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We all need a fantasy refresh after opening the week with one of the worst Thursday night games in memory. Bo Nix and Geno Smith just set the NFL back 50 years. Let’s agree to erase that miserable game from the official record as soon as our Week 10 matchups are decided. Right now, we must claw our way out of the fantasy sinkhole created by the Broncos and Raiders. Let’s get to work!

📰 Lineup News

Can Jakobi Meyers revive his season with the Jags?

Brian Thomas (high ankle) has been ruled out this weekend, so the Jaguars will need to lean on new acquisition Jakobi Meyers in his Jacksonville debut.
Rhamondre Stevenson (toe) and Kayshon Boutte (hamstring) weren’t able to practice this week and have been ruled out against the Bucs. TreVeyon Henderson and DeMario Douglas are the next men up alongside Stefon Diggs.
Bucky Irving (foot/shoulder) and Chris Godwin (fibula) did not sufficiently recover during Tampa Bay’s bye and will miss the matchup with New England.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson declared himself a believer in the hot hand at running back this week, opening the door for additional Kyle Monangai opportunities without actually guaranteeing them. But D’Andre Swift didn’t practice Friday, so Monangai may have one more week to own the backfield.
Rico Dowdle and James Cook avoided injury designations this week, so fire them up wherever you can and talk all the trash that needs to be talked. These are top-five fantasy backs.
Garrett Wilson (knee) is officially questionable but expected to return this weekend after practicing in full on Friday.
Wake-up call: Atlanta and Indianapolis face off in Berlin on Sunday, so the NFL action begins at 9:30 a.m. ET. Make those sit-start decisions about your Falcons and Colts as soon as possible.
ToolkitWeek 10 wisdom

📈 Player rankings: Jake Ciely wants you to aggressively start your various Bears against a vulnerable Giants defense.

❓Key questions: Speaking of the Bears, Dalton Del Don questions whether change is coming to Chicago’s backfield hierarchy.

🔀 Last-minute waiver help: Making the case (reluctantly) for Keon Coleman.

📝 Cheat sheet: New arrival Rashid Shaheed could play a meaningful role for Seattle immediately, given the injury situation in the Seahawks’ receiving room.

New hope for MHJ, Trey McBride?Kyler Murray’s reign ends in Arizona

In recent seasons, the Arizona Cardinals seemed pre-programmed to lose games that should be unlosable. This team has given us several of the wildest win-probability graphs in the Next Gen Stats era:

For years, nothing in sports has felt as tenuous and fragile as a double-digit second-half Cardinals lead. This team is wired to inflict maximum suffering on its most dedicated supporters. Every game is a manifesto on human isolation and the inevitability of loss.

Or at least that was the case with Kyler Murray at the controls of the offense.

Over Arizona’s past three games, with Murray sidelined by a foot issue, this team has been uncharacteristically not-weird. The experience of watching a Cardinals game has been refreshingly normal. Jacoby Brissett hasn’t been perfect — that is to say, he’s no Joe Flacco — but it’s been a smooth ride with him behind center.

True, the Cards are only 1-2 with Brissett as the starter, but the losses were one-score games against the Packers and Colts. Last week’s win at Dallas was impressive enough for Jonathan Gannon to make a more permanent switch to Brissett, with the team placing Murray on injured reserve.

Anyone with Trey McBride on a roster is surely excited about this development, because their early-round tight end has seen 33 targets in three games with Brissett, reaching the end zone four times. The Marvin Harrison managers aren’t exactly bent out of shape, either.

This week’s game against Seattle could be problematic because the Seahawks’ defense has been stingy against both the run and the pass. But Arizona has a few appealing matchups ahead, including a Championship Week trip to Cincinnati.

Jake’s take

The immediate perception seems to be, “Yay! Brissett fixes everything!”

Let’s not pretend as though Brissett hasn’t merely been a good backup QB with decent-but-nothing-special career numbers/performance. In fact, Murray’s and Brissett’s numbers with Marvin Harrison are fairly similar.

The deserved excitement comes with McBride, but no one was treating him as anything but a top-two tight end anyway. Maybe buy high on McBride, who could produce like a fringe WR1 rest-of-season.

All that said, there is something to the team morale/vibe shift, so I would upgrade Harrison a bit from WR3 territory to mid-backend WR2. In the end, it’s a mild “yay” … like a standing golf-clap.

