Harold Fannin Jr. start or sit: Week 4 fantasy football advice

Week 4 of the 2025 NFL season is upon us and the action will continue on Sunday with the Cleveland Browns paying a visit to the Detroit Lions at 1 p.m. ET on FOX.

The Browns pulled the biggest upset of last week’s slate with a 13-10 victory over the Packers that was defined by their dominant effort on defense. Offensively, rookie tight end Harold Fannin Jr. made a modest contribution towards the victory and will look to step it up against another NFC North contender this week.

Below, we’ll go over Fannin’s outlook in fantasy football for Week 4.

Fannin caught only three passes for 25 yards in last week’s victory, the lowest output of the first three games of his career. Cleveland’s offense struggled for consistency in a defensive slog of a game and he ended up sharing targets with David Njoku, Cedric Tillman, and even Jerome Ford out of the backfield.

The Browns have run the most 12-personnel plays in the NFL this season and Fannin enters Week 4 as the team’s leading receiver even with the presence of the veteran Njoku. In fact, both tight ends have an equal target share of 15.52% after three games, so Joe Flacco is trusting the rookie as match as he’s trusting the established Pro Bowler to make big catches.

Start. Fannin is the 12th ranked tight end in PPR leagues with an average of 9.6 fantasy points per game ahead of Week 4, so he’s already proving himself as a viable fantasy starter through the first month of the regular season. This road matchup is intriguing as the Lions are already yielding the third-most fantasy points to tight ends per game at 11.6 and just gave up two touchdowns to Mark Andrews this past Monday. There’s a chance that Fannin could record his first-career TD in this matchup, so I’d keep rolling with him as a starter.

Start.