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Quarterback & Tight End Streamers: Week 11

Quarterback & Tight End Streamers: Week 11

When Derek Carr is the second most accurate passer in the league on the worst team, and Matt Barkley kills the New York Jets on a night everyone is touting the Jets’ DST, then you know that this year is special and unpredictable. When the Pats get lambasted by the Titans and the Browns trounce the Falcons, we look at one another with a dumbfounded look of confusion that is illustrated in our shoulder shrug of surprise. Dallas’ offense reigned supreme over the Super Bowl Champs even with the addition of Golden Tate, the Jags allowed 29 points in one half of football, and the Washington Redskins are leaders in the NFC East despite having an anemic offense.

What do we do? Well, you just take it all in. You can’t begin to understand it. Nothing makes sense. We are not here. We are not real. Pinch me.

Dez Bryant signed with the Saints and looked to be on his way to finally getting the chance to prove his worth at 30 as well as gun for a ring, and then he tore his Achilles during his first practice after waiting for months on end with silly drama. Speaking of drama, Le’Veon Bell looks like he will not play. I always knew it — his little media circus of cryptic tweets has always been intentional — he knew he was never going to step on the field in 2018. But will he really get the last laugh? Eric Ebron is now tied for the second-most touchdowns (nine) in the entire league — only Antonio Brown has more.

Speaking of Brown, he isn’t even the lead wide receiver in total yards on his own team. Wow, man. Take it all in. It’s strange, bizarre, nerve-wracking, and cool. It makes no sense, but it is happening. Just go with the flow, I say.

After my great take on Baker Mayfield who finally had his breakout performance, it is now time to look ahead. With success comes disappointment. He is no longer available to stream now that he’s owned in too many leagues. There is still hope at the quarterback position when it comes down to streaming in Week 11.

Tight ends? Still a blind dart throw of disgust. But as determined fantasy players, we soldier on with the hope that this week will indeed be our week.

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Quarterback Streamer of the Week: Marcus Mariota (TEN) at Indianapolis Colts
Mariota went on the road two weeks ago and beat the Cowboys, who up until that time had a perfect record at AT&T stadium. He looked like the Mariota everyone thought he was going to be this year. Just this past week, he continued to ride the wave of production and annihilated Tom Brady and the oft-Super Bowl contenders. Tennesee has been streaky this season since their opening loss to the Miami Dolphins. After that game, they won three in a row, then lost three in a row, and now are hoping to win three in a row again. I think they have a great chance.

Indianapolis has also been an unpredictable and streaky team. They are riding a three-game win streak after losing four games in a row. Last week they beat the Jags, making their defense (especially in the first half) look like a shadow of its former self. The Jags currently sit in the basement with Houston on top, but both Tennessee and Indy are within striking range; therefore, this game is pivotal.

No matter what the outcome is, this game is surely going to be full of excitement as well as fantasy relevance. Tennessee has a great defense that stymied the Patriots, but Andrew Luck seems to be immune to any matchup. I see this game as a close one with a lot of fantasy potential for both quarterbacks.

Mariota has been himself in the past three games, throwing for well over 200 yards. He’s also been throwing touchdowns as well as running with the ball when he needs to. In the previous six games, Mariota only threw for over 200 yards once. The reason for this turnaround is Mariota is now fully healthy.

When he has time, he can be as dangerous as anyone. In the past three games, he has only been sacked eight times. That might seem a lot, but he was sacked 11 times by Baltimore when they were shutout earlier in the season. Now that he has more time, Mariota is more accurate and now faces a team that is in the bottom half in sacks and gives up the 10th-most yards per game to quarterbacks. Corey Davis is heating up, Jonnu Smith is emerging, and both Titans running backs are starting to live up to their preseason hype. Mariota, who is only 30% owned in Yahoo, is ready to push his team into the playoffs.

Dak Prescott (DAL) at Atlanta Falcons
Let the Konami Code continue. Another dual threat at quarterback who is starting to slowly get his mojo back is Prescott. Amari Cooper has been a great addition to the Dallas Cowboys’ attack, not because they finally have a WR1, but because he opens up the game for everyone else. Ezekiel Elliott dominated the Eagles’ staunch running defense last week, which freed Prescott and the rest of the team. The Cowboys had no problem on offense against a good Philadelphia defense, especially in the second half. Now they get Atlanta, who could not find an answer for the Browns in Week 10.

This is such an important game for Dallas because (like Tennessee), they see themselves in a division that is up for grabs. Washington leads the way, but many can argue that both Dallas and Philadelphia are better teams. Now that the Cowboys are in it to win it, they have a spark lit under them. Look for Prescott to have a solid day of passing against a Falcons’ team trending in the wrong direction and looking more and more out of the playoff hunt. Deion Jones, linebacker for the Falcons, is back so he could be a significant roadblock. That being said, this one could be the highest-scoring game Dallas has this year, which is enticing for fantasy owners to pick up the 35%-owned Mr.Prescott.

