A familiar face made his 2024 season debut in Week 10, reprising his dreamy fantasy role. Meanwhile, one of the league’s most surprising teams had an eye-catching performance on Sunday. The most significant disappointments from Week 10 were from the NFC North. Finally, Week 10 was an unfortunate reminder about the importance of not jumping to conclusions with Injured Reserve happenings.

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Fantasy Football Week 10 Surprises

Christian McCaffrey is Back in a Familiar Role

Christian McCaffrey toted the rock 13 times for 39 yards, with a long of 13 yards. He also had seven targets, six receptions and 68 receiving yards. It wasn’t CMC’s most efficient day, and he didn’t score a touchdown. Nevertheless, 100-plus scrimmage yards and six receptions were nothing to sneeze at, and his underlying data was encouraging.

CMC’s 13 carries were 86.7% of San Francisco’s backfield’s rush attempts, albeit with three rushes for Deebo Samuel, who is running back adjacent. Additionally, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF), McCaffrey played 56 snaps and ran 35 routes versus three and two for Isaac Guerendo and three and one for Jordan Mason. So, CMC is back in his workhorse role, and week-winning performances might be on the horizon. The overall RB1 for the rest of the year is within his range of outcomes.

The Steelers Deserve Their Flowers

The Steelers had a statement victory on the road in Washington in Week 10, running their season record to 7-2. While their defense is the bell of the ball, they’ve scored 32, 37, 26 and 28 points in Russell Wilson‘s four starts.

The return of the moon ball has been a boon for George Pickens. He barbecued the Commanders for five receptions, 91 receiving yards and a gorgeous touchdown reception. Pickens also had a four-yard run. Per PFF, Pickens has been targeted on 26.1% of his routes in Wilson’s starts, corraling 17 receptions (4.25 per game) for 329 receiving yards (82.25 per game), 2.86 yards per route run and two receiving touchdowns in Wilson’s four starts. Pickens is a WR1 and Pittsburgh’s only reliable fantasy option in the pass-catching corps, but Mike Williams could emerge as he’s integrated into the offense after catching the game-winning score against the Commanders.

While Pittsburgh’s passing attack is top-heavy, their two-headed backfield might have multiple fantasy options. Najee Harris is the featured runner, and Jaylen Warren is mixing in as a change of pace. In Pittsburgh’s last two games, Harris has handled 40 rush attempts for 167 yards and one touchdown. Warren had 23 rush attempts for 112 scoreless rushing yards in those contests. However, Warren ran 28 routes compared to 21 for Harris, and the former had four receptions for 42 receiving yards versus three for 17 for the latter.

Harris is a game-script-dependent RB2 now that he’s ceding meaningful receiving work to Warren, and Warren is a flex or a bye-week RB2 with the upside of a more prominent role if Harris were hurt.

Fantasy Football Week 10 Disappointments

Caleb Williams is a Tire Fire

Caleb Williams and the Bears have turned the car around and driven full speed in the wrong direction on a one-way highway since their Week 7 bye. In three subsequent contests, Chicago has scored 15, 9 and 3 points. They didn’t face a murderer’s row of defenses, either.

Williams passed for 131, 217, and 120 yards in that three-start stretch. Moreover, the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL Draft has completed just 48 of 95 pass attempts (50.5%) and averaged a pitiful 4.93 yards per attempt since Week 8.

Williams didn’t throw any interceptions in those three games. Yet, he took an eye-popping 18 sacks, lost one fumble and didn’t pass or rush for a touchdown. Obviously, Williams isn’t rosterable. Sadly, his significant struggles have also rendered DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet lousy fantasy options. Kmet and Allen aren’t even bench-worthy players in most 12-team leagues or shallower, and Moore and Odunze shouldn’t be near starting lineups.

Sam Darnold‘s Pixie Dust Might Be Wearing Off

Sam Darnold had a blistering start to the season, and head coach Kevin O’Connell was justifiably praised for getting the most out of the young journeyman quarterback. However, the other shoe has dropped. Before Minnesota’s Week 6 bye, Darnold threw 11 touchdowns versus four interceptions and took 14 sacks.

Things have been rockier since the bye. In Minnesota’s last four games, he’s thrown six touchdowns against six interceptions and taken 12 sacks. Fortunately, Darnold’s passed for 259, 240, 290 and 241 yards, and his erratic play could lead to fantasy-friendly shootouts for his pass-catching weapons. So, gamers with Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson shouldn’t overreact to Darnold’s real-life struggles. However, Darnold is a less appealing streamer than a month ago, and his superflex value is also diminished.

Miscellaneous Note

Getting Activated From the Injured Reserve Doesn’t Assure a Player Will Suit Up

Unfortunately, while Jonathon Brooks and Nico Collins were activated from Injured Reserve (IR) this week, neither was active for their respective contests. The Panthers had to activate Brooks since his 21-day window was closing, or he would have been required to sit out the remainder of the year. So, it wasn’t entirely shocking he wasn’t active for Sunday morning’s contest in Germany. Furthermore, gamers likely weren’t counting on starting Brooks and had the remainder of Sunday’s games and the Monday Night Football game to use alternatives from.

Things weren’t as straightforward with Collins. The Texans played on Sunday night, leaving only Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football to pick a replacement for Collins. As alluring as using Collins against the Lions was, the risk of him being inactive was also present and came to fruition. Collins being inactive for Sunday Night Football was a learning opportunity for games who put all their eggs in his basket.

Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.