Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown was a popular and a relatively high draft pick in most fantasy football leagues. He was drafted to be a weekly starter in most formats, but he has struggled to get anything going, even when the Bengals offense is putting up points. This week, the Bengals have a favorable home matchup against the Titans, but can you trust Brown to be in your starting lineup this week after his recent struggles?
Let’s take a look at what Brown can do for you in Week 8 against the Titans, and see what to expect from the Bengals as they try to pick up a win.
Chase Brown Start or Sit Advice for Week 8
Brown actually started the season with a strong showing in Week 1 against the Buccaneers, running for 56 yards and a touchdown and adding five catches for 22 yards. He finished that game with 18.8 FPTS, and he was even better with 19.1 FPTS in Week 4 against the Jaguars. He didn’t get a touchdown in that matchup, but caught 11 passes for 71 yards.
The problem for Brown managers is that the rest of his games have been very uninspiring. Bookending the team’s Week 6 bye, Brown only had 8.0 FPTS in Week 5 and 9.8 FPTS in Week 7. In each of those two games, he only managed 39 rushing yards and lost a touchdown in each game to Samaje Perine.
While it’s a disappointing sign that he’s had those two touchdowns vultured in the last two weeks and, only has one touchdown of his own this year, he is still getting most of the work in the backfield. He played 75% of snaps for the Bengals in Week 7 against the Ravens, and he even out-snapped Perine 7-3 in the red zone.
Brown hasn’t been able to rediscover his form from last season, when he ran for 1,019 yards on 232 carries while scoring six rushing touchdowns. He added five more receiving touchdowns while catching 69 passes for 437 yards.
His yards per carry average has dropped from 4.4 to 3.5 this season, but the main difference in his fantasy production has been his lack of touchdowns. Given how large of an advantage he has in workload overall, he seems due for some positive regression in that area.
It’s also important to realize that Brown has had a slower start to the season in each of the last two years. In PPR formats, he was the RB30 in 2024 through seven weeks and RB34 through the first seven weeks of last season. In both years, he broke out with a big game and had a strong finish to the season. Can he do the same this year?
If he does, the Titans would seem to be a good spot for him to get going. Tennessee has been a slightly favorable matchup for running backs this season, but it just traded away a key piece of its defensive line in Jeffery Simmons. The Titans have allowed six running back touchdowns in their seven games this season, along with an average of 104.9 rushing yards per game to the position.
Much has been made of Brown’s struggles so far this year, so the team could use this matchup as a “get right” spot, and potentially feed him the ball early and often. If they are playing from ahead this week instead of rallying like last week, they could also lean more heavily on the running game.
For DFS contests like the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st, $50K Crown Cash Throne Eligible] on DraftKings, Brown has a $6,300 salary. He could be one of the best value running backs on the board if he has a breakout game, and especially if he gets into the end zone. Since so many people are down on Brown, he could be a nice differentiator for tournament play if he does come through.
His recent struggles make him a high-risk option, but he’s still an RB2 for at least one more week in such a favorable matchup and potential game script.
