Start em or sit em? Fantasy football start or sit decisions can be excruciating. While it feels great to make the right call and cruise to fantasy glory, it hurts just as much when you have someone erupt while on your bench. You can use our Who Should I Start? tool to gauge advice from fantasy football experts as you make your lineup decisions. And you can also sync your fantasy football league for free using our My Playbook tool for custom advice, rankings and analysis.

Let's take a look at a few polarizing players and what fantasy football expert Derek Brown advises. And you can find all of DBro's fantasy football outlook in this week's fantasy football primer.

The ascension of Justin Herbert in fantasy circles continued in the Chargers' last-minute victory against Cincinnati last week. After finishing outside the top 20 quarterbacks in fantasy points in five straight games to start the year, Herbert has now finished inside the top 20 in his last five. That includes four straight QB1 finishes in 12-team leagues. Herbert has a great chance to make it five in a row when the Chargers host the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night. Baltimore is a pass-funnel defense and has allowed the third-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season. Given Herbert's increased productivity of late, expect more of the same from the Chargers' signal-caller in this matchup.

Jonnu Smith (TE)

Since Week 8, Smith has had a 17.7% target share, 2.21 YPRR, two end zone targets, and a 20% first-read share. He is the TE8 in fantasy points per game with three TE1 weeks this season. He ranks fifth in deep targets and 15th in red zone targets among tight ends. Smith has run 53% of his routes from the slot this season. New England has allowed the 14th-highest PPR points per target to slot receivers.

Bucky Irving (RB)

Since Week 7, Irving has been the RB24 in fantasy points per game, averaging 13.5 touches and 70.5 total yards per game. He has played 39% of the snaps overall per game while averaging 50.6% of the rushing play snaps, 33.3% of the passing down snaps, and 40% of the snaps inside the ten-yard line. The Bucs have utilized him perfectly, with 54.2% of his rushing attempts coming on gap runs. Among 53 qualifying backs, he ranks seventh in explosive run rate, third in missed tackles forced per attempt, and 13th in yards after contact per attempt. Irving should post another tasty stat line in Week 12. Since Week 6, New York has allowed the highest explosive run rate, the most rushing yards per game, the eighth-highest yards after contact per attempt, and the fifth-highest yards per carry to gap runs.

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant - which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections - to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much - we've got you covered this fantasy football season.