
Ian Hartitz breaks down the near-misses for NFL players who came oh so close to fantasy glory in Week 10, including Mike Evans and Tyler Boyd.

Week 10 has come and gone. Fourteen NFL games brought joy, laughs and tears to football fans and, of course, fantasy football faithful.
Today, we’ll focus on the latter sadness and break down just how close some came to achieving fantasy football glory.
What follows is a breakdown of all the “Sheesh” moments from Week 10. I’ve watched every game and combed play-by-play data to help determine instances when:
First, let’s break down three rather brutal drops that prevented six points from being put on the board.
There were three fairly clear-cut dropped TDs in Week 10, which sucks because, you know, football is pretty cool when players make great catches and score points.
Their subjective ranks in terms of sheesh-ness are as follows:
3. Titans TE Chigoziem Okonkwo (6-yard TD dropped)
The Will Levis bullet hit Chiggy right between the eyes before being batted up in the air and nearly intercepted. Luckily, DeAndre Hopkins put his cornerback hat on and managed to force an incompletion.
Special shoutout to Hopkins for then hilariously doing the DB seat belt celebration that all the kids seem to be doing these days. You know, the one where it looks like they are sheathing a sword? Good times, other than the dropped TD, of course.
2. Buccaneers WR Mike Evans (7-yard TD dropped)
Evans has had a great season by all accounts and is currently pacing for 81 receptions, 1392 yards and eight TDs despite going from Tom Brady to, you know, Baker Mayfield.
However, there have been more than a few occasions this season where it’s been Evans, not Mayfield, responsible for a missed TD.
Buccaneers fans and fantasy managers were treated to both sheeshes within a span of three plays on Sunday, as Mayfield first underthrew Evans on what could have been a 51-yard score before the veteran WR brutally dropped a WIDE open potential seven-yard TD.
Evans' fantasy managers and anytime TD bettors still got to witness a sterling 6-143-1 performance — just realize the good times were oh so close to being extra good for all parties involved.
1. Bengals WR Tyler Boyd (13-yard TD dropped)
Boyd “wins” the top spot thanks to the reality that hauling in this very catchable potential 13-yard score would have given the Bengals the lead with just 1:37 remaining. Not necessarily the victory — C.J. Stroud and company wound up driving to Cincy’s 20-yard line to set up the game-winning field goal — but a clean catch certainly would have helped matters.
Credit to Boyd for otherwise having a great day (8-117-0); the veteran even set up the game-tying field goal in the first place with a 64-yard catch and run. That said: Sheesh.
“Shoutout” to Ravens RB Keaton Mitchell for an honorable mention thanks to having a potential 19-yard score hit him in the chest before falling incomplete, although I truly can’t decide if slow-mo replay shows an ever-so-slight deflection or not.
The Jameis Winston experience immediately proved to be fruitful for the second-year Saints WR, as Olave wound up posting a 6-94-1 performance despite having just one scoreless 15-yard reception on a single target during the first 38 minutes of the game with Derek Carr (shoulder/concussion) under center.
And yet, Olave still found a way to rack up unrealized air yards.
Air yards measure the distance that any given pass travels (wait for it) in the air. Subtracting yards after the catch from every player’s receiving yards total before taking the difference with total air yards helps us pinpoint exactly how much opportunity through the air a player failed to come down with for one reason or another.
Sometimes unrealized air yards are more akin to “prayer yards” because the pass wasn’t overly catchable in the first place, so grinding the ole film helps with identifying those sorts of situations.
Nine players racked up at least 75 unrealized air yards in Week 10 specifically:
Olave’s 936 unrealized air yards on the season are a full 289 more than any other player. Hopkins (647), Adams (623), Marquise Brown (588) and Garrett Wilson (566) round out the top five. That is a LOT of sheesh.
Speaking of the artist known as Hollywood…
Our previous section helped quantify the most missed opportunities through the air, but there were an additional handful of targets that I can’t help call out because it sure seemed like the following players could have put six points on the board with a bit more accurate pass.
For example: Cardinals QB Kyler Murray had No. 1 WR Marquise Brown WIDE open on what is probably a 28-yard TD nine times out of 10. Sadly for fantasy managers and anytime TD bettors: Sunday happened to be the one where the duo sheeshes.
Overall, there were 12 instances where I subjectively believe pass-catchers didn’t receive catchable passes on what would have otherwise been TDs, although differing levels of openness, difficulty of throw and pressure hardly made all of these near misses of the layup variety.
