Giants-Patriots tops Week 10 Fantasy Football Power Rankings

Let’s put a fantasy spin on the this week’s action by ranking the games in expected order of point-producing relevance using the over/under totals from Las Vegas, specifically as listed at VegasInsider.com. 

Note: Dollar values in parentheses denote a player's current week price in the Yahoo Daily Fantasy game. It is displayed for point of reference.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: First place wins $100K in our $500K contest for Week 10]

1. Patriots at Giants, Sunday, 4:25 p.m., O/U 54: Eli Manning ($42) may be overrated because of his two Super Bowl wins over the Patriots, each in the last four-year cycles when they faced New England in the regular season, but he’s not afraid. That’s his greatest strength in spots like this and it’s his greatest weakness because it leads him to throw too many picks. But his teammates will feed off of his fearlessness in this spot. And don’t kid yourself: A big factor in the Patriots’ historic dominance in the NFL is their championship aura. Remember, “Every battle is won or lost before it’s fought.” Expect a shootout. The Giants will figure out a way to make this game winnable late. 

2. Saints at Redskins, Sunday, 1 p.m. O/U 50: You want to fade the New Orleans defense. So Kirk Cousins ($34) is a good play here. It’s hard to project his receivers though beyond tight end Jordan Reed ($23), a must play. Drew Brees ($43) is the same as he ever was: the highest floor player in the history of fantasy football. He is going to go over 30 TD passes for the eighth straight year. And in that period he’s averaged an absurd 40 attempts and 316 passing yards PER GAME.

3. Dolphins at Eagles, Sunday, 1 p.m. O/U 49: The Dolphins could not stop the run last week but the Eagles refuse to deploy the far superior Ryan Mathews ($17, 6.1 per carry), opting for high-priced free-agent DeMarco Murray ($30, 3.7). This is unconscionable. It’s not like I’m citing an obscure stat. I have no faith in Sam Bradford ($29), who can’t build any momentum in the passing game. It’s all stops and starts. Chip Kelly is overrated. The Eagles defense is actually their strength. I’d avoid the Dolphins here despite the high game total. Ryan Tannehill ($35) does well against the NFC of late if you want to hang your hat on that. 

4. Lions at Packers, Sunday, 1 p.m., O/U 48: My buddy Davis Mattek raised a great point on the Rotowire show on Sirius when he noted that the Lions want to turn Matthew Stafford ($31) into a pinpoint game manager when his strength is chucking and ducking to Megatron ($31). The Packers have benched perhaps the biggest running back bust in NFL history, Eddie Lacy ($24), see my Wall Street Journal piece. Lacy says he can’t figure out the problem but obviously only needs to take off his shirt and look in the mirror. The Packers have no downfield passing game anymore outside the numbers, which is their biggest issue on offense at the moment. 

[Week 10 rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Receiver | Tight End | Flex | All Positions]

Middle Ground

5.Texans at Bengals, Monday, 8:30 p.m., O/U 47.5: This line looks light. I expect a 14-point Cincy margin so that makes the implied Bengals point total about 32. This seems like a Gio Bernard ($28) game but who knows. You like either Cincy RB in yearly but in daily they are very tough to play. Brian Hoyer ($32) is hot, throwing for 2-plus TDs in a team record five-straight games.

6. Jaguars at Ravens, Sunday, 1 p.m., O/U 47.5: I’m going out on a limb and recommending Chris Givens ($11) here. The opportunity is there and Givens has had some NFL success, is very fast and was very productive in the ACC. At Wake Forest he posted numbers similar to Sammy Watkins (who played in the same conference for a much better team, Clemson). 

7. Cardinals at Seahawks, Sunday, 8:30 p.m., O/U 47.5: Russell Wilson ($32) has been a fantasy disappointment. Seattle does not seem to like touchdowns. The receiving weapons are almost Carolina-like in their ineptitude, and that includes the insanely overrated Jimmy Graham ($19), who I hated in the summer, too. But this is a tough spot for Carson Palmer ($39) and company. Stay away from all Cardinals.

8. Panthers at Titans, Sunday, 1 p.m., O/U 44: This is easy. Play Cam Newton ($37) and Greg Olsen ($22). Everyone else gets red-lined.

9. Vikings at Raiders, Sunday, 4:05 p.m., O/U 44: Fellow Yahoo scribe Scott Pianowski and I both hate the Vikings relative to their 6-2 record and also talked very extensively (and precisely) about what we think the future holds for Derek Carr ($40) on The Breakfast Table Fantasy Football Podcast. Don’t be afraid of playing your normal Raiders because Minnesota’s defensive ratings are built primarily on a soft schedule.

Defensive battles

10. Cowboys at Buccaneers, Sunday 1 p.m., O/U 43.5: Our long national nightmare watching non-Tony Romo Dallas quarterbacks is almost over. Yeah, Matt Cassel ($22) wasn’t that bad last week. I call that a fluke. Mike Evans ($24) dropped about a half dozen passes last week and still had a great day.

11. Bears at Rams, Sunday, 1 p.m., O/U 42.5: So I see Alshon Jeffery ($31) is hurt again (throws phone). 

12. Chiefs at Broncos, Sunday, 4:25 p.m., O/U 42: Man, when has a Peyton Manning ($31) game had a total this low? But Manning is battling a foot injury that’s not helped by the Broncos’ brilliantly featuring him in a pistol/bootleg offense. Why are coaches so stubborn?

13. Browns at Steelers, Sunday, 1 p.m., O/U 41.5: The QB injuries this year are insane. I can’t see Landry Jones ($27) generating any significant points even against a subpar Cleveland defense. But he has hit Antonio Brown ($36) for about 200 yards of passes in his last four quarters plus four minutes.