Life comes at you fast: The fantasy football season is more than halfway done!

With that said, now is NOT the time to relax. Your family and friends will (probably) be waiting for you after Week 17. Do not get complacent! What will you remember more in 10 years: That fantasy championship banner, or your dickhead boss saying that you've done a better job than usual recently? That's what I thought!

All Drake and Josh'ing around aside: What follows are my abbreviated early PPR ranks along with some key questions and answers ahead of this week's slate of action. Check out our Fantasy Life Rankings for full ranks from our squad of alleged expert rankers (code "Ian" for 20% off!).

As always: It's a great day to be great.

Early Week 11 Fantasy Football Rankings

Quarterback

What QBs have the biggest Weeks 1-5 vs. Weeks 6-10 splits?

As Nathaniel Hawthorne once said: Families (QBs) are always rising and falling in America (sorry, I don't know any Shakespeare). But yeah: Few finely tuned athletic machines are great enough to produce elite results over the entire course of a 17-game regular season, so it's good to check in on the position from time to time to see exactly who is in the middle of a hot or cold streak.

Two QBs have really seen their fantasy numbers take a turn for the worst during the last five weeks after rather blistering starts to the season:

• Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield: While Sunday's 3-TD performance was a step in the right direction, Mayfield is still averaging just 14.4 fantasy points per game during the last five weeks compared to 21.1 during his first five games of the season. A large part of the problem has been the newfound lack of a rushing floor: Mayfield hasn't registered a single rush attempt across his last three contests–don't be surprised come January if we find out the severity of the knee/oblique issues listed on the injury report over the last few weeks are more severe than we realize.
• Jets QB Justin Fields: Things haven't been pretty here all season, but Fields did manage to produce three top-7 fantasy finishes across the first five weeks of the year. Unfortunately, miserable passing efficiency, good-not-great rushing numbers, and a mid-game benching have largely nose-dived his numbers ever since. I can't overstate how rough of a passing performance last week was (this passing chart is NSFW), but at the same time, what's the point of having Fields under center in a game that barely featured Garrett Wilson (knee) if you're only going to scheme up *three* total designed QB runs across 60 minutes of football?

The clear-cut three largest improvers have more so gotten their boost in fantasy points due to newfound opportunity: Each of Jaxson Dart (22.9 fantasy points per game in Weeks 6-10), Joe Flacco (24.9) and Jacoby Brissett (21.2) have made the most out of their newfound starting jobs and have undoubtedly helped ease the tides of many fantasy squads.

Still, it's Chargers QB Justin Herbert who has really managed to take his game to another level in recent weeks. He was fine in Weeks 1-5 on his way to averaging 17.7 fantasy points per game (QB17). But since? We're looking at the QB4 here (22.9), as Herbert has managed to outscore guys like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen during the last five weeks of action.

There have been two big reasons for this jump:

1. The Chargers have suffered a myriad of injuries across the offensive line and in their RB room, resulting in the offense largely flowing directly through Herbert more than ever before: Their +4% dropback rate over expected is the fourth-highest mark in the NFL through 10 weeks of action.
2. Herbert has been more willing to run than ever—his position-best 324 rushing yards are already a career-high mark!

Add it all together, and Herbert is averaging north of 20 fantasy points per game for the first time since 2021. Don't be surprised if the good times keep rolling on Sunday against a Jaguars defense that hilariously/sadly had few answers for the Davis Mills-led Texans down the stretch of their brutal Week 10 loss.

What offensive lines simply aren't giving their QB a chance?

Raw pressure and sack totals are often a sign of a bad offensive line, but the QB also plays a large part in the matter. For this reason, I like to look at the average time to throw alongside pressure rate to get a better idea of what QBs are potentially inflating their pressure numbers by not getting rid of the football sooner.

