Week 10 Fantasy Football Advice

This is the Fantasy Football Nerd's look at the best and worst matchups for Week 10 of the 2017 NFL season. Decisions are based upon the FFN rankings and matchup analysis. Given the known conditions, these matchups are the ones to watch and/or avoid.

Please Note: This list does not generally include the elite players that you are going to start regardless of matchup. You don't need us to tell you to start Drew Brees, Rob Gronkowski, or Antonio Brown. Instead, we take a look at other players on your team that we believe either have great matchups or should be avoided for multiple reasons. Factors like opposing defense, performance trending, and peer comparisons may influence our decisions.

Start 'em Jared Goff (LAR, QB)
The Rams completely dominated the Giants last week. Jared Goff threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns. He's ranked 8th this week against a Houston secondary that gave up 20 fantasy points to Jacoby Brissett last week and 30+ points to Wilson and Brady earlier this year. If you are in need of a bye week filler, Goff is your guy.

Start 'em Ben Roethlisberger (PIT, QB)
Big Ben has been a big disappointment for fantasy owners this year. His lack of success in road games has reached mythical proportions, but let's look past that for a moment. The matchup against the Colts at home in Indianapolis is too good to pass up. Indy gives up the 2nd-most yards through the air (279) and an average of 18 fantasy points each week. Expect Big Ben to have a nice bounceback game. He's also a nice play in DFS this week.

Start 'em Lamar Miller (HOU, RB)
With no Deshaun Watson, we anticipate the Texans to continue leaning on their run game. That makes Lamar Miller an indispensable tool in their arsenal. He's ranked 12th this week making him a low-end RB1. It may be difficult to throw on the Rams, but they give up the 7th-most yards on the ground. Expect a healthy dose of Miller this week.

Start 'em Jordan Howard (CHI, RB)
We anticipate both Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen to have nice games this week against the Packers. Dynamic RB duos have done well against Green Bay each putting up double-digit points. In fact, Green Bay gives up the 10th-most yards on the ground each week (118 yds). Howard gave fantasy owners 14.3 points back in Week 4 against this defense. Start him with confidence.

Start 'em Golden Tate (DET, WR)
Is there anybody in the slot playing better than Golden Tate right now? Tate has been a solid contributor to fantasy this year coming off three straight 7-reception games. He's ranked inside our Top 10 (PPR) facing the Browns this week making him a WR1.

Start 'em Sterling Shepard (NYG, WR)
Eli Manning has to throw to someone and it can't always be Evan Engram. Sterling Shepard finally looked healthy last week as he hauled in 5 of his 9 targets for 70 yards. The Niners have been fairly generous to opposing wide receiver atop their depth charts which is where we find Shepard. He's a great bye week filler and a solid WR2 this week.

Start 'em Kyle Rudolph (MIN, TE)
Kyle Rudolph may not have lit the fantasy world on fire this year, but he's got a great matchup that he should be able to exploit against the Redskins this week. Washington has surrendered double-digit fantasy production to the opposing starting TE all but two weeks this year. Expect Rudolph to pick back up as the go-to underneath option for the Vikes.

Start 'em Cameron Brate (TB, TE)
Cameron Brate enters Week 10 as our 7th-ranked fantasy TE. The Jets have been adequate in their secondary, but have been quite generous to tight ends this season and particularly over the last five games. The only concern we have is that he gets involved in the offense. Last week was worrisome as he only caught one of his four targets. The matchup this week is better though.

Start 'em Detroit Lions (DET, DEF)
Fresh off a Monday night victory on the road, the Lions will face the Browns at home in Detroit. Cleveland has given up the 3rd-most fantasy points to DST this season with an average of 14 points. Expect the Lions defense to roar in the dome.

Start 'em Greg Zuerlein (LAR, K)
Greg 'The Leg' Zuerlein remains the best fantasy kicker in the NFL consistently putting up double-digit fantasy points. He is our #1 ranked kicker this week facing Houston who has given up 11 points to Blair Walsh and 18 points to Harrison Butker. Expect The Leg to put up points.

