Week 10 is wrapping up and chaos rolls on. Backfields continue to turn over and the new realities the NFL reveals constantly remind us not to cling to our conceived notions. It's a reminder that pain is always present in the joy that is fantasy football. Now we must look forward to options to assist in beefing up our fake teams to move forward, whether it be long-term replacements or a streamer just to get by.
It's just those sort of symptoms that the Deep Dive is prescribed to help alleviate. NFL Fantasy's editorial overlord Alex Gelhar dutifully attacks the waiver wire to give you the top adds for the coming week in hopes of bolstering your roster. However, in this arena, we'll look at options to help those of you looking to go a little bit further down the rabbit hole, whether you play in a deeper format or are at the mercy of your incredibly sharp league-mates who scour the waiver wire relentlessly. A player can only qualify for the deep dive if they're owned in less than 10 percent of NFL.com leagues. With that, here are 11 players you can consider adding before Week 11 either as deep FLEX plays or simply as bench stashes.
Jay Cutler posted easily his best game of the season in a soft matchup against the
Raiders in Week 9, completing 81 percent of his throws and chucking three scores. He has a shot for a similar line against the
Buccaneers in Week 11. Tampa Bay sports the 31st ranked pass defense in Football Outsiders' DVOA and has allowed an NFL-high 127 catches to wide receivers this season. Cutler's underrated corps of
DeVante Parker,
Jarvis Landry and
Kenny Stills is healthy and rounding into shape just in time for a strong home matchup in Week 11.
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If Case Keenum retains the starting job, he makes for a solid play against the Rams in Week 11. Minnesota and Los Angeles feature two of the hottest offenses right now, combining for 71 points in Week 10. If the two teams engage in a shootout, Keenum could access a ceiling as a streamer. He has a combined six touchdowns over his last two starts. While the Rams feature a ferocious pass rush, Keenum has been excellent when under pressure over the Vikings' previous two games with a 116.2 passer rating, per Next Gen Stats.
In the Cowboys first game without Ezekiel Elliott, Alfred Morris handled 73 percent of the running back carries. That left just three carries for Rod Smith, however, his passing game usage was notable. Smith was the only running back to catch a pass, snagging four of his six targets for 15 yards. With the Cowboys in a negative game script for most of the afternoon, Smith led the backfield by going out for 63 percent of the team's plays. He is a much bigger factor than Darren McFadden, who saw just one snap.
Pete Carroll indicated there is a chance rookie Chris Carson could return in December. He's currently on Injured Reserve with a broken leg. Additionally, his 208 rushing yards still leads all Seattle backs on the season despite not playing since Week 4. Carson is a longshot add but fantasy gamers should at least keep an eye on this situation. The Seahawks are a top offense and Carson is the only back who has strung together any successful rushing performances for them this season.
Devonta Freeman is unlikely to play in Week 11 and could
miss multiple games after suffering his second concussion this season.
Tevin Coleman will naturally see a big bump in opportunity but deep league players should consider monitoring
Terron Ward, who has been the No. 3 back there the last few seasons. Ward saw nine carries in Week 10 when Freeman went down in his first action of 2017. The
Falcons are a top-10 offense in yards per play (6.1) and percentage of drives that end in a score (39.8 percent) and are still a solid unit, even if they aren't close to last year's pace. If something happens to Coleman while Freeman is out, Ward would be an enticing play in this scoring attack.
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The Steelers continue to saddle Le'Veon Bell with an enormous workload. He cleared 25 touches for the sixth-straight game in Week 10. James Conner remains a name to add just in case Bell crumbles under the weight of that massive volume and must miss games during the fantasy stretch run.
The Chiefs return from their bye here in Week 11. We can now add Charcandrick West to the group of backup running backs to stash for playoff runs in the event something happens to the starter on their team. Kansas City ranks second in Football Outsiders' offensive DVOA. It doesn't matter what you think of Charcandrick West's ability. If he inherits a 15-plus touches workload in the event of a Kareem Hunt injury, he would be a fantasy RB2, at worst.
The rookie back went out for two more plays than Bilal Powell (33 to 31) in Week 10 with Matt Forte on the sideline. He also led the backfield with 12 touches to 11 for Powell. At best, this is a straight committee between the two backs and McGuire has proved an explosive change of pace. Forte may miss multiple weeks with his injury, so you can add McGuire for some usable production here in the last stretch of bye weeks.
The Eagles come off their bye week to face the division-rival Dallas Cowboys. Mack Hollins' snap share was trending up in the three games before the team's week off, with 12.3, 25.7 and 43.5 percent in Weeks 7 to 9. The team may well look to install more plays for their talented rookie wideout during the bye. With Carson Wentz operating this Eagles offense at an MVP-type level, we should be interested in every piece of it.
If you have the leftover roster space and you're all but certain to slide into your league's playoffs, fine, go ahead and do it. If you're below .500, you're just trying too hard and wasting everyone's time. Josh Gordon can return to the Browns active roster in Week 13. Corey Coleman is more likely to make an impact, however, and Gordon is nothing more than a Hail Mary longshot. Still, it's clear the Browns need some sort of spark on offense.
The Browns have given up the second-most touchdowns to tight ends this season with seven. For goodness sake, even Eric Ebron added to that total last week. Marcedes Lewis draws Cleveland this week and has demonstrated some big-game ability when the matchup is right, stinging Baltimore for 62 yards and three scores in London and dropping his fourth touchdown of the year on the Colts. It's a super thin play, but with Travis Kelce playing the Giants this week, we need some sort of possible layup streamer.
Matt Harmon is a writer/editor for NFL.com, and the creator of #ReceptionPerception, who you can follow on Twitter @MattHarmon_BYB or like on Facebook.