Some takeaways:

• While it'd be more ideal if teams like the Lions, Rams and Seahawks were dealing with a bit less pressure, they've certainly managed to largely get by just fine anyway.
• The Dolphins and Steelers do stand out as two offenses largely forced to get the ball out A$AP Rocky due to their respective QBs' inability to, you know, move. It's not surprising both Miami (6.9, 26th) and Pittsburgh (6.1, 32nd) are two of the league's bottom-7 teams in terms of average target depth.
• The Bengals, Panthers, 49ers and Saints have largely done a good job managing their respective offensive line problems by consistently getting the ball out quickly.
• The Bills, Eagles, Vikings, Patriots and Commanders have dual-threat QBs capable of extending plays, but this has been a bit of a double-edged sword due to the increased pressure at hand.
• The above point has been a bigger issue for J.J. McCarthy (26% pressure-to-sack rate), Drake Maye (25%) and Jalen Hurts (24%), who rank among the league's six worst QBs in letting pressured dropbacks turn into sacks.
• The Bears and Jets stand out as the offenses that are holding the ball all day, yet not facing much pressure.
• Obviously we haven't seen good results from the Justin Fields experience with this strategy, but Caleb Williams deserves credit for buying into Ben Johnson's system while also staying true to his wild-child playmaking gene. Williams' sack-avoid spin move might be the best the position has seen since prime Tony Romo–the man has been credited with 26 tackles avoided this season, nine more than the next-closest QB! Hell, Williams also has a league-best 15 tackles avoided on just pass plays AKA he's avoided more sacks than any QB in the league (shoutout to Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart for also appearing atop the leaderboard). There were some wildly awesome escape-artist moments on film last week in particular.

Quick hits

QB7 Jaxson Dart: Here's to hoping the electric rookie QB learns to take a bit better care of himself moving forward. Dart is currently in the concussion protocol and has been evaluated for a head injury on four separate occasions this year (including the preseason). Of course, that rushing upside is a helluva drug in fantasy land: No QB has more total fantasy points from rushing than Dart this season. Only Jonathan Taylor (12) and Josh Jacobs (8) have more rushing TDs than Dart (7) since Week 4! It remains to be seen if interim head coach Mike Kafka will be as willing as Brian Daboll to throw caution to the wind with the team's young QB.

QB11 Matthew Stafford: The 37-year-old gunslinger is on quite the heater at the moment with 20 TDs against *zero* INTs during his last six starts. The utter lack of a rushing floor makes for heightened bust potential in fantasy land, but it's hard to doubt Stafford at the moment with this passing game absolutely grooving.

QB13 Joe Flacco: Took over as the Bengals QB1 in Week 6 and has started four games since. The list of QBs averaging more fantasy points per game in this span: Jaxson Dart … and that's it! Up next is a Steelers defense that Flacco shredded for 342 yards and a trio of TDs less than a month ago. He probably won't stay this hot … right?

QB16 Aaron Rodgers: Old man Rodgers might be coming off one of the worst games of his career, but then again Rodgers is also on a few short weeks removed from lighting up the Bengals for 249 yards and four scores. The two biggest certainties that we have in this world at the moment are that the Bengals and Cowboys are horrendous on defense, so continuing to trust the QBs facing them seems like a good idea. Speaking of…

QB20 Geno Smith: Gets a chance to ball out against the Cowboys' sad, pathetic, horrific excuse for a professional defense. It's hard to overstate just how good they've made opposing QBs look: Basically nobody has busted against this group through nine weeks of action (they were on a bye in Week 10).

QBs to play a full game vs. the Cowboys this season:

• Russell Wilson: 450 yards-3 TD-1 INT
• Jordan Love: 337-3-0
• Caleb Williams: 298-4-0
• Justin Fields: 283-2-0
• Jacoby Brissett: 261-2-0
• Bo Nix: 247-4-1
• Bryce Young: 199-3-1
• Jalen Hurts: 152-0-0 (62 rush yards and 2 TD)

QB28 Bryce Young: Only Dillon Gabriel is averaging fewer yards per attempt than Young this season. He ranks dead last in career yards per attempt among 119 QBs with 1,000+ pass attempts since 2000. I bet you can guess the only defense that Young has averaged more than 6.6 yards per attempt against this season. The 2023 NFL Draft's No. 1 overall pick has cleared the 200-yard passing mark exactly one time this season. Truthfully the only thing Young has consistently done well this season is hand the ball off to Rico Dowdle.

Running Back

What RBs are getting the most screwed near the goal line?

