Coexistence is Apparently Possible in Detroit! 🦁

Haven’t watched so many high-quality games in one Sunday afternoon than we did yesterday in a long time. Things are heating up!

What’s in store:

• Derek Carr goes down hard against the Vikings. In other news, Chris Olave was finally used like a No. 1 receiver.

• Coexistence is apparently possible in Detroit’s backfield 🤷‍♂️. Has Jahmyr Gibbs finally established himself as a fantasy RB1?

• The C.J Stroud train keeps on chugging 🚂. Did anyone have back-to-back top-12 finishes for Noah Brown on their bingo card?

• Dak Prescott has been playing on another level. His past four games are some of his finest fantasy performances in his career.

• Saints QB Derek Carr suffers concussion, shoulder injury vs Vikings in Week 10, did not return

  • Carr suffered the injury midway through the third quarter in an outing where he just couldn’t get anything going offensively. His fantasy production in his first year in New Orleans has been right on par with what we’ve grown accustomed to with him over his years with the Raiders, but these first ten games of the 2023 season have been especially bad for the fantasy weapons relying on him to produce. Chris Olave, the Saints’ top wide receiver, failed to see a single target from Carr in the first half of a game that was played largely from behind, and it took Carr’s exit and some Jameis Winston magic to save Olave’s day. The Saints head into their bye in Week 11 with plenty of time for Carr to heal up ahead of their Week 12 matchup against Falcons, so there’s a chance that Carr misses no real game action as a result of the injuries he sustained yesterday - but it’s fair to wonder what the rest of the Saints offense would look like with a full game of Jameis Winston under center.

• Falcons QB Taylor Heinicke exits game vs Cardinals in Week 10 with hamstring injury, Desmond Ridder returns to starting lineup

  • No matter which way you flip the Falcons quarterback coin, you’re going to get just about the same production. Neither Taylor Heinicke nor Desmond Ridder have been able to a) prove that they are starting quarterbacks in the league or b) overcome the faulty Arthur Smith system that continues to doom Atlanta’s offense on a weekly basis. Given the fact that the Falcons benched Ridder earlier this year for Heinicke, it’s safe to assume that Atlanta will be content to ride the hot hand under center the rest of the way. Fantasy managers should be prepared to see Heinicke miss at least a week or two, although little action is required on the part of fantasy managers as a result of the injury - especially considering Atlanta’s bye falls in Week 11. The bottom line: both quarterbacks are subject to being benched at any time moving forward, making them hard to trust in fantasy lineups on a weekly basis as the fantasy playoffs approach.

• Vikings RB Alexander Mattison goes down with concussion in Week 10 vs Saints

  • For all intents and purposes, Mattison was serving as the Vikings RB1 once again since Cam Akers saw his season come to an end with an achilles injury. That treatment continued against the Saints on Sunday, but he wasn’t able to salvage his fantasy day before suffered his concussion. In his relief, RB Ty Chandler saw increased run in the ground game and added a touchdown to cap off a serviceable day in Minnesota’s backfield. Concussions tend to be one-week injuries, so fantasy managers can expect Mattison to be back in short order – but in the meantime, Chandler is the ball carrier to pick up off the waiver wire. Chandler will likely offer flex appeal in a solid matchup against the Broncos in Week 11, while Kene Nwangwu should remain on waivers for the time being.

Gibbs and Montgomery tear through the Chargers

• It looks like these Lions RBs can in fact co-exist! Now, this was a back and forth, fast paced, high scoring game, and there was a lot of production to go around. So keep that in mind… but this is what we envisioned going into this season. Gibbs had 19 opportunities in a game where Montgomery was healthy - he got them down to the 1 yard line, got the goal line carry, and got another goal line carry later on which was awesome.

• Now, I still expect Montgomery to get most of that goal line work going forward, but the fact that they’re open to giving some of that to Gibbs is really good for Gibbs… both of these guys have showed some of that big play ability though. Look at the usage - Gibbs with 58% of the snaps and Monty with 38%… this backfield might have just shifted in Gibbs direction! We’ll see if this becomes a trend, but 19 opportunities for Gibbs with goal line looks compared to Monty’s 12 opportunities is definitely noteworthy moving forward. If this continues, Gibbs is a high-end RB2/borderline RB1 especially when you consider his 64% route participation, and Monty is a solid RB2 with upside. Let’s see what happens in Week 11.

