Bengals Fantasy Football: Start / Sit Against the Chicago Bears

It's hard to predict when it comes to fantasy football prior to the regular season opener. There's no sneaky unproven players that will help someone dominate their league, nor bitter disappointments to send a grown man sobbing into the corner of his daughter's bedroom. It's a fresh start. A new beginning.

START

A.J. Green: If you have A.J. Green during a non-bye week and out-smart yourself to the point of sitting Green, you should forfeit your right to play fantasy football. Actually, we'll just ban you from CJ. That's on you.

Andy Dalton: Dalton will have his weapons, from A.J. Green, to Jermaine Gresham, Mohamed Sanu, Marvin Jones, and a handful of rookies that figures to advance Cincinnati's passing offense into a new dimension. Plus, with all of the questions and disappointing prognostication existing with Dalton this year, I wanted to give our boy some love.

Mohamed Sanu: There's only so much room to go around once you factor that Green will consume the bulk of Andy Dalton's attention span. But we're not looking at Sanu as a 50-60 snap/game player; instead he'll be an effective red zone threat on a weekly basis -- at least according to his three-game, four touchdown run prior to his season-ending injury last year.

SIT

BenJarvus Green-Ellis: With Giovani Bernard arriving, figure that carries for Green-Ellis will decrease. Even more worrisome for the running back is that Bernard scored all three of his preseason touchdowns deep inside the red zone. Green-Ellis figures to be the short-yardage back and remain the feature back, but his production last year wasn't consistently great and Bernard's arrival probably reverts Green-Ellis into a situational back.

Tyler Eifert and Jermaine Gresham: I like Eifert and one day he has the potential to achieve the unrealistic expectations that were created when the team drafted Jermaine Gresham -- not that Gresham has numbers comparable to the best tight ends in franchise history or anything. However, the playing time figures to favor Gresham, but with Green, Sanu, and Jones contributing in the passing game, how much is left for the Bengals tight ends?

Giovani Bernard: Unless someone just loves Bernard (or a Bengals fan... aka, everyone reading this right now), Bernard could become a late-round steal. Obviously, if you're picking Bernard in the first two or three rounds, you're an idiot. Not only is Bernard a rookie (impossible to tell for fantasy football), we're not even sure how much he'll contribute with any regularity. The preseason is a bad indicator due to Cincinnati's approach to keep Green-Ellis rested. Or maybe I'm just hoping that one of my opponents in the CJ league reads this and leaves Bernard alone (Josh says while maliciously twisting his evil mustache).