Three top-36 fantasy RBs stick out as having some pretty rough luck around the goal line this season when it comes to getting the rock in the first place.

• Falcons RB Bijan Robinson: Yeah, working as the RB5 in PPR points per game is cool and all, but Robinson has gotten just two of the team's seven designed rush attempts inside the 5-yard line (29%). There are dozens of Berlin citizens who probably believe Tyler Allgeier is the better RB after witnessing last Sunday's utilization.
• Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker: Has just six of the offense's 19 rush attempts inside the 5-yard line this season (32%). Walker and Zach Charbonnet would be the RB5 in PPR points per game if they were one person, but they're not, so instead Walker is the RB29 and Charbonnet the RB30. F*ck, man.
• Bills RB James Cook: There have still been plenty of TDs to go around in the Bills' ever high-scoring offense, but yeah: Cook has earned just seven of the offense's 20 rush attempts near the goal line (35%). Unlike Bijan and Walker, the culprit here is actually Josh Allen, who is tied with Jonathan Taylor and Javonte Williams for the league lead in rushing scores from the 1-yard line (5).

What offensive lines continue to open up big-time holes for their RBs?

RB rush yards before contact do a good job of quantifying offensive line performance in the run game. It's not a perfect stat (what is?), but we do regularly see some of the league's best-schemed offenses—as well as those featuring a dual-threat QB—rank near the top of the metric's leaderboard.

The below chart denotes every team's rank in RB rush yards before contact per carry over the past five seasons.

Some takeaways:

• It's probably still underrated just how much of an impact the likes of Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen have on their offenses' respective run games.
• A similar sentiment is true for Justin Fields, although the Jets actually do deserve some credit for heavily investing in the offensive line in recent years.
• Shane Steichen is quickly climbing up the ranks of the best offensive-minded head coaches: He joins Dan Campbell, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid, Sean McVay and Sean Payton as coaches who have been a staple in this metric's top 10 over the years.
• Speaking of masterminds: The Bears ranking first following a 23rd-place finish last season speaks volumes to the impact that Ben Johnson has had on this offense. Da Bears boast the league's third-most efficient offense in EPA per rush since returning from their Week 5 bye.
• Also give the likes of Brian Schottenheimer and Nick Caley some kudos for turning around some previously dire rushing attacks.
• On the other side of things: The Browns, Buccaneers and Falcons stand out as three offenses that have really taken a step back in their ability to create rushing lanes for their RBs this season.

Who was *this* close to having a much bigger Week 10?

The following players were tackled at the one-yard line and did NOT score a TD on the same drive last week.

Players tackled at the one-yard line and did NOT score on the same drive:

• Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson (3x, same drive)
• Giants RB Devin Singletary
• Cardinals RB Bam Knight
• Cardinals RB Emari Demercado
• 49ers WR Deebo Samuel
• Ravens WR Rashod Bateman
• Colts WR Ashton Dulin
• Patriots QB Drake Maye
• Giants QB Russell Wilson
• Rams TE Colby Parkinson
• 49ers FB Kyle Juszczyk

While Henderson's trio of goal-line stuffs on the same drive were indeed annoying, give the rookie credit for not falling for the most fatal fantasy sin of them all: Going down at the one-yard line instead of scoring a TD. The rookie is somehow fast enough to literally check with his sideline to see if he should score or not! How fast is THAT fast? Well, Henderson is now responsible for the league's fifth-fastest ballcarrier speed of the season at 22.01 miles per hour. The only other players to eclipse 22 MPH this season: Jonathan Taylor, Jahmyr Gibbs and Brian Thomas Jr. I'd say the rookie is pretty fast!

Quick hits

RB8 Ashton Jeanty: The alleged generational rookie is on pace for 1,290 total yards and 13 TDs. I was surprised to see that latter number that high, too. Either way: Jeanty is the RB16 in PPR points per game ahead of a matchup against the Cowboys' aforementioned joke of a defense. It's possible the addition of Quinnen Williams and eventual return of DeMarvion Overshown helps matters, but I'll need to see it to believe it before treating this matchup as anything other than a smash spot.

