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SSSQ is a weekly look at under-the-radar fantasy players to consider starting and potential busts you should leave on your bench. We also identify breakout candidates to stash on your roster and players you can safely cut.
For the rest of your lineup decisions, consult our Week 10 rankings. You can also listen to the Week 10 preview episode of theScore Fantasy Football Podcast.
at Giants
It’s been an up-and-down season for Wentz, but coming off the Eagles’ bye week, his offense should be the healthiest it’s been all year with a full complement of weapons, including Miles Sanders, Dallas Goedert, Travis Fulgham, Jalen Reagor, and Alshon Jeffery.
Despite all the injuries that Philly has been dealt, Wentz is still averaging the 12th-most fantasy points among quarterbacks. He posted over 30 fantasy points in two of his last three outings, including one against the Giants, who he’ll face again this week.
Boone’s projection: 291 passing yards, 3 TDs, 19 rushing yards
Other QBs to start
at Browns
It’s still possible that David Johnson clears concussion protocol and suits up for Sunday’s game, but it’s seeming increasingly unlikely with each missed practice. That leaves Duke to handle the bulk of the Texans’ running back touches against his former team, the Browns.
After a strong start to the year, Cleveland’s run defense has sprung a leak, allowing at least 96 yards from scrimmage and/or a touchdown to seven different backs in the past five contests.
As we mentioned in Monday’s waiver wire column, Duke delivered 73 total yards and a score in relief duty last week and should see a similar workload as an RB2 in fantasy for this game.
Boone’s projection: 61 rushing yards, 34 receiving yards, TD
Other RBs to start
vs. Texans
With Odell Beckham Jr. out for the year, the Browns need Landry to re-emerge as their top receiver the rest of the way. That’s been difficult up to this point, as the 27-year-old has been playing through hip and rib injuries of his own. But after resting up during the Browns’ bye, we should get the healthiest version of Landry we’ve seen all year in a matchup he can capitalize on.
Houston has surrendered the seventh-most fantasy points to opposing wideouts, and its secondary has been annihilated by No. 1 receivers in the last two weeks.
Landry is a top-20 fantasy receiver this week and might sneak into that range on a regular basis if he’s back to 100 percent.
Boone’s projection: 89 receiving yards, TD
Other WRs to start
vs. Bengals
The Bengals are giving up the second-most fantasy points to tight ends – which helps Ebron‘s Week 10 projection – but it might not even matter at this point.
Ebron is becoming a matchup-proof fantasy starter in Pittsburgh.
The 27-year-old has at least 43 yards and/or a touchdown in every game since Week 2 and has been a top-12 fantasy tight end during that stretch. He’s also seen his playing time increase to over 80% of the team’s snaps in each of the last three contests.
Ebron deserves to be treated as a TE1 moving forward.
Boone’s projection: 57 receiving yards, TD
Other TEs to start
vs. Ravens
As fun as it was to watch Newton carve up the Jets’ defense Monday, it’s important to remember … it’s the Jets’ defense.
That was just the second time that Newton topped 200 passing yards in seven outings with the Patriots. And he’s only thrown two touchdown passes, both of which came in the opening three weeks of the season.
Though his rushing production has kept him afloat in fantasy, it’s hard to trust him in a tough matchup with the Ravens’ defense, which has held the last four opposing quarterbacks to 227 passing yards or fewer.
Find yourself a better streaming option this week.
Boone’s projection: 187 passing yards, 2 INTs, 39 rushing yards
Other QBs to sit
at Cardinals
It’s a repeat appearance for Singletary on the “Sit” list, and sadly, he’s inching closer to the “Quit” section.
Since Zack Moss returned to the lineup in Week 6, Singletary’s playing time has decreased every game as the rookie takes on a bigger workload.
After getting a season-low two carries in Week 9, there’s no reason to let Singletary anywhere near your starting lineup. He’ll need another injury to Moss in order to be fantasy relevant again in 2020.
Boone’s projection: 31 rushing yards, 19 receiving yards
Other RBs to sit
vs. Washington
Jones has been held to 43 yards or fewer in each of the past two games but managed to salvage his fantasy lines with three touchdowns during that span.
Unfortunately for him, Washington’s defense is allowing the fewest fantasy points to receivers and has conceded just three touchdowns to the position this year.
Due to the challenging matchup, Jones is a risky WR4 and better left on fantasy benches this week.
