6 Must-Start Players for Week 10 | The Primer (Ep. 1827) - FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, and welcome into the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.
It's the week ten primer episode, so you know what
time it is. We've got our top six sleeper starts
that have matchups to target coming your way. I'm your host,
Seth Wilcock, and I'm joined by a man who surely
absolutely has to have an Alex Pierce jersey in his
closet at this point after anoose sensational call on the

(00:22):
former Cincinnati Bearcat last week. But that was then and
this is now, and of course it's Derek Brown debro.
How are you feeling as we head into week ten?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Feeling good? Man, feeling good? A lot of good calls
for both of us on this show over the last
few weeks. Had some misses too, you know, samaj p
Ryan gets hurt and doesn't do anything, but that's how
that goes, man like. On this show, we're really trying
to highlight players that are on that fringe and whether
you're struggling for options, you got bye weeks, you got injuries,

(00:53):
you got deep leagues. You're trying to figure out. That's
the crooks of this show. And this week I'll just
pull back the curtain. It was man. This week was
tougher to try to find options and stuff with so
many good teams on a buy. Yeah, so many trades
that happened in the NFL this last week, so many
split committees and stuff backfields and players with bad matchups.
So before we dive into all the players, I just

(01:15):
want to give the preface of this. We are not
talking about any running backs. Running back is a giant
crapfest for fantasy right now. Whether it's whether it's matchups, backfields,
all that kind of stuff, it's just bad. So we're
gonna highlight a bunch of wide receivers. We're actually gonna
talk about two tight ends on this show that I
think are in great matchups. And if you're in a

(01:36):
really rough spot, both of these guys do carry flex
appeal this week, and you might be in a situation where, dude,
I'm in one of my leagues where I picked up
both these guys we're going to talk about later, and
I'm flexing two tight ends right now. That's where we're at.
That's where we're at.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Seth the old tight end heavy approach here, and we
love it.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I'm in those streets with you right now. I'm deciding
between a few of the tight ends we'll touch on
late in the show, so I appreciate the transparency there.
We are gonna help everyone those We continue to shift
through the rest of the season. Excited for it and
before we fire things up. Shout out to our friends,
our family, and even maybe some foes joining us on
the Fancy Pros YouTube channel or in the audio feed.

(02:15):
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(02:38):
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(03:00):
And if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe and ring
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are up and claim your prize if you are that
lucky winner. And deepro No Justin Jefferson of course in
the Sleepers video this week, but you do have his
quarterback one, JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I do, man, And look, everybody could just tell him,
you know, say I'm biased. I know I'm a JJ
McCarthy truther. I will absolutely carry my truth or card
since day one. I mean, dude, he's been the QB
eleven and QB thirteen and Fantasy scoring and his two
healthy starts, and the matchup is there this week, like
we know the Ravens are gonna push them and they're
still a defense we can target man. Since week five,

(03:38):
Baltimore has given up the eleventh most passing yards per
game and they're allowing the fourth highest success rate per dropback.
So if I think he can succeed while dealing with
the pressure that the Lions brought last week and in
only his second healthy start of the season. Yeah, I
think JJ McCarthy can definitely succeed this week.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Do you think the recent stronger performance from that Baltimore
secondary is a change in scheme? Is it just, Hey,
we're going up against two of last week, We're going
up against Caleb Williams the week before. Because while both
those quarterbacks had over two hundred and sixty yards passing,
no passing touchdowns, and two weeks straight for a Baltimore
secondary there was just leaking touchdowns to everybody.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think it's a little bit of both. I think
part of it is the quarterback play. But if you
watch the Baltimore and Dolphins game two, you also understand
that game could have gone very very differently, Like we
had a giant like a long completion of Jalen Waddle
that got wiped off the board because of a tripping
BS penalty to Olie Gordon, some red zone nonsense, So

(04:38):
like Tua could have come away with like two passing
touchdowns that he didn't come away with. There was a
lot of like problems with execution for the Dolphins. But
the takeaway for that is the Bears were able to
move the ball pretty decently and so were the Dolphins. Yeah,
so what do we think the Vikings can do? And
this Vikings team, I mean, the offensive line is getting healthier,
so we should see better passed detection up front, and

(05:01):
the matchup is there, so I think JJ can have
a really strong week. And to your point, like I
think the Ravens pass defense has improved, but there's still
not a unit that like I'm scared of seth.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, they're gonna hope for some addition by some traction.
They of course dealt Jy your Alexander to the Eagles
this past week, so we'll see what that does to
the secondary. But I'm looking forward to JJ McCarthy. I
was really excited with what he did in the first
half of last week's game against Detroit and then kind of,
you know, slowed things down a little bit, took his
foot off the gas. But I think that was more, Hey,
we're up on a really good team, let's just play conservative,