As Benjamin Franklin once said: Not all sheesh is created equal.
49ers RB Christian McCaffrey post-game on failing to extend his TD streak to an NFL-record 18 straight games:
“Yeah, I suck. Everyone else on the team scored except for me.”
Fantasy managers shouldn't be too bummed out about McCafrey's 142-yard performance; just realize anytime TD bettors all over continental America were rendered unconscious following the 49ers’ inability to get their stud RB into the end zone on not one, not two, not three, not four, but five straight attempts … up 34-3 with just six minutes remaining.
Well, you can’t blame head coach Kyle Shanahan for not trying. Shanny even admitted after the game that it was a bit nerve-racking because obviously he didn’t want to see McCaffrey get hurt. Luckily, that wouldn’t be the case, but still: Sheesh.
*Puts conspiracy sunglasses and hat on*
I believe Falcons QB Taylor Heincke is such a good teammate and leader of men that he purposely chose to slide inside the five-yard line on this 16-yard scramble so RB Bijan Robinson could score the TD instead and stick it to head coach Arthur Smith.
Was this really the case? Probably not. Actually, definitely not. But you could imagine what it’d be like if it was.
Either way: Thank you Taylor. Sincerely, one slightly less frustrated Bijan fantasy manager.
Getting all the way to the one-yard line but failing to score a TD is objectively a sheeshy feeling — particularly when fantasy managers are forced to watch someone else vulture away the score that was SO CLOSE to belonging to them.
This sheesh is particularly hard to handle when it happens to someone who simply hasn’t been able to find the end zone for quite some time.
Enter: Cowboys RB Tony Pollard, who has now gone an NFL-high 151 consecutive touches without a TD. He nearly reached pay dirt on two separate occasions in Week 10 during the Cowboys’ 49-17 win over the Giants, but unfortunately was stopped just short of the goal line both times.

Nov 5, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard (20) is stopped by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Zach Cunningham (52) and safety Reed Blankenship (32) at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Here’s the full list of Week 10’s players who managed to get the football within three feet of the goal line, but not quite across the plane, and ultimately didn’t score later on the same drive:
Cardinals RB James Conner also deserves mention for pulling the ever-sheeshful Brian Westbrook/Todd Gurley "stop just short of the goal line even though the defense is inviting you to score a TD so the clock won't run out” move. Technically a good decision by Conner so the Cardinals could win the football game or whatever, but few events are more sheeshful for fantasy managers to deal with.
On a brighter note: Shoutout to the Lions for being persistent and finding a way to get RB Jahmyr Gibbs into the end zone after the rookie was stopped at the one-yard line on two separate drives. Gibbs wound up with two goal-line scores, while Montgomery relied on an electric 75-yard TD run to produce — just like we all expected.
“Congrats” to Ekeler for now racking up a league-high six-such sheeshes. Latavius Murray, D’Andre Swift, Alvin Kamara, A.J. Dillon and Montgomery are all tied for second with four instances of this sheeshy event in 2023.
Yes, Johnston was interfered with on the following play, undoubtedly throwing off his concentration and ability to catch the football.
Also yes, it was still a catchable pass, and it objectively would have been a lot cooler if the much-maligned rookie could have held on to what sure looked like was going to be an 86-yard house call.
QJ wound up drawing three separate defensive pass interference penalties for a total of 29 yards, including one in the end zone to set up his first-career TD later in the game.
Drawing these DPIs undoubtedly helped the Chargers in real life, but sadly fantasy managers were left sheesh-ing.
The top five players in most yards gained courtesy of drawing DPI flags were as follows in Week 10:
Also shoutout to Steelers WR Diontae Johnson for drawing a 17-yard DPI and holding penalties on two separate drives that ended in TD runs, as well as Bengals TE Tanner Hudson for getting a DPI call in the end zone to set up a one-yard Joe Mixon TD plunge.
While the box score doesn’t account for who to blame on any particular interception, Joshua Dobbs or another rocket scientist isn’t always required to figure out that sometimes the QB wasn’t overly at fault.
Roughly nine specific interceptions occurred in Week 10 that shouldn’t be overly blamed on the men who threw them:
TDs usually get nullified by a penalty for a good reason, but that doesn’t make the roller coaster of adrenaline any less sheeshful for fantasy managers to deal with.
In Week 10 there were six such instances.
*Law and Order Music*
These are their stories:
I think I speak for all of us when I say for one last time: Sheesh.
We’re on to Week 11.
