	RB	SF	SEA	SIT	Gore has had 4 of 11 weeks as startable weeks this year. That's not too encouraging. He gets Seattle this week. He's had some good games vs. Seattle in his career, but at this stage the odds are better sitting Gore than starting Gore.
Joque Bell	RB	DET	CHI	START	With Reggie Bush hobbled and Detroit's offense scrambling, the one consistent has been an increased role for Bell. The common throught was that Riddick would have stepped into Bush's pass catching role the last two weeks. That hadn't happened to a large extent. Bush might be back for the Thanksgiving day game, but it's not clear that Bell won't continue to be a workhorse. If that's the case, I like Bell's odds for a TD against Chicago.