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Here’s hoping you avoided Thursday’s avalanche of TreVeyon Henderson fantasy points. If you dodged Henderson — or, better yet, if you benefited from his binge — then the week ahead is full of promise. Suddenly, our damaged rosters seem to be healing. Let’s begin with some positive news for a change …

📰 Lineup NewsThe fantasy world is healing
Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall are back in business. Both were practicing this week and both are expected to play Sunday in Arizona. Pearsall says he’s feeling like himself again, which is exactly what we wanted to hear.
Davante Adams (oblique) is officially questionable for tomorrow’s matchup with Seattle, but he made his way back to practice late in the week, and Sean McVay indicated he’s expected to play.
Even this week’s bad news is kinda good: Bucky Irving and Chris Godwin have been ruled out for tomorrow’s game at Buffalo, but both players returned to practice this week. It won’t be long.
Marvin Harrison Jr. underwent surgery for appendicitis earlier this week, so he’s out indefinitely. Michael Wilson and Greg Dortch are headed for upticks in workload, and Trey McBride is set to detonate.
Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco has been ruled out for the Denver game. Not a huge surprise. Kareem Hunt will once again fling himself into the scrum and hope for the best.
It’s not looking great this week for J.K. Dobbins (foot), who was injured last Thursday. RJ Harvey is headed for a significant workload in a degree-of-difficulty matchup against Kansas City.
Sam LaPorta (back) and Dalton Kincaid (hamstring) have been ruled out this week, so the landscape at tight end is bleak. Thankfully, the Chargers’ Oronde Gadsden (knee/quad) avoided any injury designation.
Toolkit

Week 11 wisdom

📈 Player rankings: Jaylen Warren lands in rare territory on Jake Ciely’s board ahead of a dream matchup with the Bengals.

📝 Cheat sheet: Throwback to 2015, anyone? Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota are both drawing starts tomorrow.

👀What to watch: Justin Jefferson has underperformed relative to ADP, but that’s what makes him a screaming buy-low candidate.

🔮 Future waiver adds: Throwback to 2015, anyone? Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota are both drawing starts tomorrow.

It’s Not Always SunnyA.J. Brown recommends dropping A.J. Brown

It’s not every day that active NFL players weigh in directly on fantasy matters, and never to recommend benching or trading themselves. A.J. Brown isn’t your standard-issue cliche machine, however.

On a Twitch stream this week, Brown ventured into buy/sell/hold advice: “If you got me on fantasy, man, get rid of me.”

His frustration is warranted. His team’s offense is loaded, yet has not been fully unlocked this season. No one has been as flagrantly underutilized as Brown himself. He’s topped 100 receiving yards twice this season (and looked great doing it), so we know he’s not cooked at age 28. But he also has four games with fewer than 30 receiving yards.

Under normal circumstances, an All-Pro receiver expressing his displeasure in a public setting becomes an automatic fantasy smash-play — it’s a classic squeaky wheel scenario. But the circumstances in Philly have never been less normal.

For the record, I do not personally intend to follow Brown’s fantasy advice at this time. The trade market is not exactly buzzing with interest in A.J. Also, this is a team that’s fallen into crisis mode in previous seasons and managed to self-correct. Philadelphia is only now heading into the friendliest stretch on its schedule, with games ahead against the Cowboys, Bears, Raiders and Commanders. If anyone is looking to unload Brown at a discount, I’m a semi-interested buyer.

We asked Jake Ciely for A) his take on Brown’s rest-of-season value and B) the best RB he’d be willing to trade for AJB …

Jake’s Take

💬 I  still consider Brown a high-end WR2. Inconsistency has been a part of his game, and it increased last year with Saquon Barkley‘s arrival. This year has been admittedly worse, but how many years of the Eagles course-correcting midseason do we need before limiting the panic?

As for trade possibilities, a range of Travis Etienne, D’Andre Swift, Bucky Irving (discounted because of injury uncertainty) or similar feels fair. I believe you can buy even lower given the perception, however. I’d do it before Brown’s inevitable 150-and-2 game.

