It’s week ten of the fantasy football season, and you’re opportunities to play daily fantasy football are quickly waning. It’s also starting to be the time of year where your regular fantasy football teams might be starting to fade, so turning to daily fantasy football could be a fun pivot to keep chasing the fantasy football dragon. This week, there are some great players with good matchups and high price tags, so it becomes important to figure out how to cram those guys into your lineups. That’s where we step in with our weekly daily fantasy football dumpster dives article. The players in this article aren’t necessarily the cheapest at the position but do provide for inexpensive alternatives for more expensive players to get the true superstars into your lineups.
Daily Fantasy Football Dumpster Dive Quarterback (Fan Duel):
Ryan Tannehill versus Kansas City ($7,200)
I guess I’m all-in on Ryan Tannehill this week, given that he’s one of the faces of my QB Sleepers piece this week. Tannehill’s been legitimately good for fantasy football as the starting quarterback for the Titans, posting an average of 21.55 fantasy points per game for Tennessee, averaging 279 yards, two touchdowns and a pick in those games. As for his opponent, three out of the last four QBs to play the Chiefs walked away with three touchdowns in their ledger. The one that didn’t hurt his neck, threw a fit about his team, and his GM threw him on IR (Joe Flacco). This game has the third-highest over/under of the week, so it should be a shootout that Tannehill will benefit from.
Daily Fantasy Football Dumpster Dive Quarterback (Draft Kings):
Ryan Fitzpatrick at Indianapolis ($5,200)
First off, there’s a straight-up disrespectful price point of Baker Mayfield at $5,000 (the same as RGIII and Andy Dalton). Now that that’s out of the way, go for Ryan Fitzpatrick for a couple hundred bucks more. I wanted this to be Brian Hoyer, but he’s trending towards holding a clipboard as Jacoby Brissett recovers from his leg injury. This could potentially blow up in your face, given that it is, after all, Ryan Fitzpatrick. However, he’s thrown the ball over 100 times in his three starts with the Dolphins and is averaging 250/2/1 in his Miami starts. The Colts aren’t a great matchup on paper, but neither were the Jets, who he beat, and neither were the Bills, who he put up more fantasy points than the next two Buffalo opponents combined.
Daily Fantasy Football Dumpster Dive Running Back (Fan Duel)
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Daily Fantasy Football Dumpster Dive Running Back (Draft Kings)
Kareem Hunt ($4,500 on FD / $3,000 on DK)
Kareem Hunt gets the “free space” slot on both sites, as his price is literally as low as they can set it for both Fan Duel and Draft Kings. This makes sense. Hunt is coming back from suspension, and he is running behind one of the best running backs in football. Don’t forget, though, that this is Kareem Hunt we are talking about here. Top-flight fantasy football running back with Kansas City Kareem Hunt. There’s also the issue of Nick Chubb’s snaps. Over the last two contests, he’s played in just 65% and 60% of snaps, after topping 83% of snaps in three of his last four games. He’d been a workhorse all year, and it’s curious if the Browns are downshifting him for load management reasons to make sure they don’t blow him out.
Hunt will get 10-15 touches against a run defense that was gashed by Adrian Peterson last week. Adrian Peterson. In 2019. The Bills have allowed the sixth-most fantasy football points to running backs in the last three weeks, and have allowed the fifth-most yards RB yards over the last three weeks (164 yards per game).
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive Wide Receiver (Fan Duel):
Marquise Brown at Cincinnati ($5,300)
Marquise Brown missed two weeks and was eased back into the lineup last week against the Patriots (playing just 58% of snaps) in his first game back from injury. Prior to his ankle injury, he was playing in 73% of snaps, so it was a huge drop. On the season, Marquise Brown averages over 16 yards per reception, and only two teams allow more 20+ yard receptions per game than the Bengals, who are truly dreadful on defense. The Bengals are also starting Ryan Finley, so they may just be truly awful overall. This is going to be a boat race, and Marquise Brown will help captain that ship.
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive Wide Receiver (Draft Kings):
Ted Ginn Jr. versus Atlanta ($3,700)
It’s all there for Ted Ginn to have a monster game in week ten against the division-rival Falcons. He’s at home, on the fast track. Drew Brees is coming off the bye, which means another week for his hand to heal. The last time Ted Ginn had a fully healthy Drew Brees, he went off for over 100 yards. And he gets the Falcons. Oh, the Falcons. Atlanta allows the second-highest net yards gained per pass attempt in the league, and over 52% of Atlanta Falcons defensive drives end in points for the opposing team. Also, they allow four 20+ yard passes per game, which is the eighth-highest number in the league. Atlanta is terrible on defense, and really, really bad against opponents passing deep against them. Ted Ginn is almost universally available and has a chance to blow the doors off against the Falcons.
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive Tight End (Fan Duel):
Chris Herndon versus N.Y. Giants ($5,000)
It looks like Chris Herndon might finally make his debut. Like, for realsies this time. No takebacks. On paper, the Giants look like a bad matchup for tight ends, but it’s just that nobody throw to tight ends against them. Before Jason Witten’s nine targets, the tight ends in weeks six, seven, and eight combined for ten targets.
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive Tight End (Draft Kings):
Mike Gesicki at Indianapolis ($3,100)
Faith is a funny thing. Sometimes you lose it for strange reasons. Sometimes, though, you come to your senses and realize that you ranked a Miami Dolphins Tight End as a top-ten fantasy football TE in the preseason. I’m not saying I did that. I’m just saying, I know a guy… who knows a gu—okay, I did that. But now Mike Gesicki is back, in default second offensive option form! The running game is dead, with Kenyan Drake traded, Mark Walton suspended, and Kalen Ballage putting up this type of game tape. Preston Williams was too good to stay alive, so he hit the IR, and that pretty much leaves DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki. It’s appropriate that the Dolphins play in Hard Rock Stadium because it’ll be time to rock & roll with Gesicki on Sunday.
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive D/ST (Fan Duel):
Cleveland at Buffalo ($3,500)
I’m going back to the well after the Browns disappointed me last week against the Broncos. I expected a ton of sacs and turnovers, but the Browns and Broncos provided me with very few of both last week. Don’t worry though. This week. This week, it’ll be different. The Browns can’t hurt me this week, like they did last week… This week, they get Buffalo, who’s been a top-ten fantasy football matchup for opposing D/STs. They beat up on Washington and Miami in two of the last three weeks, but the Eagles got to Josh Allen to the tune of 13 fantasy points. Tennessee and New England combined to score 37 fantasy points against them. There are fantasy points to be had in this matchup, if just Cleveland can be competent for like 30 seconds… Oh wait. There’s the problem.
Daily Fantasy Football Deep Dive D/ST (Draft Kings):
Pittsburgh versus L.A. Rams ($2,600)
This doesn’t look like the best matchup on paper for the Steelers, especially when you consider the last two DSTs that played the Rams combined to score -1 fantasy point. That’s… not great. Do you know what else isn’t great? The teams that played the Rams last. It was the Steelers and the Falcons who combined to allow 54 points without registering a sack, safety, turnover, blocked kick, or touchdown. That is just… wildly impressive. The Niners scored 11 against them in week six, and Tampa Bay and Cleveland scored 19 and 12, respectively. The Steelers have scored at least 14 fantasy points in every single game since snagging Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins.
(Header Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Smith_(American_football)#/media/File:Steelers_defense.jpg under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
