With Aaron Rodgers healthy and with a new offensive scheme at his disposal, expectations were high for Fantasy. Rodgers was one of the first three or four quarterbacks taken in nearly all Fantasy drafts over the summer, and Davante Adams was at worst the No. 3 wide receiver in most leagues, too. In fact, expectations were so high that both Geronimo Allison and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were identified as potential breakout candidates this preseason.
So much for that. It's been hard to even find this duo lately. Valdes-Scantling was held without a catch Sunday against the Panthers, his second game in a row with no catches — and he hasn't had more than two since Week 4. Allison was only slightly better, catching three passes but picking up just 6 yards.
Valdes-Scantling and Allison had been playing decent snap shares in recent weeks, though nowhere close to 100%, and even that fell apart in Week 10, as Valdes-Scantling in particular played just 16% of the team's snaps Sunday. It seems like Allen Lazard and Jake Kumerow have at least caught up to them in the receiving hierarchy. None of these options looks Fantasy relevant right now — it's the Davante Adams/Aaron Jones/Jamaal Williams show in Green Bay these days — but Allison and Valdes-Scantling don't even look worth rostering right now.
Allison is rostered in just 19% of leagues at this point, but Valdes-Scantling is still on rosters in 55% of CBS Fantasy leagues, which is far too many. You can safely drop everyone but Rodgers, Jones, Williams, and Adams on the Packers' offense heading into the Week 11 bye. You won't miss them.
Week 10 Instant Reaction
Winners and Losers
Winners
With 53 targets and no touchdowns coming into Week 10, Kirk was one of the more obvious touchdown regression candidates in the league, and he got it all back and more Sunday. Kirk scored three times while catching six of 10 passes thrown his way for 138 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown, the longest play of the game for the Cardinals. Obviously, that kind of performance isn't sustainable, but Kirk's workload has been consistent pretty much all season, with 63 targets in seven games, so it was only a matter of time before he cashed in. It's hard to call Kirk a must start when he had an 8-yard showing just last week, but he is clearly Kyler Murray's favorite target and will be worth starting against most matchups moving forward.
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It's awfully hard to be an elite running back for Fantasy if you don't catch passes, but if you're going to do it, Henry is showing the blueprint. He hasn't quite been able to sustain last year's efficiency, but he is averaging a good-enough 4.45 yards per carry and continues to dominate work near the goal-line while hitting the occasional home run. Henry scored from 68 yards and from 1 yard Sunday, a perfect encapsulation of how his season has gone. It's an awfully thin line to try to walk — if he doesn't hit on that long run or the Titans throw from the 1, it's a totally different kind of day. But, the Titans have shown since the stretch run of last season that they want to prioritize Henry at the goal line, and until and unless someone steps up as a reliable red zone option, he's going to continue to dominate those touches.
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For a while there, it looked like Hunt may not have much of a role to come back to, as Nick Chubb played at least 83% of the Browns snaps in three out of four games from Week 3 through Week 6. However, after the team's Week 7 bye, Chubb played 65% and 60% of the snaps, and all of a sudden, Hunt had an opportunity. He played 38 snaps Sunday, including 14 from either the slot or split out wide in his debut, as the Browns looked for multiple ways to get him on the field. He ran the ball four times for 30 yards and added seven catches for 44 yards on nine targets, while Chubb still ran the ball 20 times for 116 yards and added two receptions of his own. Hunt is going to be a factor, and while he probably won't get enough work in the rushing game to be consistent on a week to week basis, he seems to already have a guaranteed role in the passing game, which could make him a useful flex option in Week 11 and beyond.
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Efficiency is going to be an issue for Mixon all season long, it seems safe to say, but the last two games have seen his workload turn around enough to where it might not matter. After seeing just 10 and 11 touches in Weeks 7 and 8, Mixon had 21 touches in Week 9 and then a whopping 32 in a blowout loss to the Ravens Sunday. He still rushed for just 3.8 yards per carry, but the volume still allowed him to get to 151 yards Sunday, giving him 228 yards over the last two weeks. Mixon isn't going to live up to that early-round draft pick you invested in him, but if the Bengals are going to get him to 20-plus touches every week, you'll have a hard time keeping him out of your starting lineup, even if Ryan Finley didn't do much to turn the offense around.