Last-Minute MovesThree outliers for Week 11

When Jake isn’t attacking kickers and kicking culture, he can usually be found ranking and reranking the player universe. Here are a few of the outliers in the Week 11 edition of Jake’s ranks:

Marcus Mariota at QB12 in the year 2025, you say? Let’s do it. Mariota gets a neutral-site matchup in Madrid with a Miami defense that ranks in the bottom third of the league in terms of yards and points allowed. Jake is three spots ahead of industry consensus on the dual-threat vet.
Sean Tucker found his way into fringy flex territory at RB35. With Bucky Irving out of the mix, Tucker has settled into a role in which he plays roughly a third of the snaps each week, handling double-digit touches. He gets a friendly matchup against the Bills, a defense allowing a league-worst 5.5 YPC.
Tez Johnson cracks Jake’s top 30 at receiver following a multi-touchdown game. Johnson is absolutely thriving with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin both out of the mix. He’s made four house calls over his last four games, one of which revealed superhuman skills.
Matchups to embrace 🤗 and avoid 😨

If you aren’t reading KC Joyner’s weekly matchups feature, then you’re missing out on one of the most useful and digestible pieces of content in the game. Here are a few highlights (and lowlights) for Week 11 …

Start with unblinking confidence:

QBs Aaron Rodgers (vs. CIN) and Caleb Williams (at MIN), RBs Aaron Jones (vs. CHI), Woody Marks (at TEN), WRs D.J. Moore (at MIN), Quentin Johnston (at JAX), and TEs Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith (vs. CIN)

Sorry, zero confidence in this bunch:

QBs Baker Mayfield (at BUF) and Jared Goff (at PHI), RB Travis Etienne (vs. LAC), WRs Parker Washington (vs. LAC) and Jameson Williams (at PHI), and TE Jake Ferguson (at LV)
On the cut line 🔪

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

Jordan Mason gave us nearly half a season as something close to a full-workload back, but Aaron Jones has recently banished him to the shadow realm. Last week against Baltimore, Mason was out-touched (12 to five), out-gained (69 to 31) and decisively out-snapped (46 to 16) by Jones. Despite a stellar matchup against Chicago, Mason is outside the circle of trust.
There’s a debate to be had about who, exactly, is at the top of the receiving hierarchy in Indianapolis. Reasonable cases can be made for Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman and Tyler Warren. But the one guy who is definitely not the WR1 for the Colts is Josh Downs. He’s coming off a one-catch, 3-yard performance in a game in which 56 total points were scored, which makes him an easy cut.
Just to be clear, it’s at least two years too early to call Matthew Golden a draft bust. But he’s also moderately injured with a shoulder issue and hasn’t cleared 40 receiving yards in any game since Week 5. He’s unstartable right now, which makes him an obvious drop candidate. (We reserve the right to re-hype when he inevitably delivers a spike week down the road.)
Sleeper of the week 💤

Chris Rodriguez is somehow rostered in only 24 percent of Sleeper leagues at the moment (7 percent at Yahoo and 5 percent at ESPN) despite the fact he started at running back for Washington last week and his OC can’t stop gushing about him. If you can only squeeze one Commanders back on your roster right now, which seems like good policy, Rodriguez should be the guy. After a minor injury scare, he carries no designation into the matchup with Miami. Flex him if you like touchdowns.

I’m starting him in a must-win matchup in a deep league this week in place of Jonathan Taylor and … [eyes welling up] … and, honestly, I feel, um … [sobbing, wailing, indecipherable noises].

💬 From the Discord

Want some real-time advice? Join us in the fantasy football Discord server. Here’s a fun question from my Friday chat:

Beeeman: My starting quarterback is Jared Goff with no backup. WR room is Amon-Ra, [Michael] Pittman, [Chris] Olave, [Jordan] Addison. Would you trade Addison for Danny Jones? I’m in third, positioning for playoffs.

I understand the temptation to roster a backup QB, but now we need to begin playoff planning. You should be focused on building the best possible starting roster for Weeks 15-17. Depth is not the goal.

In Beeeman’s specific case, I’d be much more interested in flipping Goff and one of those secondary receivers for an upgrade at QB. I’d also be happy to pair Pittman with Addison for a locked-in starting RB or WR. This is the time of year to offer 2-for-1 trades, toward the goal of improving your projected active lineup.

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