Sit 'em Philip Rivers (LAC, QB)
Rivers is ranked 23rd this week. That has less to do with him and more to do with his matchup. Nobody gives up fewer yards through the air or fewer fantasy points to quarterbacks than Jacksonville's vaunted defense. In fact, only two QBs have seen double digit points (Best: Mariota with 13 points in Week 2). All the rest have only mustered single digits.

Sit 'em Brett Hundley (GB, QB)
After Aaron Rodgers went down, plenty of folks rushed to the waiver wire to pick up Brett Hundley thinking that the Green Bay offense was high-powered enough that Hundley should be able to put up decent numbers, but he isn't that caliber of player even for Super Flex (2-QB) leagues. The Bears defense has been solid. They've given up an average of just 8 fantasy points to QB's over their last 4 games.

Sit 'em Doug Martin (TB, RB)
Let's see...there's no Jameis Winston and no Mike Evans this week, so we should expect to see a healthy workload for Doug Martin...right? I'm not convinced that we're going to see that given Martin's lack of production over his last four games. He rushed just eight times last week in a plus matchup for a whopping 8 yards. It's hard to see how a matchup against the Jets is going to make this better. NY has kept running backs to an average of single digit fantasy points over their last five games.

Sit 'em Frank Gore (IND, RB)
Frank Gore is ranked 28th this week putting him in Flex territory against a solid Pittsburgh defense that hasn't give up double-digit fantasy production to running backs since Kareem Hunt in Week 6 (16 points). The positive in Gore's favor is that he saw the snap count swing back towards him out-touching Marlon Mack by 11.

Sit 'em Will Fuller (HOU, WR)
It's awfully tough to like Will Fuller in fantasy right now. His value was tremendous and his reception-to-TD ratio was insane with Deshaun Watson under center. We got a good look at Fuller's new value with Tom Savage throwing the ball...and it's not good. He managed just 2 catches for 32 yards last week with Savage. Fuller is ranked 41st this week, and unfortunately, that puts him even outside flex territory.

Sit 'em Martavis Bryant (PIT, WR)
Steelers HC Mike Tomlin has indicated that all is well again with Martavis Bryant who sat a game before the bye week. That doesn't mean that we should rush to plug him into our lineups though. Bryant was already being passed up by JuJu Smith-Schuster, and even though this is a sweet matchup, he comes into our rankings this week at #52 showing what the industry thinks of his likelihood to produce solid fantasy numbers.

Sit 'em Jordan Reed (WAS, TE)
When he's on the field, Jordan Reed can be a monster TE for your fantasy team, but the caveat is that he has to be on the field. If you drafted Reed, you likely did so knowing his injury history. So far, he has only participated in limited individual drills this week. That'll need to change if he expects to suit up. If he can't make it, look for Vernon Davis and Niles Paul to step up once again.

Sit 'em Coby Fleener (NO, TE)
Tight ends have always tended to fare well in the Saints offense. It's tough to expect that from Coby Fleener - particularly this week against a stingy Buffalo defense that has only allowed two tight ends to walk away with more than ten fantasy points. Over their last two games, the Bills have surrendered an average of just 4.6 points...and that's in PPR formats.

Sit 'em Buffalo Bills (BUF, DEF)
The Bills defense has been pretty solid all year, but a matchup with Drew Brees and the Saints is not a recipe for fantasy goodness. The Saints offense has surrendered the 4th-fewest fantasy points to opposing DSTs. The Bills will be a good fantasy defense again - just not this week.

Sit 'em Mason Crosby (GB, K)
One of the more reliable fantasy kickers in the NFL over the years has been Mason Crosby, but in a Rodgers-less offense, it's been tough for him. That's not likely to change against the Bears who have given up less than seven fantasy points on average to kickers this season.

Recent News & Advice