Top Fantasy Football Stories for Week 10: Backup Quarterbacks, Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Backfield
These are the biggest storylines to watch for in Week 10.
Can Backup Quarterbacks Keep Their Weapons Relevant?
We had two starting quarterbacks go down with injuries in Week 9 and both could miss an extended length of time. The Dallas Cowboys will be without Dak Prescott and the Jacksonville Jaguars will likely be without Trevor Lawrence.
Prescott went down with a torn hamstring that has landed him on injured reserve. He is expected to miss 6-8 weeks and may not return this season depending on his recovery and circumstances. If the team has fallen completely out of the playoff picture, which is very likely, there may be no reason to bring him back at all and risk a long-term issue.
Cooper Rush will be the starter in his absence. Rush has been in this situation before and was competent enough. However, he also had a much better supporting cast at that time - most notably a superior offensive line and rushing attack.
It will be interesting to see if Rush can keep his weapons relevant. CeeDee Lamb should still be a must-start option, but he could fall from that tier of elite WR1s. It seems impossible that he produces at his peak level on a consistent basis.
Jake Ferguson should also be usable, albeit probably less consistent and with fewer TD opportunities. Every other pass-catcher can probably be outright dropped to waivers.
The most intriguing player may be Rico Dowdle. Will he gain value because the team leans more heavily on the rushing attack, or devalue because defenses can focus on him and the offense struggles to get anything going? We will start getting answers to all of these questions on Sunday.
Lawrence's injury is far more questionable. It's unclear how much time he will miss. He won't play this week and there is a chance he misses multiple games. Mac Jones will get the start in place.
While Jones had a decent rookie season, he was horrendous the following seasons in New England. His biggest issue is his complete lack of arm strength. That does not bode well for their star rookie Brian Thomas Jr., who has been extremely impressive so far in his short career. This undoubtedly puts a cap on his ceiling.
It could actually help Evan Engram and the running backs since Jones relies on short passes and dump-offs so often. If you haven't cut Gabe Davis yet, you might as well because he will be useless with Jones under center. Hopefully, we learn more about how this offense will look with Jones under center Sunday and get more information on this long-term fluid situation as soon as possible.
CMC Makes His Season Debut
It took 10 long weeks, but the 2024 consensus first-overall fantasy football pick Christian McCaffrey is set to make his season debut. He had a lingering calf injury through the summer, which was ultimately diagnosed as Achilles tendonitis shortly prior to Week 1 when he was a surprise inactive.
We then learned the injury was worse than originally believed and he'd be heading to injured reserve. That injury held him out for nine weeks of the season. This week he will finally suit up for the Niners and his anxious fantasy owners.
While it's only fair to be excited, it still remains to be seen how much work the team will give him this week and in the coming weeks. Backup rusher Jordan Mason, who played admirably in his absence, has also been removed from the injury report and is a full go coming off the team's bye week.
There is a good chance fantasy owners are disappointed by the workload this week. It's hard to imagine CMC gets much more than half of the work. We'd project that 60% of the touches will be his ceiling on Sunday. More importantly, it will be interesting to see if the team gives him back his massive snap share as he gets fully healthy or limits his touches a bit to ensure his health for a deep playoff run.
What will the Carolina Backfield Look Like with Stud Rookie Active?
The Carolina Panthers backfield just got a lot more interesting this week. They activated top rookie running back Jonathon Brooks from injured reserve after missing the entire season up until this point due to a torn ACL last year at Texas and gave Chuba Hubbard a hefty four-year $33.2 million extension. This raises a ton of questions for both the short and long-term plans for this backfield.
When it comes to the short-term plans, if Brooks is active this week, we will get a sneak peek at how these backs will be utilized when both are healthy. However, we do expect Brooks to be eased in, so we'll pay more attention to when Brooks is used than how much.
Long term, most people assumed that Hubbard would be allowed to walk in free agency and Brooks would take over next season as the bell-cow option. All of that changed this week and thoroughly complicated life for dynasty owners. That's a situation that won't be so easy to answer anytime soon.
