Week 10 Waiver Wire Running Back Priority List | Deciding Between Keaton Mitchell, Antonio Gibson, Latavius Murray, Royce Freeman, Jamaal Williams and Ty Chandler

It’s crazy to think we are approaching the 10th week of the NFL season already. The fantasy regular season is winding down and playoffs are nearing.

With each passing week, it becomes more and more important to choose the best players on the waiver wire. We’re here to help.

We already tackled the quarterbacks, and now will discuss running backs. Check back later for stories on wide receivers and tight ends.

For these stories, we are going to be focusing on players with an own percentage of 50% or lower. These are the more likely unowned players in more leagues, instead of talking about players that are only available in a select few leagues, so that’s why we focus on the sparsely-owned guys instead.

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What Running Backs are Available?

Today, we’ll discuss Baltimore Ravens’ Keaton Mitchell, Washington Commanders’ Antonio Gibson, Buffalo Bills’ Latavius Murray, Los Angeles Rams’ Royce Freeman, New Orleans Saints’ Jamaal Williams and Minnesota Vikings’ Ty Chandler.

The hottest waiver wire name (probably at all positions) this week is Mitchell. He starred in the Ravens’ rout of the Seattle Seahawks, running for 138 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries. He also caught his only target, but lost 4 yards on the play.

I wrote at length about Mitchell on Monday, so I’ll just give a quick rundown here. Mitchell is a guy who was injured to start the season and hadn’t gotten a carry until week 9. 

He only played 14 snaps in total, and took advantage of them. Mitchell tied teammate Gus Edwards in snaps played, while Justice Hill more than tripled their amount of snaps. Mitchell was by far the most productive back, but Edwards also scored twice, and Hill got more carries than Mitchell.

This is an extremely tricky situation to predict going forward, but it’s hard to imagine the Ravens not giving Mitchell a longer look after what he accomplished last week. My guess was that Edwards still does most of the heavy lifting and gets the goal-line work, while Mitchell eventually takes the No. 2 role away from Hill, who would then only get a few snaps and touches a game.

Gibson backs up Brian Robinson in Washington, but has started to be more involved the past couple weeks.

Gibson turned seven touches into 42 yards in week 8 and then posted a season-high 76 scrimmage yards on 11 touches in week 9. It was the first time this season that Gibson reached double-digit touches, and just the third time he’s gone over 50 scrimmage yards.

Robinson only played 10 more offensive snaps than Gibson, with the latter outgaining him by 9 yards on eight fewer touches. Robinson did score to finish as the top fantasy back, but this is definitely a situation to keep an eye on moving forward. Your best chance at nabbing Gibson could be this week, as he'd be a hot commodity next week if he produces again in week 10.

Murray continues to play a healthy amount of snaps for the Bills, but he isn’t doing much with the few touches he’s been getting. He had only three touches across 26 snaps played in week 9, He played six less snaps than James Cook, who got 10 touches and went for 39 yards.

The Bills’ offense has underwhelmed pretty much all season, and the running backs simply aren’t producing much. Leonard Fournette was signed to the team’s practice squad a couple weeks ago, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he starts taking on some snaps and stealing touches from Murray and Cook.

The Rams’ offense was pretty lifeless without quarterback Matthew Stafford calling the shots against the Green Bay Packers. It led to poor showings on the ground for the team’s running backs.

Freeman played 24 snaps and turned 12 touches into 32 total yards. Darrell Henderson played 34 snaps and had 35 total yards on 12 touches.

The stock of any Rams’ back would be greatly improved with Stafford on the field, and after nearly going against the Packers in week 9, one would assume he’d be playing in week 11 after the team’s bye week.

Williams hasn’t had the season many expected of him in his first year with New Orleans. An injury slowed him when Alvin Kamara was out, and now Kamara is dominating the touches over Williams.

Williams has attempted just 14 rushes and has caught three passes since returning. He’s been under 40 scrimmage yards in the three games, and went for only 12 yards in week 10.

One positive is that he played 27 offensive snaps, which was only four less than Kamara. Taysom Hill ended up playing 29 snaps, and is part of the reason why Williams hasn’t been able to be as involved as we expected. Even if he became a touchdown vulture, fantasy owners could benefit from Williams' play, but Hill has been the guy instead.

I included Chandler simply because the Vikings have been utilizing two running backs of late. Alexander Mattison is the team’s starter, but Cam Akers had been carving out an offensive role. Akers is done for the season because of an injury, so maybe now Chandler has a chance to produce.

Things don’t look super promising, as Chandler has only played four offensive snaps over the past seven games. In weeks 1-3, Chandler played between 7-12 snaps a game, so it seems reasonable to expect something similar going forward, unless the team decides to bring in another back.

The Priority List

Just like we did for the quarterbacks, let’s break this section into two parts. We’ll focus first on the best long-term options of the group, and then identify the best week 10 options if you just need a starter this week.

The best long-term option is Mitchell, both because of his age and due to the state of the Baltimore backfield. He might not ever be the lead back, but the Ravens will likely split the carries enough to make whoever the top two guys are fantasy starting options every week.

Gibson is the pretty obvious No. 2 choice of the group. After that, things get really tough to project.

Even though he hasn’t produced much this season, I think Williams would be my third choice, and he’s a good one to stash in case Kamara is ever injured. Freeman would be my next option, even though his days of expanded snaps and touches are probably numbered. 

I’d go with Murray ahead of Chandler for the time being, although that could change starting in week 10 if Chandler splits the snaps and touches and Murray continues to do little with his touches.

For the best week 10 options, we lose Freeman as the Rams are on a bye. Murray has the best matchup on paper against the Denver Broncos, but I don’t trust his recent showings enough to take him first. 

I’d go with the guy who has the second-easiest matchup, which is Gibson against the Seattle Seahawks. After that, I’d take a gamble on Mitchell against the Cleveland Browns slightly ahead of Murray against the Broncos.

For my last option, I’d go with Williams against the Vikings over Chandler against the Saints.