Boone’s projection: 44 receiving yards
Other WRs to sit
vs. Seahawks
For as thin as the tight end position has been in fantasy this year, you shouldn’t be desperate enough to consider using Higbee – even in a game that projects to be a shootout.
Higbee has been a nonfactor in the Rams’ passing attack aside from his three-touchdown outing in Week 2, managing over 50 yards in just one other game this season.
The Seahawks are also the sixth-hardest matchup for fantasy tight ends, further complicating his outlook.
To the 53% of fantasy managers still rostering Higbee entering Week 10, all we can do is ask … why?
Boone’s projection: 32 receiving yards
Other TEs to sit
With Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson sidelined, the Chargers’ backfield has become a real-life randomizer; the lead back has changed every single Sunday.
Kalen Ballage was the latest beneficiary, but he only got his opportunity because Pope (6% rostered) was out with a concussion. Pope has since cleared protocol and should return as the temporary starter until Jackson or Ekeler are healthy.
Prior to the concussion, Pope totaled 95 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches against the Broncos in Week 8.
As bye weeks pass and your bench spots free up, you’d be wise to fill them with high-upside backup running backs since their value gets the biggest boost when late-season injuries occur.
Josh Jacobs is healthy at the moment, but if he were to go down, Booker (2% rostered) would step into the starting role.
Booker has racked up over 60 rushing yards in two of his last four outings, including 68 yards and a score in Week 9.
Freeman (52% rostered) has missed the last two games with an ankle injury that he reportedly aggravated in Thursday’s practice, putting his Week 10 availability in doubt.
Even when he returns to the field, Freeman will be hard to trust behind a struggling Giants offensive line that has limited him to just 3.2 yards per carry this season.
Take a chance on someone with more upside.
While there are individual pieces of the Lions’ offense you’ll want to start, Stafford (63% rostered) isn’t one of them.
We’ve seen enough of a sample size to know the veteran passer simply doesn’t have the same ceiling when Kenny Golladay is out of the lineup.
In five of his next seven games, Stafford will face defenses that rank inside the top-10 in fewest fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks.
Source: – theScore
The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.
Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.
On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.
A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.
TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.
China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.
Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.
One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.
The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.
It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.
The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.
Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.
As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.
You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.
Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.
Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.
They picked money over fairness.
It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”
(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)
The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.
But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.
It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.
But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.
Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’
These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.
Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?
In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?
You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.
Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.
With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.
It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.
The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.
As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.
An American? Probably not.
An American everyone knows? Maybe.
A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.
This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?
Was it an alley-oop? A Hail Mary? A Jerry Rice post route? Catch and ReLeaf?
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Whatever it was, it was the goal Toronto Maple Leafs fans were waiting for.
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If the Leafs go on to beat the Boston Bruins and make it out of the first round for the second year in a row, fans will look back at Max Domi’s flip pass and Auston Matthews’ catch and finish as the moment it all became possible.
Matthews’ 70th goal of the season (69+1 if we’re splitting hairs) was maybe his finest.
The play: Incredible. The catch: Immaculate. The finish: Nasty. The timing: Perfect.
Social media had plenty to say about Monday’s game-winning goal, but first let’s listen to calls of the play from every corner of the playoff series:
Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada:
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Retiring voice of the Boston Bruins Jack Edwards:
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Of course, nothing can compare to Joe Bowen’s call on Toronto radio. Any Leafs moment isn’t complete until fans hear what the High Priest of Holy Mackinaw said, and he didn’t disappoint:
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It didn’t take long for Matthews’ game-winner to go viral across social media, with fans, media and ex-players weighing in on the incredible goal. The Leafs and Bruins resume their first round series on Wednesday in Toronto at 7 p.m.
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It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals. Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.
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But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.
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It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.
#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.
#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0.
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#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.
#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0.
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#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.
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#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.
#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.
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#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.
#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.
#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.
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#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0.
STAPLES: Big questions about Nurse-Ceci pairing
STAPLES: Hitting is way up in playoffs. Are Oilers up to it?
McCURDY: Kane, Janmark, Holloway all look good to go for Game One
McCURDY: Oilers vs. Kings anything but a foregone conclusion
STAPLES: Kane, Janmark missing from practice. What are the implications?
STAPLES: Pretty much every NHL commentator is picking Oilers over Kings
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