Polarizing Fantasy Players: Week 10

Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall-of-Famer Bob Harris and Gary Davenport have well over 40 years of experience as fantasy football analysts and three Football Writer of the Year Awards between them. They know their stuff—or at least that's what they tell themselves.

Each week during the 2024 season, Harris and Davenport are going to come together here at Footballguys to discuss some of that week's most polarizing fantasy options.

After nine weeks, the fantasy season is more than halfway over. With just a handful of games left in the regular season, there's that much more pressure with each passing week. To know which under-the-radar players could go off in Week 10. Who could carry managers from the stretch run into the playoffs. And how to deal with the ever-growing number of injured players.

This week's column starts with that last part—and an injury in Big D that could impact any number of players moving forward.

Texas-Sized Trouble

The Dallas Cowboys haven't had the best of seasons—and now quarterback Dak Prescott is out indefinitely. Are any of Jerruh's Guys worth a start if they aren't CeeDee Lamb? Is Lamb a late buy or sell?

Harris: Considering tight end is a barren wasteland with just a few consistent fantasy options, it's not hard to imagine managers seeing Jake Ferguson as a viable option. I would like to remind them that in five starts in 2022, Cooper Rush completed 15 passes to his tight ends. Ferguson, who caught seven of those passes, was one of four players at the position in Dallas that season. Dalton Schultz, Peyton Hendershot, and Sean McKeon were the others. I would recommend tempering expectations, but again, it's tight end. I won't judge if you must roll Ferguson out as your starter.

Beyond that, Lamb is the only other startable commodity here.

He was WR9 over the five games Rush started in 2022, pulling in 31 passes for 380 yards with two touchdowns. He's probably a hold for me if I'm already rostering him. Nobody is going to pay up to land Lamb. If I were confident Prescott would return for my fantasy playoffs, I would consider taking a chance on buying -- at the right price. But it's a gamble, given the current circumstances. Lamb averaged 16.5 fantasy points per game in those five games with Rush. He had a pair of WR8 outings. His other three finishes were WR24, 41, and 30.

Davenport: Not much to argue with about that answer. Lamb would be almost impossible to obtain at a reasonable price, even if Prescott is ruled out for the season tomorrow. He was the first overall pick in some drafts. Managers with that kind of draft capital invested in a player aren't selling for anything less than retail.

Some fantasy managers may look at Rico Dowdle's 107-yard effort a week ago against the Falcons as a beacon of hope. And to be fair, at this point, the Cowboys would be best served to just make Dowdle the guy—Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott are cooked.

But unless Rush gives opposing defenses a reason to fear him, Dowdle and the Cowboys are about to see a lot of eight-man fronts and cheating safeties moving forward. That's not going to make it easy for the NFC's worst run game to maintain momentum. Neither will playing from behind.

Dallas is done. So are all their fantasy options but Lamb.

Second-Half Star at QB

For much of the 2024 fantasy season, the quarterback position has been a lot less predictable than expected, although it appears to be settling in. Assuming it is, which QB in the back half of the top 25 has the best chance of crashing the party ahead of them?

You can have No. 13, too.

Harris: It will be lucky No. 13 for me. Daniel Jones of the New York Giants, come on down. Looking at the weekly finishes this year, Jones has delivered QB1 numbers four times. I should acknowledge the other five games haven't been great. His best finish in those is QB24. But he gets the Panthers this week, and Carolina's defense ranks 27th against the pass with 18 touchdown passes versus just three interceptions. Four quarterbacks posted top 12 weekly finishes against this defense in the past six weeks, including a 29.7-point outing to Bo Nix and 19.5 points for the Commanders' Marcus Mariota, who took over for an injured Jayden Daniels in the first quarter of Week 7.

Davenport: I'm going to go with a player who was considered a potential fantasy star not that long ago in Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers. The first month of the Jim Harbaugh era in Los Angeles wasn't great for Herbert—the Bolts won with the run game and defense, but Herbert's numbers were—let's go with unimpressive.

It has been a different story of late though—Herbert has thrown for over 275 yards in each of the last three games, and over the past month Herbert ranks eighth among quarterbacks in fantasy points. The pass-catchers in Los Angeles are better than we gave them credit for, and we know that Herbert can light up the box score.