Lance's 2021 Week 10 Recap and Week 11 Waiver Priorities
RECAP
-I wanted to tackle the AFC North together because man was this a disappointing weekend. The Browns got trounced by the Patriots. There’s no “but if they had Chubb” argument because one player doesn’t prevent you from getting beat when you lose by 38 points. The Ravens lost by double-digits to the Dolphins. Baltimore, along with Cleveland, looked like legitimate contenders, but after what happened on Thursday night they’ve got me rethinking things. There’s still plenty of time to recover, but they’ve gotta find players who can plug the holes in their injury riddled defense. And then there’s Pitt who tied the no-win Lions. People will make the “but if they had Big Ben” argument, I’m just not convinced the outcome would have been any different. You didn’t need Big Ben to win this game! The Eagles just laid out the exact path to destroying Detroit and it involves running the ball and then running it again. The sad part is, Pitt’s O-Line could barely open up running lanes, which led to Najee Harris just barely managing 4.0 YPC. It appears Cincy may have lucked out having their bye this week.
-Good job by New Orleans. They went into Tennessee to play the top team in the AFC, without their original starting QB, no Kamara, and no Terron Armstead, and they walked out with a 2-point loss. That’s something you can build on in a season where no one seems to want to take control of the wildcard races.
-In my opinion, Indy demonstrated they are a playoff caliber team this week, even if it was only a 6-point win over the Jags. The defense and special teams stepped up, Jonathan Taylor continued his dominant stretch and despite Wentz not lighting it up, they got the win. At 5-5 they are tied with Denver and Cleveland at 9th in the AFC, so they still have work to do, but the balance they’re showing and with their defense trending in the right direction, they’re looking like they have more potential than some of their other competition.
-What happened to Tampa? It just looked like one of those games where nothing seems to go right. The epitome of that was the interception that came off Jaelon Darden’s hands and got picked. There shouldn’t be any “Tampa is over” or “Washington is a playoff team again” hot takes based off this game.
-I mentioned the Browns above, but I also wanted to touch on the Pats who are clicking at the right time. We know Belichick is very good at his job and with his players stepping up they’re looking like the team you don’t want to face in the first round of the playoffs.
-My apologies to Carolina, Matt Rhule, and Joe Brady. In my predictions article I picked Arizona to win because they had shown the previous week they knew how to get the job done without their starting QB. Well, Carolina went to the desert and showed they can do it better. The legend of Joe Brady continues to grow and I’m looking forward to seeing where he ends up next year.
-The Vikings and Chargers are very similar teams right now. I’m not talking about their schemes, or players. I mean they both look like teams that could finish at 7-10, just as easily as they could slip into the playoffs and make a deep run. They’ve certainly got the talent, they’re just too inconsistent to rely on, or bet against.
-Bad news for Green Bay, there’s a decent chance Aaron Jones’ MCL sprain keeps him out a couple weeks. Good news for Green Bay, A.J. Dillon may actually be the better player, especially with how he’s been playing as of late. Watch out NFC, cause Dillon has some pretty fresh legs and a thirst for putting defenders into the ground.
-The Eagles are one massive enigma. They open the year well, then go on a 3-game streak where they appear to be a complete mess, then they played tough against better teams, before destroying Detroit, barely losing to the Chargers and upending the Broncos. Thanks to the play of the Chargers and Broncos, I CAN’T TELL IF THE EAGLES ARE AN ACTUAL THREAT OR NOT. Crazy part is, if they can beat the Saints next week they have an actual chance of rolling into their week 18 matchup against Dallas with a 10-6 record and a 7-game win streak.
-And here we are again, the Chiefs put up big numbers against a struggling opponent (and yes I’m aware I took said struggling opponent) and suddenly everyone wants to say the Chiefs are back. No, they’re not. If they perform like this against Dallas next week, then fine, go ahead and run with it, but the Raiders looked like a mess last week with no Ruggs, and they looked that way again this week. It was a blowout win against a team that appears to be moving in the wrong direction, accept this game for what it was and move on.
-My original thought was that the Niners would get blown out for the second week in a row, and the blowout would lead to Garoppolo being benched especially with a nice matchup against the Jags coming up for Trey Lance to try and kick things off. But Jimmy G looked good last night and San Fran got the win keeping themselves in the thick of the playoff hunt, so I don’t see him going anywhere.
FANTASY WAIVER WIRE TARGETS
QB: Cam Newton (Carolina)
Bit of a revenge game, playing his old Head Coach who refused to sign him after he was cut by New England despite not having a sure thing under Center. In other words, a chance for Newton to prove his old coach wrong. It’ll help that Washington has been bad against opposing Quarterbacks. Until proven otherwise, just assume their showing against the Bucs was a one-off thing.
RB: Key backups
There’s no one player you should be targeting (unless A.J. Dillon is available), but we’re at the point in the season where bellcow backs start to wear down. Look to add the primary backups for the players we know have a history of dealing with nagging injuries. Guys like: Dalvin Cook (Alexander Mattison), Austin Ekeler (Justin Jackson & Larry Rountree), James Conner (Eno Benjamin), or Joe Mixon (Samaje Perine).
WR: Van Jefferson Jr. (LA Rams)
If he wasn’t jumped on in your league as soon as the news about Robert Woods broke, then he should be your top Receiver priority for week 11. OBJ’s presence pollutes the waters a little, but Jefferson already knows the playbook and has the rapport built with his QB, so he’s got the better chance of earning Woods’ targets at least to start, and he did have 7 targets in the Monday night game.
TE: Adam Trautman (New Orleans)
Since Siemian took over under Center Trautman has seen 19 targets, that’s nearly 60% of his season target total in just three weeks. Clearly Siemian has enjoyed having the big bodied Tight End as a security blanket. Bonus: Week 11 is a matchup against the Eagles who have allowed a significant amount of points to opposing Tight Ends.
K: Chase McLaughlin (Cleveland)
Is it mean that the Kicker I list as my waiver target every week is the one facing the Lions? Maybe. But if they didn’t want me to do this then maybe they should try not allowing opposing fantasy Kickers to score double-digit points on them every week. Ok, maybe it isn’t every week, but 6 out of 9 weeks is still a lot.
D: San Francisco 49ers
The Browns are probably your best bet this week, but they are rostered in 61% of Yahoo leagues, so if you are not in position to land them I would target San Fran next. The Jags are still struggling offensively, and they’ve (wisely) become a run first team. That means they tend not to put up a lot of points, and can struggle against teams with good run defenses. The Niners aren’t perfect against opposing Running Backs, but they do a decent job of keeping them in check.