RB11 Chase Brown: The essential game-long absence of Samaje Perine (ankle) in Week 9 opened the door for a familiar near every-down role for Brown. It's pretty much impossible to not return RB1 production with a snap rate north of 90%—there's potential here for Brown to repeat his second-half 2024 heroics down the stretch with the offense already grooving and with Joe Burrow (foot, IR) suddenly expected back by Thanksgiving.

RB15 Quinshon Judkins: Continues to get force fed the football, but man, it's been tough sledding in Cleveland in recent weeks. Our previous look at every team's RB rush yards before contact did in fact reveal that Cleveland is dead last in opening up lanes for their backs; either way it's been a tale of two halves for Judkins this season.

Judkins first-half vs. second-half splits:

• Weeks 1-5: 4.8 yards per carry (13/42), 15.5 PPR points per game (RB12)
• Weeks 6-10: 3.1 yards per carry (41/44), 11.3 PPR points per game (RB24)

RB17 Jaylen Warren: Warren's ridiculous hurdle on Sunday Night Football was another example of just how hard this man is to get to the ground. Overall, Warren's 31% tackles-avoided rate is good for the second-highest mark among 52 qualified RBs (shoutout Omarion Hampton). Warren is THE running back, y'all, in Pittsburgh, and he looks poised to return some serious production ahead of this tantalizing second-half schedule.

• Week 11 vs. Bengals: 32nd in PPR points per game allowed to opposing RBs
• Week 12 at Bears: 20th
• Week 13 vs. Bills: 27th
• Week 14 at Ravens: 25th
• Week 15: vs. Dolphins: 26th

RB18 Aaron Jones and RB39 Jordan Mason: This was profiling as a fairly evenly split two-back committee early in the season, but the first half of Week 9 and entirety of Week 10 have told a much different story: A-aron looks a lot like the Vikings' featured back at the moment.

RB24 J.K. Dobbins and RB37 RJ Harvey: Dobbins is clearly the lead back in Denver, but he suffered a foot injury last Thursday night that apparently was severe enough to warrant getting a second opinion from learned doctors. This could open the door for Harvey, who has been stuck with minimal touches inside an offense that also insists on keeping Tyler Badie involved. Fantasy football veterans know better than to assume anything when it comes to trying to predict Sean Payton's player usage; just realize Harvey has made the most out of his touches all season (position-best 1.33 PPR points per touch!). I'd be willing to fire up Harvey as a legit mid-tier RB2 alongside guys like Jaylen Warren and Aaron Jones should Dobbins be unable to suit up against the Chiefs.

RB27 Tyrone Tracy: Week 9 was annoying for anyone who spent significant FAAB on Tracy, but we actually got a glimmer of home in Week 10. Now, the firing of Brian Daboll and potential absence of Jaxson Dart (concussion) could very well make this offense a trainwreck ahead of Sunday's matchup with the Packers—I'm just saying there's at least a glimmer of hope here!

RB38 Blake Corum: I tiered up the best RB handcuffs in my Week 10 "10 things" article and came to the conclusion that Corum is one of the most-valuable handcuffs out there, yet continues to be pretty widely available at the moment (11% rostered on Yahoo, 8.5% on ESPN). Stash him if at all possible! Corum would immediately garner RB1 consideration should Kyren Williams win the lottery and decide to take the rest of the season off and/or get injured.

RB48 Brian Robinson: Basically everything I just said for Corum also applies for Robinson (24% rostered on Yahoo, 21% on ESPN). Don't expect B-Rob to come close to handling Christian McCaffrey's receiving workload, but Elijah Mitchell/Jordan Mason borderline RB1 production would certainly be on the table should disaster strike. Give Robinson credit for running hard all season long—he's averaging a career-best 4.9 yards per carry behind the same O-line that has helped contribute to a career-low 3.5 yards per carry mark from CMC.

Wide Receiver

What rookie WRs have been the most efficient with their opportunities?

