Fantasy football: Start-em, sit-em players for Week 10
By Jay Marsdale
There are matchups to take advantage of this week for every fantasy football player. We have a few suggestions on who to sit and start ahead of this week’s slate of games.
The long grind of the NFL season really got to the players last week. There were several fights and altercations across the league, leading to many fines and suspensions heading into Week 10.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans is suspended this week, while Bengals receiver A.J. Green was fined for his altercation in Week 9. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail this week and we can get back to football. And for most of the fans, back to fantasy football.
Last week’s list was a mix of good and bad, so let’s take a look.
San Francisco 49ers
Week 9 Hits: Russell Wilson (SEA) start-em, Andy Dalton (CIN) sit-em, Joe Mixon (CIN) sit-em, Travis Kelce (KC) start-em, George Kittle (SF) sit-em.
Week 9 Misses: Leonard Fournette (JAX) start-em, Mike Evans (TB) start-em, Deandre Hopkins (HOU) sit-em.
To be fair, the news Fournette was suspended by the Jaguars for violating team rules was not announced until it was too late for this list. That one was impossible to call.
Evans let his frustrations of not getting the ball boil over and it is now costing him a game. I can only imagine the tweets Evans is going to get this week from disgruntled fantasy football owners.
Somehow Deandre Hopkins still managed to succeed with Tom Savage throwing him the ball in Week 9. However, it wasn’t all bad for this list last week.
Wilson and the Seahawks continued their great play, while Dalton and the Bengals continued their downward spiral. Mixon had one of his best games of the season, but unfortunately it still wasn’t good enough to be an impact fantasy performance.
Kelce kept his name in the conversation for the best tight end in the league with a nice 20 fantasy points as well. San Francisco was unable to get anything out of their young tight end, as Kittle was held in check by Arizona for a second time this season.
This week there are only four teams on their bye. Baltimore, Kansas City, Oakland, and Philadelphia are all off this week, so there is some work for fantasy football players.
Now moving to the start-em and sit-em picks for Week 10.
Start-em: Ben Roethlisberger (PIT) @ Indianapolis
There are some great options at quarterback this week in fantasy football. At the top of that group is Pittsburgh quarterback “Big Ben” Roethlisberger.
Earlier this season there was talk of Big Ben being done, but that talk has been silenced by his play recently. Honestly I never understood the reasoning for such harsh criticism for Roethlisberger this season. He has thrown for over 200 yards in every game and has only had one truly bad game against a great defense in Jacksonville.
The defense he is facing in Week 10 is nowhere close to that of the Jaguars. The Colts are one of the worst defenses in the NFL once again, and this week Big Ben gets this great fantasy football matchup.
Indianapolis’ pass defense was already weak, and over the last few weeks, it has gotten even worse. Rookie safety Malik Hooker was arguably the best player on that defense already. Unfortunately, he was announced as done for the season a few weeks ago, due to an ACL injury. Then this week, the Colts cut ties with veteran corner Vontae Davis.
This secondary is filled with question marks, and that means big fantasy points for Big Ben and the Steelers offense. The best defenders in the NFL have failed in trying to cover Antonio Brown. This week he will get his easiest assignment in recent memory against Indianapolis.
The only thing that Big Ben fantasy football owners need to worry about is the possibility of a blowout win. Hopefully the Colts can keep the game respectable and we get to see Roethlisberger and company put up huge numbers this weekend.
Other options: Matthew Stafford (DET) vs. Cleveland and Josh McCown (NYJ) @ Tampa Bay