(05:35):
no big mistake. So yeah, that was more just sitting
on a lead and trying to get a win for Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
That's what that was.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah. Absolutely, let's go to the wide receiver position where
you're going to the Windy City with the New York
Giants coming to town.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, man, look, I think people need to be flexing
Darius Slaton this week. If you looked at the box
score for Slayton last week, you're like, oh, it was
a solid game, dude, it could have been a monster game.
He dropped a long touchdown in the end zone when
he got hit big that would have put him up
close to one hundred receiving yards. And the thing that
I really want to specifically highlight, and if you've already
read the primary you know where I'm going with this

(06:09):
is the Bears run defense has improved over the last
few weeks. So you're looking at this matchup just in general,
it is a really good matchup for Jackson Dart, is
a really good matchup for the passing game for the Giants,
and Darius Slayton coming along for the ride man with Chicago.
Since week five, they're giving up the seventh most PPR
points per target to perimeter wide receivers. So Darius Slayton,

(06:31):
he's kind of danced around maybe having a big game,
like well, a lot of drops, a lot of problems
executing have really hurt him. Like he would have caught
that big target like last week we're talking about, he's
close to one hundred yards with a score. He caught
either one of the downfield targets for us the Saints
much bigger day before even going out with a hamstring injury.

(06:51):
So Slayton is a guy that I think he has
been dancing around having a big day in fantasy and
in the box score of the last few weeks. I
think it does come together this week.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, Darius Slayton just always so consistent. Man. It feels
like almost every single year, but twenty twenty four, this guy,
since he's been with the team, has led them in
receiving yards, always pops up down the stretch. Is someone
we need to add to our teams and look man
like this bear secondary. I mean, everyone remembers last week.
T Higgins made these guys look like little boys out there,
made them look like they were playing against some some

(07:21):
peewee football players. Right. So seven for one to twenty
one and two for t Higgins. Jamar Chase should have
had a touchdown, was on that any time touchdown, but
he still had six for one to eleven on eight targets.
Even Yoshi vas got in the end zone as well
on five for sixty six. So I think Darius Slayton
is up here. And I also like Wando Robinson is
a pretty nice play as well in your wide receiver
two positions. So Derek, let's go overseas now. And like

(07:45):
you would go anywhere in the world for Alec Pierce,
I feel like you would go to Brazil, you would
go to Australia, go to the depth of us of
Antarctica for him, But you're going to uh over there
in Germany where he'll be facing the Falcons.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, dude, I mean, like we talked to this last week,
we're back on it again. And this just goes back
to the coverage matchup. And I keep talking about the
coverage data does freaking matter people. I mean, just look
at what he's done in the matchups that he's performed in,
Like last week he was the wide receiver fourteen and
weekly scoring in a twenty four percent target share one
to fifteen in the box score and a thirty three
percent first read share, And it all goes back to

(08:18):
the matchup against single high coverage. And now he went
for the Pittsburgh Steelers two the Atlanta secondary, which runs
single High at the highest rate in the NFL set
seventy three of their percent, seventy three o their percent.
I can't talk. Seventy three percent of their defensive snaps
are single high. And the reason I keep bringing this up, man,

(08:41):
because ale Pierce versus single high has elite wide receiver
one per route numbers, he has gotten a twenty seven
percent target share. He has produced three point sixty nine
yards per route run. That is a ridiculous number. And
he's also garnered a thirty two percent first read chair.
And this Falcon secondary's taking a step back, man, Like

(09:02):
since week five, they're given up quietly giving up the
twelve most PPR points per target to perimenal wide receivers.
So whether you want to talk about coverage, you want
to talk about the secondary taking a step back, all
the things line up yet again for Alec Pierce in
week ten.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, man, I mean I'm willing to throw them out
there once again. The kid's been on a heater. Like,
there's no advanced metrics or anything that really pop off
the page when you're talking about Alec Pierce. But what's
popping off the page to me is a secondary that, hey,
we just let to Mario Douglas, who wasn't really thought
as a deep threat go for four for one hundred.
Stefan Diggs found the end zone the two last weeks alone.

(09:41):
Derek that they've allowed four receiving touchdowns two wide receivers.
That's the second most right there, tied with Washington and Dallas.
So they're not as good, Like is aj Terrell not
as go as we thought he was? Or is this
just like an overall hey, you can't be Superman on
the entire secondary type of thing.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I've never been a big AJ terre Stan. I've done
this for too many years and seen too many stretches
where AJ Terrell is like one of those corners that
he's very he he's very hot and cold. He'll go
through stretches where he looks like one of the best
corners in the NFL, and then he'll see a four
or five game stretch after that where he looks like