The below chart denotes the yards and targets per route run from the 17 most-used rookie WRs:

Some notes:

• Emeka Egbuka is really good at football and rests as the WR9 in PPR points per game after 10 weeks of action. Hell yeah, brother.
• Tetairoa McMillan is also by all accounts very good, but unfortunately his pint-sized QB has a growing case as one of the bigger busts of the 21st century.
• Look at Luther Burden up there! The rookie simply moves different on the football field. From the routes, to the YAC: It'd be a lot cooler if Ben Johnson fully unleashed the talented second-rounder. Burden has literally been Caleb Williams' most-efficient target this season when it comes to passer rating when targeted.
• Jaylin Noel has also largely made plenty of good things happen when the ball has been thrown his way; too bad he's currently buried on the depth chart and ran the fifth most routes of any Texans WR last week.
• Did Travis Hunter (knee, IR) flash during the first nine weeks of the season? Yes. Was he also unusable in fantasy land aside from literally one big second half in a blowout loss? Also yes. I guess we'll never know if a big-time second half was coming, but it's funny to me that the same folks preaching that you must draft Hunter if you like winning all offseason seemingly just threw their hands up and said, "Man, injuries suck, I guess we'll never know what would have been." Anyways: Get better soon, Travis.
• I expected Patriots rookie WR Kyle Williams to pop if I lowered the target threshold low enough, but it was actually Panthers rookie Jimmy Horn Jr.! Now, much of Horn's usage has been of the gadgety variety, which tends to produce outliers in charts like these (i.e. Brashard Smith), but either way: Good for Jimmy!

Who left some serious meat on the bone in Week 10?

"Unrealized air yards" measure the total amount of air yards on incomplete targets. This helps identify players who had all sorts of fantasy-friendly downfield opportunities, but they simply couldn't come up with completions for one reason or another.

Anyway, 10 players had at least 80 unrealized air yards in Week 10:

• Vikings WR Justin Jefferson (197)
• Broncos WR Troy Franklin (135)
• Bills WR Keon Coleman (129)
• Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (112)
• Vikings WR Jordan Addison (100)
• Steelers WR DK Metcalf (92)
• Packers WR Christian Watson (89)
• Bears WR Rome Odunze (86)
• Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle (84)
• Falcons WR Darnell Mooney (80)

That Jefferson number truly is ridiculous: Nobody has had more unrealized air yards in a game this season, and it's the fourth-highest single-game mark since 2020! While it's easy to place all the blame on J.J. McCarthy—and he deserves plenty—note that Jettas did drop what should have been a 25-yard TD and just generally showed very uncharacteristic apathy on the field.

Good news: The Bears' 28th-ranked defense in PPR points per game allowed to WRs is up next. Talk about a well-timed bounce back spot!

Quick hits

WR10 Jaylen Waddle: The man has been absolutely balling ever since Tyreek Hill was lost for the season. Even his one down performance can mostly be explained away by some brutal Cleveland weather:

• Week 5: 6 receptions-110 yards-1 TD, half-PPR WR4
• Week 6: 6-95-0, WR17
• Week 7: 1-15-0, WR88
• Week 8: 5-99-1, WR4
• Week 9: 6-82-0, WR27
• Week 10: 5-84-1, WR11

WR19 Zay Flowers: Caught a TD on his sixth target of the season … and has since gone 60 consecutive targets without another score. And yet, Flowers has only finished worse than the WR32 on one occasion this season thanks to a newfound floor which has produced at least 4 receptions in eight of nine games. Perhaps Week 11 against a Browns defense he's hung 7-115-0 and 7-75-0 receiving lines against in his last two full matchups will finally be the day we spell redemption Z-a-y.

WR24 Stefon Diggs: Currently the WR35 in PPR points per game, which would mark the first time he's finished worse than the WR25 since Obama was in office. That said, Diggs has scored in three consecutive games and continues to largely still pass the eye test with flying colors. ESPN's "Open Score" meant to quantify separation ability had Diggs tied for third among all qualified WRs entering last week. Wheels up for Thursday night's matchup against the Sauce Gardner-less Jets.

WR31 Troy Franklin: Has 73 targets to Courtland Sutton's 66 this season. Of course, the latter has made far more out of the opportunities (590 vs. 425 yards), but yeah: Pretty wild! If only Franklin and his QB could connect on one of their deep bombs one of these days: Franklin has caught just 2 of his 25 targets (8%) thrown 30-plus yards downfield over the past two seasons—easily the worst mark in the league.