Dark Horse: Blake Bortles (JAC) at Pittsburgh Steelers
I am sure many have now written off the Jaguars, but remember that the Houston Texans started the year 0-3 and now sit atop the AFC South after winning six in a row. Jacksonville now has Leonard Fournette back to stabilize the offense. Even if that all goes pear-shaped and the Jags find themselves in a deep, dark hole by halftime against Pittsburgh, you can depend on Bortles to feast in garbage time.

It is always tough to trust the 22%-owned Bortles consistently, but the Steelers’ defense is still in the bottom half of the league. The Steelers’ offense is on fire, which makes this game a potential bonanza. Remember the playoffs last year when Jacksonville beat the Steelers? 87 points were scored in that game. It is always good to temper expectations so don’t expect a barnburner like that, but it wouldn’t be crazy to assume that the score will be higher rather than lower.

Fournette might vulture some of the touchdowns, but don’t be surprised if Bortles scores above 20 fantasy points in this game. He has a solid wide receiving corps to target and never underestimate Bortles’ legs. He will run with the ball if he has to and sometimes will run into the end zone himself. Jacksonville might be down, but the team hasn’t given up just yet.

Keep your eye on Josh Rosen (ARI) vs. Oakland Raiders
Josh Rosen has a great matchup against the tanking Oakland Raiders. He has not been particularly great, but he has been improving under Byron Leftwich each week. Leftwich is making David Johnson better, which essentially makes everyone better on the Cardinals offense.

Rosen also has a pretty nice schedule moving into the playoffs. If he gets his breakout game against the Raiders, then he might be worth adding going forward. When momentum begins, just get on it and ride it out.

Tight End Streamer of the Week: Jeff Heuerman (DEN) at Los Angeles Chargers
As usual, the tight end choice is not as appealing as the quarterback choices this week, but there are some players that do bring some sense of promise. One just so happens to be my tight end streamer of the week, Jeff Heuerman, who is only 5% owned. So why is his ownership so low you may ask? After putting up epic numbers in Week 9, Heuerman sat out the next week because it was a bye. People forgot about his 10 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown against a Houston team that only allowed Denver to score 17 points.

Not many tight ends outside the top-three can say they’ve had a game like that. Now, granted, he hasn’t had a game like that before, so the chances of him repeating that great performance are slim. But one can’t be too choosey this time of the season with only a few stragglers left. Denver does have a sweet schedule moving forward, which does bode well for both Keenum and Heuerman. This could be their toughest matchup in the remainder of their schedule, so if he can come close to what he did two weeks ago, he might be worth a spot on your roster going forward.

Again, at this point of the season, we are really looking forward to someone that can ultimately get you 10 points. If Heuerman has found a groove with Keenum, then maybe he could generate more.

Ricky Seals-Jones (ARI) vs. Oakland Raiders
Oh no. Here it comes again. Falling for RSJ in yet another week. I’ve been good lately. I haven’t talked about him in a long while. I was super high on him as a breakout candidate, but RSJ has been as exciting as the entire Arizona Cardinals offense in 2018.

However, one must be optimistic. Leftwich seems to know what he is doing. He’s utilizing David Johnson more often and more effectively. He’s involved Larry Fitzgerald a little more each game and this past week, in particular, has reanimated the corpse formerly known as RSJ. In Week 10, he had his best game to date, which isn’t saying too much. However, his five catches for 51 yards was second best on the team. He also had nine targets, which is encouraging. But I know. I have fallen for this before. It is true that RSJ hasn’t put two consecutive games together that have been fantasy worthy so why now?

Like I said before, the OC is better, and the Oakland Raiders are trying their best not to win games. Arizona is at home, which bodes well for them because Oakland has not won on the road yet and does not seem interested in reversing that trend anytime soon. If you still aren’t convinced, I get it. But if he does it again, definitely believe he intends to finish the season as he did in 2017. Let’s just hope he can also find the end zone. Nothing would excite this RSJ truther more than that.

Dark Horse: Jonnu Smith (TEN) at Indianapolis Colts
Smith looked so enticing at the beginning of the season when Delanie Walker went down and was ruled out for the rest of the season. However, Smith has been a disappointment similar to Mariota. It’s interesting to note that now Mariota has finally been healthy and productive, Smith has too. Coincidence? I think yes.

As Mariota ascends, so does Smith. Therefore, against an improved yet fallible defense like Indy, look for Smith to continue to get more involved, hence more fantasy points. He might turn out to be what we’ve hoped and expected from David Njoku all season. If that is the case, then take a chance and pick Smith up — he could work out for you rest of season. Let’s just hope he gets more targets because when he gets the ball, he does a lot with it.

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Marc Mathyk is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Marc, check out his archive and follow him @Masterjune70.

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