It’s hard to believe it’s Week 10, but we are looking at the back half of the fantasy football season somehow. Time flies. Let’s dive into five burning questions as we look ahead to this week.
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1. Who Can Replace QBs Patrick Mahomes or Matt Ryan on Your Roster?
We have four teams on a bye, the Chiefs, Cowboys, Falcons, and Jets. While the Jets and the Cowboys have pretty much been on their bye week this whole season, the same is not true for the Chiefs and the Falcons. There are some heavy hitters on both teams that you will be without in Week 10 like Julio Jones, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Todd Gurley, Patrick Mahomes, and Matt Ryan.
No matter how you look at it, losing any big fantasy producer hurts, but Mahomes may be the biggest quarterback to play without. He is the number one quarterback in 2020 over nine weeks scoring 237.98 points so far. It is impossible to replace Mahomes, but here are five some options you can plug into your roster who have decent streaming ability this week.
Jared Goff (LAR) (vs. 32nd Seattle Seahawks)
Tua Tagovailoa (MIA) (vs. 29th Los Angeles Chargers)
Baker Mayfield (CLE) (vs. 28th Houston Texans)
Drew Lock (DEN) (vs. 27th Las Vegas Raiders)
Derek Carr (LV) (vs. 24th Denver Broncos)
2. Who Is Startable During TNF?
I have said it before and I will say it again. Thursday night football games are weird. No names have huge performances and big names can put up duds. I usually try to avoid starting players during TNF for this reason, but sometimes it is unavoidable.
Week 10 is a perfect example as the Indianapolis Colts visit the Tennessee Titans. The Colts defense is ranked first against quarterbacks, second against running backs, 10th against wide receivers, and second against tight ends. The Titans are 20th against quarterbacks, 20th against running backs, 31st against wide receivers, and 21st against tight ends.
If only these defensive rankings were flip-flopped. On paper, the matchup looks so good for the Colts, but I have zero faith in quarterback Philip Rivers and therefore his pass-catchers. I also have no idea who will receive the volume in the run game between Jonathan Taylor, Nyheim Hines, or Jordan Wilkins who has recently become a thing.
On the other side of the ball, the matchup for the Titans on paper is a nightmare. But, in what world are you sitting wide receiver A.J. Brown or running back Derrick Henry? You’re not. However, you should be tempering your expectations for every fantasy player on each side of the ball. If you can avoid starting any of the Colts’ running backs until their roles are more clear, that is ideal. Rivers is a desperation start in deeper leagues and the Colts wide receivers are also wild cards, even in a good matchup.
Keeping all of this in mind, this game will be important to watch in terms of future fantasy production. The Colts have an excellent playoff schedule in Weeks 13-15 seeing Houston, Las Vegas, and Houston again until they face the staunch Pittsburgh defense in Week 16. If one of the running backs can pull ahead of their counterpart or a receiver can stand out as Rivers’ favorite, there could be streaming options during the playoffs.
3. Which Teams Have A Good Playoff Schedule?
Speaking of the playoffs, it’s not too early to start preparing. For this question, I am looking at the playoffs occurring between Weeks 14-16. Double-check your league setting so you are familiar with your playoff structure.
If you haven’t checked out the Strength of Schedule Tool, I HIGHLY recommend that you do. Our experts rank and star all 32 teams’ schedules for the remainder of the fantasy season and at each position. It’s incredibly useful for waiver and trade targets so you can make your playoff team as strong as possible.
Below are three teams for each position that have the best strength of schedule moving forward starting at Week 10 through Week 16. I will update this list each week for you to use a quick guide to finding the best matchups for rest of the season.
Weeks 10 – 16
QB – Browns, Giants, Saints
RB – Colts, Bears (keep an eye on Montgomery’s status), Browns
WR – Ravens, Colts, Bengals
TE – 49ers, Browns, Steelers
DST – Seahawks, Cowboys, Cardinals.
4. Who Are Some Sleepers To Target for Week 10?
We already mentioned some sleeper/streaming quarterbacks in question one, but the quarterback position isn’t the only one who will be missing in Week 10 with four teams on a bye. Here is a quick list of sleeper/streamer options you can target if you need a spot start this week.
RBs – J.D. McKissic (WAS), Duke Johnson (HOU)
WRs – Josh Reynolds (LAR), Darnell Mooney (CHI), Zach Pascal (IND), Nelson Agholor (LVR)
TEs – Eric Ebron (PIT), Irv Smith Jr. (MIN)
Remember, these players should be available on the waiver (all leagues are different, of course) and can be an option to start for a bye week filler. They have the best matchups but are not guaranteed to produce.
Be sure to read Mike Tagliere’s Week 10 Primer for more options and to get prepared for your matchups.
5. Can Tom Brady Get Back Into Fantasy GM’s Good Graces?
It’s fair to say that we all had high expectations for Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Wow, did that game looked skewed, or what? Quarterback Drew Brees sliced ribbons through the Buccs secondary throwing four touchdown passes and scoring over 20 points even with Taysom Hill taking snaps to give Brees GMs heartburn.
And where the heck was the Buccs’ offense? Brady was sacked three times, pressured on every play, and threw three interceptions without a single touchdown pass. They were embarrassingly close to getting shut out, but a field goal by Ryan Succop put a measly three points on the board against the Saints 38. All of the studs like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Rob Gronkowski, and Scotty Miller were practically absent and Antonio Brown‘s debut was muted with only three receptions for 31 yards on five targets.
It was so bad, that the blow-out provides an opportunity for the playoffs.
What do I mean? Well, the Buccaneers have the second-best schedule in favor of the quarterback in Weeks 14-16 and sixth-best for wide receivers. They face a tough defense this week against the Carolina Panthers. If there is any offense I want a part of when it counts for the playoffs, it’s a Brady-led team. If the Buccs struggle again, players like Evans, Godwin, and Brady may just attainable before the trade deadline for when it matters most this season.
In all reality, this is Brady we are talking about here. I highly doubt they will have a repeat performance of Sunday night this season. If you have Evans, Godwin, or Brady, be patient until you get to those juicy matchups later in the season. If you have your eye on them, get your trade negotiations started before Sunday and hope their bounce-back game isn’t too buoyant.
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Lauren Carpenter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Lauren, check out her archive and follow her @stepmomlauren.