(10:18):
he can't cover anybody and everybody's burning and deep. So
it depends on when you attack AJ Trell, Like when
have you faced him? So no, I mean it's not
like I think he's very talented, but if you look
year over year over year, a lot of volatility to
his game.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, he's not one of those shutdown cornerbacks like we
think down there in Houston with Stingley. He's not someone
like Sauce Garner who's now on the move as well
to join Alec Pierce there in Indianapolis. And yeah, man,
the fives have to be high over in that team.
And I would like to grab any piece of this offense.
I really can at this point. So let's keep it
moving though, And you're going back to that Minnesota Baltimore

(10:57):
game for your next sleeper start at the wide receiver position.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
And I will give this with a caveat this one
is it's a deep start. This is a deeply guy.
This is if you are struggling for flex plays. But
I think he's viable. And a lot of this comes
down to, like it's the coverage matchup. It's the fact
that the Vikings have struggled to They've struggled to defend
wide receivers in the perimeter just in general over the
last few weeks, much less defend them deep. Like since

(11:21):
Week five, Minnesota is allowing the most PPR points for
target to permanent wide receivers and the second highest decompletion
rate and deep passing yards. So you look at and
you marry that with Rashad Bateman and going back to
the coverage matchup, I think there's some volatility and kind
of like muddiness to his numbers this year because of
you're looking at a long stretch with Cooper rushed also

(11:42):
being the quarterback in the passing game tanking. But if
you go back to last season with Lamar Jackson and
stuff the Minnesota Vikings over the last two years with
Brian Flores that they are too high heavy, their top three,
top five every single year in too high coverage. This year,
Bateman's numbers don't look great versus two high coverage. But again,
Cooper Rush is your quarterback. Nobody's numbers look good with

(12:05):
Cooper Rush under center. But if you go back to
last year seth Rashad Bateman versus too high coverage, this
dude had two point four to three yards per route
run and point five five fantasy points per route run.
And why do I bring up these two metrics on
a per route basis? He was freaking fantastic. If you
look at a sample set last year of two hundred

(12:26):
and thirty qualifying wide receivers and tight ends versus too
high coverage. In those two statistical categories, Rareshod Bateman ranked
thirteenth and twenty second. Wow, so you marry all of this.
I'm not sitting here and telling people that Rashad Bateman
is a lock set forget type of player.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Sure if you need, if you need.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Upside at a flex spot, if you are in a
dire straits with like, I don't know, there is nobody
left I've got. We talked about earlier today on a
stream he got Garrett Wilson or who have you and
they get ruled out and you're like, I don't know
what the freaking do right now. Rashaan Bateman's probably there
all in every single waver while we're out there, and

(13:10):
if he's available and you're in a pinch, yeah, he
could pay off in a big way this week.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah. He's one of those guys who runs a ton
of routes, right, I mean, he's always out there. And
even with DeAndre Hopkins, I thought maybe a snapshare would
go down a little bit this season, it really hasn't.
He's still floating somewhere between seventy eighty percent of the
snaps most weeks and for me, like, I don't mind
attaching myself if I need a wild card play like
this is what this is. This is a bit of
a wild card play. You're down in your matchup, you

(13:37):
maybe need someone who can take you over the top.
It could be Rashad Bateman and I love our guy
Jake Seey over here at FPN from the Athletic saying
before the season started, don't draft for Seoan Bateman unless
you can pick the games that you can play him.
I think this is one of the few that you
may want to play with Shot Bateman. So hopefully you
didn't draft him, but uh, hopefully he still hanging out
there on some waiver wires that you can fire him

(13:57):
up this week before we get at the tight ends.
Real quick reminder you can dominate your fantasy football leagues
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(14:21):
to get yourself started and Debro, We're going double tight
end tight end heavy this week for you, hoodie up.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
First, first guy up here is Kadot and he's a
tight end seventeen in ECR. And I know people are
gonna look at this and say, look, he's tight in
eighteen and fantasy points per game. Why the heck are
you freaking talking about? Katott and quietly under the surface
and he started out with doing absolutely nothing to begin

(14:47):
the season. Since week five, seth, since week five, he
has a nineteen percent target chare. He's averaged fifty nine
receiving yards per game with two point one four yards
per route run. He doesn't have any reds on targets
or deep targets, so the high leverage usage has not
been there. But again we could also say, okay, well
find he hasn't scored a touchdown until this point of

(15:08):
the season. He's due. Okay, you can frame it that
way if you want to go last half full, But
this all comes back to if you were struggling at
tight end, and depending on bye weeks, that could easily
be the case. Jake Ferguson, you could have that is
out this week. Other top tight ends are out this week.
You can need a streamer or a flex play. Kate
Aughten could easily fit the Bill Man because it's not

(15:31):
only is the volume trending in his direction, but the
matchup is definitively there. Man like New England has given
up the seventh most receiving yards per game and the
seventh most fantasy points per game to tight ends. So
however you want to slice this up emerging role, banged
up passing attack. You know, Chris Godwin's probably not going
to play again, so like, who's Baker Mayfield going to