The Saints offense was all over the place… again

• Derek Carr left the game with a concussion and a shoulder injury. We’ll need to get more info on that, so the best we can do is just wait for the MRIs… we’ll probably get some more info later on today. The Saints do have a bye this week, so he has some extra time to get right. If he can’t make it back by Week 12, Jameis Winston would be fantasy relevant, and would continue to make all of their playmakers fantasy relevant… maybe even MORE fantasy relevant.

  • On that note, Chris Olave had 1 catch for 15 yards with Derek Carr under center… he leaves the game in the middle of the 3rd quarter, and then Jameis Winston comes in and propels Chris Olave to 7 catches for 79 yards with a TD on 9 targets in only 20 minutes of game-time. And that TD was miraculous, by the way.

• Taysom Hill got only 1 carry this week after leading the Saints in carries last week, and got only 2 catches on 4 targets - this was going to come crashing down at some point, and it looks like it just did. Jamaal Williams ended up getting 4 carries to Alvin Kamara’s 9 carries, but didn’t get anything going at all.

• Michael Thomas also suffered a knee injury - it doesn’t seem overly serious because he was standing on the sideline for the rest of the game, but it’s possible he misses time. It could mean we see more targets for Rashid Shaheed - he definitely got more playing time this week because of it - but the rookie AT Perry also was a beneficiary. Perry’s not a must pick up or anything, but he’s someone to pay attention to as the obvious replacement as the X receiver in this offense.

The Texans offense is shining bright with Stroud

• CJ Stroud was doing CJ Stroud things - great game between the Texans and Bengals - Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase were getting it done, and Tyler Boyd had a big game - 8 for 117. Trenton Irwin even came through with a TD… but Tank Dell was someone we were all starting, he got it done, and a lot of us were starting Noah Brown - but damn, 7 catches for 172 yards? Dude went off. This was a good matchup coming in, but just remember who was on Noah Brown before he got hot, alright?

• I hate to say it though, I’d be looking to sell… but I’d only be looking to sell once I know Nico Collins is back. He’s got a soft tissue injury, and you never know, he can miss another game. And guess what? The Texans have the Cardinals next week.

• By the way, Noah Brown transitioned a bit to the outside in this game - about 70% of his routes were run from there, and coming into Week 10, Arizona has been bottom 10 against perimeter WRs… he should be in lineups next week if Nico Collins misses. But if Collins is back, we should probably be selling Brown - 20% target share in this game, 18% last week according to Fantasy Life’s utilization report, so nothing to rave about lying underneath the production. By the way, he’s still available in a ton of leagues so he should be picked up if he’s still available in yours.

• We also talked about Devin Singletary coming into the week - I said to not overvalue the production he had last week and to value the utilization he had, and it worked out this week if you started him - 30 carries for 150 yards and a TD. That is a huge workload, no other RB got a carry, and he capitalized on that volume with awesome production. Now you have to wonder what happens when Dameon Pierce comes back - he hasn’t practice at all for two weeks, and my guess is that it’s a high ankle… and the Texans now have Arizona this upcoming week, so Singletary can definitely be in lineups in that matchup. We’ll see Pierce’s status in practice this week…. Singletary was already eating into that workload, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s a change here at all.

The 2023 season has been a tale of two Dak Prescotts through the first nine games of the year, with the Cowboys QB starting off freezing cold through the first five games of the year. His 12.6 average points per game in that span ranked 24th in the NFL as he fell victim to bipolar game scripts and limited offensive success while HC Mike McCarthy broke into his new role as playcaller in Dallas. However, soemthing changed in Week 6 against the Chargers that kicked off one of the best four-game fantasy stretches of Dak Prescott’s career.

Since Week 6, Dak Prescott is the undisputed fantasy QB1 in points per game, averaging 30.3 points over his last four games. That production has coincided with Prescott scoring 14 total touchdowns and throwing just two interceptions in that span – as well as an emergence from WR Ceedee Lamb in the Cowboys offense. Prescott’s 12 passing touchdowns since Week 6 also leads all quarterbacks in that span, and he’s scored two rushing touchdowns over the past four weeks after failing to log a touchdown on the ground for 14 regular season games before that.

The unprecedented turnaround by the Cowboys offense and the shift to a pass-heavy offense has allowed Prescott to flip the switch on his fantasy production, moving from the overall QB24 through Weeks 1-5 to the overall QB1 through weeks 6-10. Prescott and his managers can look forward to matchups against the Panthers, Commanders, and Seahawks in Dallas’ next three, which affords Dak a very nice path to stay hot moving forward.