Week 10 is the point of no return in fantasy football. You can't afford to lose another game, period. With 3 weeks of byes left, and injuries and trades as well, the waiver wire could be your best defense against an untimely loss. The week after the trade deadline is already producing some interesting by-products of the last-minute moves that happened such as Golden Tate going to Philly, Demaryius Thomas going to Houston and Amari Cooper going to the Cowboys. OK, those moves are all players which are not on the waiver wires in Week 10, but the residual of those trades will definitely come into play with waiver wire players. As always, let's start with Quarterbacks.
Marcus Mariota just put up a very nice game against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, with a win, and a stat line of 240 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and 32 yards rushing and a touchdown. He is looking poised in the pocket and he always has the ability to scramble for some yards when needed. Why then am I listing him first? If you read my articles you know that the first person I list is the one I feel you should pass on. So why would I, on second thought, say no to Mariota who is playing so well right now and is available in 86% of leagues?
Easy.. the answer is Bill Belichick. Mariota faces the Patriots in Week 10. The Patriots are starting to put it all together as they always do about this time in the season. They are looking much tougher and quite frankly I don't think the Titans have a chance in the game, so I would not put their QB in my line-up if I need points in that position. There are better options out there in Week 10, not too many due to byes, but they are out there.
Nick Mullens is the first person who comes to mind.
Mullens, who is available in 99% of leagues showed up for his NFL debut against the Raiders this weekend by staying poised, looking good and dropping 262 yards and 3 touchdowns against their cross-bay rivals. Now, one might say, "well, that is the Raiders, you can't judge a QB by that." To which I would say, "you are right," except this next week the 49ers go up against the Giants.
Mullens has drawn the two most inept teams currently in the NFL as his first two starts. You couldn't ask for more. I do not know how the rest of the season is going to go for Mullens. I do caution you against using him in your fantasy playoffs where he faces Denver, Seattle and Chicago but you can rest easy this week. Play him and feel confident that you are going to get another big game out of him.
Baker Mayfield on the other hand has faced the Steelers and the Chiefs in the last two weeks. Poor kid.
He has still looked like anything but a rookie however, even this last week when getting beat by the Chiefs 37-21 he still managed a stat line of 297 yards and 2 touchdowns. Mayfield has been playing well and this week he gets the Atlanta Falcons. Now, the Browns will most likely lose this game as the Falcons have been playing inspired ball lately but the in the fantasy world, the Falcons are 30th against opposing QB's which means Mayfield should be in for a very nice game.
With a bye week coming up for the Browns in Week 11 you can be assured that they are going to leave it all out on the field. Even though they are probably looking at a loss, as mentioned before, Mayfield will be a sneaky good pick at QB in Week 10. If it is running back help you need is seems that many owners have been talking lately about Seahawks RB Mike Davis. Davis has been running great lately. Just this last week Davis ran for 62 yards on 15 attempts and caught 7 passes for 45 yards against the Chargers. I see no reason why an owner would not want to pick him up and stash him if you have the room on your roster, however, this week is not the week to play Davis.
The Seahawks travel down to L.A. to play against a Rams team that is one of the best teams in football with possibly the best defense in football. The Rams are also a team that just suffered their first loss of the season on national television to the Saints. I have a feeling they are going to have a heck of a bounce back week and unfortunately for Davis it is going to be against his Seahawks. Again, if you want to grab Davis for the future I wholeheartedly agree, but I cannot in good conscious tell you to start him in Week 10.
Giovani Bernard on the other hand might make a really nice start, especially in PPR leagues.
Bernard is back in the line-up after nursing a bad knee into the bye week last week. Bernard is available in 67% of leagues and the Bengals are playing the Saints this week. Cincinnati is probably going to get waxed by New Orleans, so they will be behind and playing catch up most of the game. They are going to be passing a lot which means Bernard is setting up nicely for a big game.
Bernard is the pass catching back in this offense which is now going to be playing without A.J. Green, there are going to be lots and lots of targets coming Gio's way.
The Jets are looking for help and production wherever they can get it and Elijah McGuire seems to be the next man up. McGuire finally got into the mix this season with his first offensive touches this last weekend. In an ugly 13-6 loss to Miami McGuire carried the ball 7 times for 30 yards and caught 3 passes for 30 yards. These are numbers that the coaching staff were happy with and said they are looking to build off of going into next week when they face another reeling team in the Buffalo Bills.