Wild Card Weekend Wide Receiver Start Sit Decisions: Courtland Sutton vs. Nico Collins, Amari Cooper vs. Keon Coleman, Demarcus Robinson vs. Olamide Zaccheaus

It’s time for playoff football!! That also means that it is time for playoff fantasy football. Compared to during the regular season, when most managers are playing in leagues of relatively the same size and format, playoff fantasy football is the Wild Wild West, with no one dominant format or league size. For the purposes of this article, that means that I can’t use my normal structure of recommending some players as blanket “Starts” and others as 100% “Sits.” Depending on what format you are playing for the playoffs, someone like Khalil Shakir could either be a must-start (there are only so many receivers even running routes) or a must-sit (if you are in a league with only one WR slot to fill). 

With that in mind, I will be letting the community tell me what questions they want answered using FantasySP’s Start/Sit Tool. I have selected three of the most popular decisions for this week, making sure to feature options that focus on different tiers of receivers. Hopefully, this way, this article will have something for everyone. Let’s get started!

Can’t find your own tough decision here? Use the NFL Start/Sit Tool for yourself to see what choice is recommended by experts, projections, and other managers!

Champagne Problems: Courtland Sutton vs. Nico Collins

It may seem impossible for anyone to have the luxury of choosing between these two players, but keep in mind that some playoff fantasy leagues will keep the same rosters and roster sizes throughout the entire postseason. Those formats may start with stacked rosters, but by the Super Bowl, managers will be choosing between Tim Patrick and JuJu Smith-Schuster. 

For this week, we have an interesting choice between the top receivers of two AFC teams that are underdogs in their Wild Card matchups. If we just glance at their performances during the regular season, Collins is the obvious choice here, as he averaged 14.7 Half-PPR points to Sutton’s 11.8. However, Collins was not the same receiver after missing five games in the middle of the season with a hamstring injury. After his return, he averaged just 12.3 points over the Texans’ final seven games of the season, a much more comparable number to Sutton’s.

With that said, I still prefer Collins this week. Both of these receivers have seen elite usage, with 23%+ target shares and 37%+ air yards shares. But Collins is simply the better player, with the league’s third-best PFF Receiving Grade at 91.6 (Sutton is at a respectable but far inferior 75.9). Collins also has the better matchup against a Chargers team that gives up the eighth-most schedule-adjusted points to wide receivers. Don’t overthink this one: Collins is one of the league’s best receivers, and he’s a must-start even in a reduced format.

Start: Nico Collins

Which Bill To Trust?: Amari Cooper vs. Keon Coleman

We move quickly down the fantasy ladder here. While Sutton and Collins were must-starts during the regular season, both of these Bills receivers were borderline flex plays. However, thanks to the reduced playoff slate, they are both top-20 options in our Wide Receiver Projections for this week. The Bills have the highest total on the slate at 28.5, so getting any piece of their offense is enticing.

With that said, I wouldn’t feel confident about starting either of these receivers. The big issue with both is projecting playing time on a crowded Bills offense. In six games after being traded to the Bills, Cooper averaged just a 48% route participation rate. Coleman’s usage overall was more promising. He hovered around a 70% route participation rate in the middle of the season before missing some time with a wrist injury; after his return, he ramped all the way back up to a team-leading 83% participation rate in Week 17. However, the rookie also led the Bills with an 88% participation rate in Week 18 … a week in which the Bills rested all of their main starters, Cooper included.

Cooper also has the edge over Coleman in terms of producing when he is on the field. Since the veteran made his Bills debut in Week 11, he leads the team with a 2.30 yards per route run mark, while Coleman is down at 1.53. However, I am still going to give the edge to Coleman. The last time we saw the Bills attempt to win a game, he ran more than twice as many routes as Cooper, 24 (83%) to 11 (38%). Coleman’s usage in Week 18 is concerning, but I have to assume his playing was simply due to a lack of seniority as a rookie. I can’t in good faith back Cooper, who has never played a full-time role in his time as a Bill and was trending in the wrong direction over the last few weeks.

Start: Keon Coleman

Desperation Time: Demarcus Robinson vs. Olamide Zaccheaus

This is easily the easiest decision of the article for me. While I’m presenting this as the lowest-tier decision of the three, I would probably actually start Zaccheaus over both of the Bills’ receivers (or at least Cooper). He made my Wild Card Weekend Sleepers article for a reason. Since Noah Brown’s season ended, Zaccheaus has averaged a very solid 13.0 Half-PPR points per game on a 19% target share and a 21% air yards share. He did that despite not fully securing the Commanders’ WR2 job until the third of the four games in that sample. 

Meanwhile, Robinson has become an afterthought in the Rams’ offense. If we ignore Week 18 (in which the Rams did not play their starters), the last time he caught a pass was over a month ago. He hasn’t seen more than three targets in a competitive game since Week 11 or recorded more than two receptions since Week 9. He does have a knack for finding the end zone on limited volume, so he’s not a completely terrible dart throw if you’re desperate. But I would much rather play Zaccheaus, who is far less likely to drop an absolute donut.

Start: Olamide Zaccheaus

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.