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Snap counts are important, but they don't tell the whole picture. Mark Andrews played just 34% of the Ravens' snaps in Week 9, and he put together his worst game of the season, catching just two passes for 21 yards. However, context is important, and if you looked beneath the hood like Ben Gretch does every week in his Stealing Signals column, you would have seen that Andrews ran routes on 50% of the Ravens' pass attempts. That was still below his season average, but better than the raw snap count would have told you. In fact, Andrews has run routes on just 64% of the team's passing plays overall this season, so it's clear he can be productive even in a limited role. He played a similarly limited role yet again in Week 10, but was still able to catch six of eight passes for 53 yards and a pair of scores as the Ravens blew out the Bengals. His role is what it is, and Lamar Jackson absolutely loves throwing the ball to Andrews, so don't fret over any snap count fluctuations. He's settled.
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Losers
There's the Steelers before Minkah, and there's the Steelers after Minkah. In the first two games of the season, the Steelers were absolutely torched by slot receivers, as they gave up 233 yards on 18 catches with three touchdowns. In five games since Minkah Fitzpatrick joined the team entering , they have given up just three touchdowns and 352 yards on 39 catches. That's a huge improvement — especially on big plays and touchdowns — and Kupp seems like he just got caught in a bad matchup as the Rams' top slot option. It's a disappointment coming off Kupp's massive Week 8 showing, but it shouldn't change how you view him too much. However, he does have another couple of tough matchups coming up against the Bears in Week 11 (three touchdowns to slot receivers) and Ravens in Week 12 (two touchdowns). Still, there's no way you're even considering sitting Kupp, so let's just hope this is a blip on the radar.
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As it turns out, opportunity isn't everything. Brown has been impressive in a limited role this season, as he entered Week 10 averaging 10.5 yards per target while sitting second on the Titans in targets. And, with Corey Davis sidelined for Sunday's game, expectations were high for a breakout game from Brown. However, he just couldn't get going, catching just one pass for 17 yards on his four targets. The Titans' passing game didn't do much overall, as Ryan Tannehill threw the ball just 19 times for 181 yards, but even then, Brown was sixth on the team in receiving yards. He may step up to become a No. 1 wide receiver someday, but if he couldn't break out with Davis out, it's going to be hard to predict when it's going to come, if it ever does.
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The Saints ran the ball just 11 times and Drew Brees was sacked six times, so this game just didn't go according to plan from the very beginning. Still, it was disappointing that, after spending the week saying Murray would still have a significant role even with Alvin Kamara back, Murray ended up with just seven touches. Any game where the Saints have to drop back to pass 50-plus times is going to benefit Kamara, but you would have hoped Murray might see more than just two targets thrown his way after that kind of talk. Murray should still be viewed as a starting option for Week 11, but with a potential shootout against the Buccaneers on the way in Week 11, it could be another disappointing game — Murray had just nine touches the last time the Saints and Bucs faced off, after all.
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The Browns backed up their talk about trying to feed Beckham more in Week 10, but that might have been the most concerning thing about the game. Beckham got 12 targets, a team high, including multiple in the end zone, and still ended up with another ho-hum effort, with five catches for 57 yards and no scores. If the Browns keep trying to get Beckham double-digit targets, there's no way I could justify sitting him, but the fact is he and Baker Mayfield just haven't been on the same page at any point. And the goal line targets Beckham got exemplify the unimaginative playcalling that has held the offense back all season, as the Browns just isolated Beckham and asked him to make one-on-one plays vs. Tre'Davious White. That's a matchup Beckham can win in, but the Browns need to put him in better position to win more consistently. They haven't done that so far.
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The Jets offense looked a bit better in Week 10 against the Giants than it had in recent weeks, but that obviously didn't apply to Anderson. Demaryius Thomas and Jamison Crowdewr both had at least twice as many targets as Anderson, and Le'Veon Bell was more of a focal point in the passing game as well. Anderson's three targets Sunday were his lowest total since Week 5. Anderson has topped 50 yards just twice in nine games now, and one of those saw him pick up 92 of his 125 yards on just one play. With Sam Darnold not taking the step forward we were hoping for, it's hard to view Anderson as anything more than a boom-or-bust bench piece for Fantasy at this point.
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