With roughly five weeks left in the fantasy football regular season, we continue to navigate bye weeks (CHI, DEN, PHI, and TB in Week 10) and devastating injuries, like that to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson (neck).
Regardless, the fantasy season presses on, and we’ll navigate whatever comes our way as we look to secure our spots in the fantasy postseason and chase ultimate glory at season’s end. With several key players out this week — for one reason or another, here are a few players whose recent usage has caught my eye as we enter Week 10.
▶ Running Backs
🟢 Dylan Sampson (CLE) vs. Saints
Since returning from the knee injury that sidelined him Weeks 2 through 6, Dylan Sampson has appeared on 55 percent of the Browns’ snaps compared to Quinshon Judkins, who has been in on 42 percent of the snaps. Sampson’s 32 opportunities over that span narrowly trail Judkins’ (47), but over the last two weeks, those numbers look much closer, and Sampson looks like a PPR scam waiting to happen.
Sampson’s 14 targets over the last two weeks are good for most of any running back in the league over that span, while his nine receptions are tied for second-most, and his 89 yards are good for third-most. The 30 routes he ran in last week’s loss to the Saints were the most he has run in his career, but it is worth noting that he needed the game to go to overtime for that to happen.
Regardless, Sampson appears to have a solid grasp of the pass-catching role in the Browns’ backfield, and his production has averaged 10.5 PPR points per game since Week 7. He’ll be on the streaming radar this week against a Texans defense that ranks 20th in points allowed to opposing RBs this season.
🔴 Jadarian Price (SEA) vs. Cardinals
After sharing the backfield for two weeks with Zach Charbonnet, rookie first-rounder Jadarian Price has had little to offer his fantasy managers. Price has averaged 13.5 opportunities per game and 57.5 yards from scrimmage per game since Week 8, but his efficiency on the ground, 19-53-0 (2.8 YPC), leaves much to be desired, especially in the high-value areas of the field.
Neither Price nor Charbonnet has had a chance to carry the ball inside their opponents’ five-yard line over the last two weeks, but it’s worth pointing out that last season, Charbonnet’s 18 carries in that area of the field were more than double what Kenneth Walker (8) saw last season. In the three games he played before his injury, Price received only one carry in that area of the field, so it’s fair to assume any touchdowns that may come his way will need to come on explosive plays.
The double-digit opportunities are encouraging, but Price’s slow start, coupled with Charbonnet firmly back in the mix, makes him hard to trust entering Week 10 against the Raiders.
▶ Wide Receivers
🟢 Tank Dell (HOU) vs. Chargers
In just his second game back from a devastating knee injury he suffered late in the 2024 season, Tank Dell looked like the explosive receiver we saw during the first two seasons of his career in Week 9’s win over the Chargers. Dell’s 105 receiving yards in Sunday’s win were second only to Kayshon Boutte (125), but his nine targets led all Texans receivers, while his 22 routes ranked third-most, but well behind Xavier Hutchinson (34) and Nico Collins (31).
Dell’s 40.9 percent targets-per-route rate also set a very impressive mark, but we shouldn’t be surprised to see C.J. Stroud target him as heavily as he did. For his career, Dell has been targeted on a respectable 20.6 percent of his routes, and he has seen seven or more targets in 14 of his 27 career games. Dell ran only six routes in Week 8, which was his first game in nearly two years. While Week 9’s game was encouraging for multiple reasons, it’s possible Dell continues to see an uptick in snaps and routes in the weeks ahead if he continues to play well and shows that his knee is holding up after a few games.
Another encouraging sign for Dell is that on his 63-yard touchdown reception, he hit speeds up to 20.09 MPH, which ranked 14th fastest among all ball carriers in the league in Week 9, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Dell has some deep league FLEX appeal this week against the Browns as he looks to build on his breakout performance and show he is fully back and healthy.
🔴 Marvin Harrison Jr. (HOU) vs. Chargers
It feels like everything that could have gone wrong for Marvin Harrison Jr. since his trade to the Texans has gone wrong. In his first week with the team, Jaylin Noel popped up for 107 yards and one touchdown against the Jags. In Week 8, Harrison was fortunate enough to find the end zone despite running only eight routes, and then in Week 9 he watched two of his teammates top 100 receiving yards while he was held to 2-20-0 on three targets while running only 14 routes.
We knew it would take a few weeks for Harrison to get up to speed after being traded mid-season from the Cardinals, but with so many receivers playing well ahead of him, it’s genuinely hard to imagine him carving out a meaningful role for Houston as long as most of its receivers are healthy. Fantasy managers who are still holding Harrison in hopes that his reuniting with Stroud would lead to some kind of second-half bounce back will need to keep waiting, as Harrison’s path to fantasy relevance continues to look muddied.
▶ Tight Ends
🟢 Darren Waller (CAR) vs. Broncos
We shouldn’t expect Darren Waller to see another 10-target performance like he had last week against the Broncos, when he caught eight passes for 90 yards and a touchdown in what ended up being the most productive game in his career since 2023. Waller’s 23.0 PPR-point performance was good for the TE2 overall in Week 9, and while he may not replicate it this week, he does draw a plus matchup against a Saints defense that has allowed the seventh-most points to opposing tight ends this season.
Waller, in his first season with the Panthers, has been surprisingly involved in the offense this season. Now appearing to be fully healthy, the 34-year-old tight end leads all Panthers tight ends in routes (197), and has posted four double-digit PPR performances in the eight games he has appeared in this season. While his target volume has been unreliable at times, seeing three or fewer targets on five separate occasions, Waller has also seen decent involvement near the end zone, with three of his four touchdowns coming when targeted in the end zone.
Fantasy managers in need of a streaming option this week can treat Waller as a boom-or-bust TE2, who could find the end zone against a Saints defense that has given up a touchdown to opposing tight ends in each of its last three games.
🔴 Mike Gesicki (CIN) vs. Falcons
For most of the season, Mike Gesicki has managed “get away with it” for those who may have opted to trust him after his 18.8 PPR point outburst in Week 1. The current TE15 in fantasy points per game this season has turned in a top-12 PPR performance in four of the eight games he has played in, but ranks outside the top 20 at his position in receiving yards (00), receptions (00), and targets (00), with pure touchdown volume carrying his day.
Gesicki has found the end zone in six games this season. Twice, his touchdown was his only reception of the game. His 191 routes run are tied for 23 among tight ends this season, and he draws a matchup against a Steelers defense that has allowed the 12th-fewest fantasy points to opposing tight ends this season. Last week’s 3.1 PPR point performance is the kind of performance we should be expecting from Gesicki whenever he isn’t finding the end zone, and in his two one-touchdown/one-catch games, he finished as the TE22 in both of those weeks.
NOTE: Stats and information courtesy of PFF.com, RotoViz.com, ProFootballReference.com, NextGenStats.NFL.com, 4For4.com, FantasyPoints.com and RBSDM.com. All scoring is based on full-PPR leagues.