WR35 Deebo Samuel: Averaged 17.7 PPR points per game in Weeks 1-5 (WR8!) … and 8 PPR points per game since (WR57). Deebo has been on the injury report with a heel injury that sure looks like it has zapped some of the juice from the 29-year-old veteran. Ultimately, Samuel no longer has a weekly rushing floor and is averaging career-low marks in yards per reception (8.6) and targets (6.6) alike.

WR37 Parker Washington: Managed to reward his waiver wire investors with two scores last week, one of which came on an electric punt return. Washington now leads the league in punt return yards (266) and TDs (2) while continuing to put some fun routes on film. The eventual returns of the Jaguars' top-two WRs will cap the upside here, but for now he's earned top-40 treatment thanks to mostly simply being a baller.

WR44 Jerry Jeudy: We've ripped on Jeudy nearly every week this season for his NFL-high streak of targets without a TD—but not today! Shoutout to the ex-Bronco for finally hauling in his first score of the season on his way to a PPR WR11 finish. Jeudy's 19.8 PPR points marked the first time he scored even 12 all season. Should we expect the good times to keep on rolling in Week 11 against the Ravens' improved defense? No, no we should not.

Tight End

What teams, not players, have produced the most TE fantasy points?

This question was 1000% inspired by the Rams seemingly using 20 different TEs on their way to beating down the 49ers on Sunday.

Most team-wide TE PPR points per game:

1. Cardinals (27.3)
2. Packers (25)
3. Bills (24.1)
4. Browns (23.8)
5. Steelers (23.7)
6. 49ers (21.4)
7. Rams (21.2)
8. Cowboys (20.8)
9. Raiders (20)
10. Lions (19.7)

The Rams do, in fact, improve to second if we only look at the last five weeks, but the real hilarious part here is the Steelers ranking fifth despite not having a single TE ranked better than 29th in PPR points per game. Arthur Smith would assuredly find this to be awesome if he cared at all about fantasy football.

In each instance: It'd be a lot cooler if we had one featured option to lean into in fantasy land, but life isn't fair, so unfortunately we'll continue to largely focus on other options at a position that has annoyed roughly 11 out of every 12 fantasy managers this season (shoutout Trey McBride, though!).

Quick hits

TE1 Trey McBride: Has caught 5 TDs in four games with Jacoby Brissett under center. Note that McBride caught six TDs in 49 games during the 2022-24 seasons. I'd say he's benefiting from the QB change!

TE3 George Kittle: Caught all 9 of his targets for 84 yards and a ridiculously athletic score last week. Volume and pass-catching ability are obviously the only things we care about in fantasy land, but when looking at real-life ability: Kittle is my pick for Planet Earth's TE1 if the aliens invade the planet and force us to play a football game to determine the fate of humanity.

TE10 Mark Andrews: Has caught 16 TDs in his last 18 regular-season games with Lamar Jackson. It's a good thing too, because Andrews has gained 35 or more receiving yards in just one game all season.

TE11 Cade Otton: We've developed a fairly large sample at this point of Otton balling out without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin in action:

• Week 8, 2024: 9 receptions-81 yards-2 TD (10 targets), PPR TE1
• Week 9, 2024: 8-77-1 (11), TE3
• Week 10, 2024: 5-35-0 (8), TE16
• Week 6, 2025: 5-51-0 (6), TE17
• Week 7, 2025: 7-65-0 (9), TE11
• Week 8, 2025: 4-40-0 (5), TE15
• Week 10, 2025: 9-82-0 (12), TE6

TE21 Greg Dulcich: The ex-Bronco has only 6 receptions for 71-scoreless yards in three games with the Dolphins this season, but similar to Darren Waller, we have seen the usage trend in a very positive direction as he grows more comfortable in the offense. These Dolphins don't appear to be quitting on the season anytime soon, and there's room in this passing game for another high-ish end option alongside Waddle and Achane.

Join Our Newsletter

Trusted by 400,000+ fantasy football players. Get access to Fantasy Life's free award winning newsletter and tools, all in one step.

Email Address

Subscribe

By registering or logging in, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.