This week, the reeling Raiders host a Steeler team that looked old, slow and vulnerable against the Broncos and then came back to reality with a dominant win over the Jets last week. The Steelers are aging and will likely be without star safety Troy Polamalu, but still have a great defensive line and superb linebackers. For fantasy purposes, here is who you should start and sit this week.
START: Sebastian Janikowski. Fantasy owners should have very little faith in the Raiders offensive players at this point save Carson Palmer, and even he is a poor play this week against Pittsburgh. If the Raiders are going to score at all, they are going to do so with field goals. Janikowski could have a great day for fantasy teams.
He's it. The kicker is the only guy you should start. Here's who you should bench.
SIT: Everyone else. Palmer, Darren McFadden, Denarius Moore, Darrius Heyward-Bey, the lot of them. Sit every Raider skill player you own for this game. If they can't put up numbers against a mediocre unit like the Dolphins defense, they cannot be trusted to do much of anything against Pittsburgh.
Palmer might have an okay game statistically, but the risk is too great if you have any other quarterbacks with even a slightly favorable matchup this week. Palmer could just as easily have two touchdowns as four interceptions. Darren McFadden is a big play threat but the offensive line is not adapting to the zone blocking scheme enough to give him any help. We can hope that the Raiders figure things out and pull off an upset, but there's no reason to risk your fantasy team's success on that.
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