(15:52):
lean on in this matchup? Kate Aughten could really pay
all for people.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, the thing I like about Kate Aughten and tight
ends like him is he's on the field a lot, right, Like,
sometimes I get annoyed by these tight ends that they're
not out there on third down, They're not much of
a blocking threat and you're just getting limited exposure to them.
Kate Onden right now among all tight ends, Derek number
one a snapshare ninety four percent. And you do make
a good point like the red zone targets haven't been
where we wanted, the deep targets aren't there. But with

(16:17):
also probably no Bucky Irving back out there again too,
like they gotta start leaning on him here fifth in
route participation. So I don't hate a guy out here
in Kate Auden who is seeing the targets as well.
Like you go back through the game logs, starting all
the way back in week four, his target share right now,
four targets in week four, five, the next week six, nine,
and five. In a week where I am struggling to

(16:40):
fill positions, I think you could do wear some in
Kate Ondum.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Also to your point about the matchup, the New England
Patriots are not gonna allow the Bucks to run. They
you cannot run versus the New England Patriots. So the
other thing, if we want to talk about just schematically
and stuff, h if you're unable to run the ball
and impose your will there, you're gonna have to pass it.
So if the Bucks want to move the ball up
and down the field, hello, Kate Aughten, here here's your

(17:05):
easy button. This is how you make things easier for
Baker Mayfield and this offense because you're not gonna be
able to run the ball like that. That's try true.
The Patriots run defense has been top five, top ten
the entire freaking season. I don't think that they fall
off the map this week. So yes, it's all the
parts and pieces for kat Otten.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, give me kaya in a game that has one
of the higher totals on the slate as well, so
we're expecting points down there in the Bay Area. Derek,
let's come home with one of my favorite players on
this entire slate. It's my best bet of the week
as well, and you're on him for fancy purposes, and.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
I'm gonna say, I, look, we know that CJ. Stroud
is out. I don't care if it's Davis Mills. I
don't care if David long after your center, don't even care.
Doesn't matter to me because the fact of it is
is that go just give me your box score analysis
from last week, like Dalton Schultz produced last week with

(18:00):
David Mills playing most of that game, and he's going
to do it again this week. Dalton Schultz last week
with David Mills playing most of the game was tight
end seven in fantasy. You're telling me that he cannot
be a top twelve tight end, that he cannot be
a strong flex play for a player that honestly he's
been having a quietly really solid season. He just hasn't
been scoring the touchdowns. Like when the matchup has presented itself,

(18:21):
Dalton Schultz has played really well. Like everybody wanted to
chase the game against Seattle. They said, oh my gosh, like,
look at Dalton Schultz. Dude. Seattle was like a top
five matchup of tight ends. And then everybody chased it
and they're like, oh, wait, oh, he didn't do anything
in the next week. Guess what that's because the matchup
fell off. The matchup is back for Dalton Schultz this week, man, Like,
Dalton Schultz gets to play the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have

(18:44):
given up the second most receiving yards and the second
most schedule adjusted fantasy points per game two tight ends.
So you can dislike that. You could say, oh, it's gross,
we're talking about Dalton Schultz. You could dislike the quarterback play.
You can talk about all that all you want. The
matchup lines up, the usage has been there, and Dalton
Schultz is gonna have another strong game. Man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I talked about it on the Best Bet show over
on VP NFL earlier this week. Derek and My best
Bet Dalton Schultz over three and a half receptions. I'm
locking that in man like. He has had an average
of five point three receptions per game since Week three. Like,
the Texas went through this really interesting point where hey,
can we get Higgins? Can we get Noel involved? Is
gonna be Hutch? Can Christian Kirkett back healthy?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:29):
No, no, no no. The one thing that has been
there outside Nico Collins who has been a little bit
underwhelming this season has been Dalton Schultz Man and saw
eight targets last week. You said it with Davis Mills
playing most of that game. You spoke on the matchup
as well, and Titans have hit their receptions prop against
the Jaguars this year in six of eight games, including
Schultz himself he played them in Week three. He went

(19:50):
five for thirty nine on six targets. I think it's
even potentially more now that they realize, hey, this is
our second best pass catcher. We gotta lean into it.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
So Seth given out winners here, babe, you'd love to
see it sleep and pick some winners. I love it.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's how we do it here, man. That is going
to do it for us though. On this episode of
the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. Comment down below your
favorite Week ten sleeper starts. We want to hear from you,
and while you're here, make sure smashing that like button
and subscribing to the channel. If you're new for Derek
Brown set, we'll cock take care of y'all.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
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Speaker 1 (20:31):
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Speaker 3 (20:32):
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(21:00):
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6 Must-Start Players for Week 10 | The Primer (Ep. 1827)

Episode Transcript

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Derek Brown

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}6 Must-Start Players for Week 10 | The Primer (Ep. 1827)