It’s crazy that it is already Week Ten of NFL football. But, what’s even crazier, is that we still have brand new storylines each week and exciting new fantasy football options popping up to potentially win leagues. You have to remember that over the first ten weeks of his rookie year, Amon-Ra St. Brown was virtually unstartable in fantasy football. And over the last seven weeks he was a league winner. And he never went back in the bottle. So there is always the potential that we stumble onto the next league winner, even at this stage in the season. Let’s take a look around the NFL this week and some of the key takeaways!

 

Week 10 Hot Takes

Kyler Murray Is The Cardinals Franchise Quarterback

The ongoing debate between Caleb Williams and Drake Maye shouldn’t concern the Arizona Cardinals - they already have their franchise quarterback. There was a lot of discussion about them tanking and the new front office/coaching staff handpicking their own leader but the fact of the matter is that there is no need for them to roll the dice on someone new.  Kyler Murray returned this week and, although he didn’t set the world on fire, he did look like Kyler Murray, throwing for ~250 yards and running six times for 33 yards and a score en route to a 25-23 victory over the Falcons. When healthy, Kyler Murray is a top five quarterback of all time in fantasy points per game so both Cardinals fans and fantasy gamers alike should be happy to have him back. The Cardinals still have some rebuilding to do so the question will now be whether they use their pick themselves or trade it to a team looking to move up and grab a QB.    

Keaton Mitchell Is Here To Stay

After last week’s breakout game for Keaton Mitchell, offensive coordinator Todd Monken came out and said that, when players get an opportunity and take advantage of it, that “leads to more opportunities”. Well this week Keaton Mitchell got a few opportunities again and once again took advantage of them, running for a 39 yard score and catching another pass for 32 yards. The numbers might not reflect how good he looked as he had another end zone target down field he just barely missed on and also an ill-fated stretch play that lost seven yards at no fault of his own. Gus Edwards will still contribute in short yardage situations and Justice Hill might mix in for some pass plays but it’s starting to look like Keaton Mitchell will fit into the explosive role we had expected JK Dobbins to be in. And that should be pretty good for fantasy football. 

Tony Pollard Continues His Campaign For Top Bust

The Cowboys could score at will this week against the Giants, hanging 49 points. And virtually everyone got involved. Dak Prescott threw four touchdowns to each of his starting pass catchers in Ceedee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Michael Gallup, and Jake Ferguson. Dak also ran for a touchdown. And so did Ceedee Lamb. Even backup running back Rico Dowdle ran for one. Yet somehow Tony Pollard only managed 5.5 fantasy points on 55 rushing yards with zero receptions. On the first drive of the game he was stopped on first and goal from the fourth then the drive ended with him getting stuffed on fourth and goal from the one. I still believe he is capable of turning it around and having some good games but it’s starting to look like some of the efficiency numbers from last year was due to the split role he was in that allowed him to operate primarily in space. And I would bet my bottom dollar that Ezekiel Elliott would have managed to find the end zone on the first drive. Or at least at some point in a game like this.

Sam Howell Is A Top Five Quarterback - In Fantasy

Is Sam Howell a top five quarterback in this league? No, I don’t think so. Is he the future of the Commanders franchise? I think he has a good shot but I’m not fully ready to commit to that. And the Commanders don’t have to either. What I can say is that this Eric Bieniemy offense is perfect for fantasy football and Sam Howell is consistently putting the points up. Coming into this week he had dropped back to pass 46 more times than the next highest quarterback (and that QB was Patrick Mahomes who was on bye this week). This week he dropped back another 47 times while throwing for over 300 yards and three scores. Did they win the game? No. Did he get sacked three times again (a stat in which he leads the league by a wide margin)? Yes. Did he have a costly fumble? Yes. But that doesn’t matter to us for fantasy football. He still has a bye week coming up but most weeks he will be squarely in the lineup.

Noah Stopping Noah Brown

Last week our own Howard Bender made the call to use Noah Brown in his DFS Dart Board based on his matchup in the slot and some injuries to the Texans’ receiving corps. And that paid off handsomely as he had six receptions for 153 yards and a score. And, like most of us, we probably assumed that was a one off and just a great one week call in fantasy. But then this week Noah Brown came out and had even MORE yards with seven catches for 172. As our buddy Jeff Bell points out, Noah Brown had 425 receiving yards of his first four seasons. And he has 325 over the last two weeks. Whether it’s just C.J. Stroud elevating everyone around him or Noah Brown figuring things out, he probably should not be sitting on any fantasy football waiver wires given what he’s doing.