Last-minute movesThree outliers for Week 10
Realistically, Nico Collins is not a player anyone will send to the bench. Jake is dragging down industry consensus on Collins, however, slotting him at WR13. Life won’t be as easy with Davis Mills at quarterback, and responsible rankings should reflect it.
Kimani Vidal has delivered a pair of 100-yard games for the Chargers (and also a pair of games with 30 yards or fewer), so his placement at RB30 could appear excessively pessimistic. Just keep in mind that he’s facing a Pittsburgh defense that held Jonathan Taylor to 45 rushing yards last week and may have finally figured a few things out.
Alec Pierce cracks the top 30, landing at WR27 ahead of a matchup with a frisky Atlanta pass defense. But in a week in which the Bengals, Cowboys and Chiefs are on bye, the receiver ranks were sure to get wild.I know we said it last week, but we really, really mean it this time., and he’s been remarkably consistent, topping 65 receiving yards in five of his past six games.
Matchups to embrace 🤗 and avoid 😨

Each week, KC Joyner highlights players with the most favorable and unfavorable matchups. Here are a few of the best and worst:

Start them with steely confidence

Michael Penix (vs. IND), Quinshon Judkins (at NYJ), De’Von Achane (vs. Buf), Zay Flowers (at MIN), Dalton Schultz (vs. JAX), Kyle Pitts (vs. IND)

Expectations are unusually low

Jordan Love (vs. PHI), Aaron Rodgers (at LAC), Rachaad White (vs. NE), Breece Hall (vs. CLE), Romeo Doubs and Matthew Golden (vs. PHI), Tyler Warren (vs. ATL)
On the cut line 🔪

Fantasy talking heads are always telling you who to add, but we aren’t so generous with guidance on drops. Please know that you have our official permission to cut loose any of the following players:

Chuba Hubbard gave us a glorious season in 2024, but Rico Dowdle has emphatically outproduced him over the past two months. Last week, the playing time wasn’t particularly close between the two backs. Dowdle handled 27 touches and played 72% of the offensive snaps. Hubbard is now an understudy, not a featured player.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt was a fun story back when we all had hope for Washington’s offense. But these days, with Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin sidelined indefinitely, the Commanders’ offense is looking like the Island of Misfit Fantasy Toys. JCM hasn’t rushed for more than 38 yards in any of his past three games, and he was outgained by Chris Rodriguez last week. 4
I know we said it last week, but we really, really mean it this time. Tony Pollard, Calvin Ridley and any other stray Titans you might have acquired can all go. There’s no need to hold any Tennessee players through their bye. The team is a fantasy wasteland, ranking dead-last in total yards (244.0 YPG) and scoring (14.4 PPG). These are consolation bracket players, all of them.
Sleeper of the week 💤

Luke Musgrave has shown flashes of big-play ability in the past, and he’s now stepping into a huge opportunity in Green Bay. Tucker Kraft’s season-ending injury was simply a brutal blow for the team, no question, but let’s not dismiss Musgrave’s receiving potential. He’s a massive target (6-foot-6) with good wheels who was a second-round pick back in 2023.

He had 100% route participation against the Panthers last week, according to PFF, which is clearly a positive sign. Philadelphia isn’t the best possible matchup, but the Packers will certainly be throwing, and they have a desperate need for playmaking receivers. Musgrave is a sneaky-good option at a difficult roster spot.

💬 From the Discord

One thing we do not lack at The Athletic is fantasy analysts willing to share opinions. At any given moment, there’s a good chance one of us is conducting an AMA in the fantasy football Discord server. Here’s a key question from Friday’s chat:

alexis: Someone is offering me CeeDee Lamb for Odunze/Chase Brown. My RBs would be Rico/Bucky with Aaron Jones as RB3/FLEX. WRs would consist of Jefferson/Lamb with Franklin as backup.

We are entering the phase of the season in which you want to make these 2-for-1 and 3-for-1 trades, dealing away depth for league-tilting stars. I love the concept here. CeeDee Lamb is certainly the best player in this deal.

However … [deep sigh] … I think this is a little too rich, and it leaves you in such a difficult spot at running back. We all love Rico Dowdle, but Bucky Irving doesn’t have an ETA. Chase Brown is a good back tied to an upper-tier offense, and his second-half schedule is full of friendly matchups. Now is simply not the time to make this trade. If you can somehow turn Irving-plus-Troy Franklin into a star, I’d be more willing to approve the move.

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