NFL

7 Deep Fantasy Football Sleepers for Week 10

The 2020 NFL season -- like everything about 2020 -- is unique. While turning to the waiver wire or free agent pool for streaming options is a common practice in normal years, the need for deeper options could be even greater this year as the NFL tries to navigate playing through a pandemic.

This is your weekly home for finding deep sleeper options across the board this year with plug-and-play options listed at quarterback, running back, receiver, and tight end. Whether you set out to stream or circumstances have changed for your roster and dictate streaming on the fly, I've got you covered with a full roster's worth of low-rostered choices in Yahoo! leagues.

Drew Lock, QB, Denver Broncos

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 22%

Last week, Drew Lock was the featured deep sleeper at quarterback with the Denver Broncos squaring off with the Atlanta Falcons. He made the most of the matchup and finished as the QB4 in scoring. That superb showing comes on the heels of finishing as QB7 in Week 8. He'll have an opportunity to crack the top 10 for a third straight week in a favorable draw in Week 10.

The Las Vegas Raiders rank as our seventh-worst pass defense in the numberFire power rankings. His favorable matchup coupled with his fantasy-friendly lines of late fuel his inclusion here, and numberFire's algorithm projects him to finish as a respectable if unexciting QB17 this week.

Matt Breida, RB, Miami Dolphins

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 25%

With Myles Gaskin on injured reserve, recent trade acquisition DeAndre Washington unavailable, and Matt Breida hurt last week, we didn't get a truly clear picture of how the Miami Dolphins will handle their backfield opportunities with Gaskin out.

As you can see on the numberFire snap counts page, Salvon Ahmed led the backfield in snap percentage at 45.9 percent, followed by Jordan Howard at 34.43 percent, then Patrick Laird at 19.67 percent, and rounded out by Chandler Cox at 14.75 percent. Cox is the team's fullback, and Malcolm Perry is listed among the running backs with the second-highest snap percentage played last week at 37.7 percent, but he's a bit of a hybrid and listed as a running back and receiver on the team's official website.

In addition to the playing time being divvied up to multiple players, none of the backs served as a workhorse, with Howard recording 10 carries for 19 rushing yards, Ahmed leading the backfield with 38 rushing yards on 7 carries, and Laird rushing once for a negative yard while being the only back of the trio to garner a target -- which he hauled in for a 17-yard reception. It's a wide open situation in which Breida could command a piece of the pie if he returns this week, and that's looking possible after he logged a limited participation practice on Miami's estimated practice report for Wednesday.

Breida's unlikely to be used as a bell-cow back, but he has the home-run speed -- as evidenced by his NFL-high 22.3 miles per hour 83-yard yard rushing touchdown last year -- to help running back-needy fantasy gamers on a small number of touches.

His wheels play well against the visiting Los Angeles Chargers, too. The Chargers are tied for the second-highest average explosive run rate allowed this year at 15 percent, according to Sharp Football Stats. numberFire's model projects Breida to finish at RB28 in point-per-reception (PPR) formats, putting him in the fringe RB2 mix.

Rex Burkhead, RB, New England Patriots

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 21%

Rex Burkhead isn't the sexiest option at running back, but beggars can't be choosers when picking a sub-30 percent rostered running back. The versatile back has played more than 40 percent of the snaps for the New England Patriots in each of the last three games, and he's touched the ball seven or more times in each of those contests. In two of three of those games, he surpassed 40 yards from scrimmage with 3 receptions.

On Monday night, Burkhead posted his best game in the three-game stretch with 56 rushing yards and a score, as well as 11 yards receiving on 3 receptions. Burkhead checks in as RB41 in PPR formats with projections of roughly 4 rushes for 18 rushing yards and 2 receptions for 19 receiving yards. If he slightly bests either or both of those marks and/or finds pay dirt, that would play as a low-end RB2.

Nelson Agholor, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 26%

In Week 8, Nelson Agholor posted a bagel. Cut him some slack, though, as the weather conditions were extremely windy in Cleveland, and Derek Carr passed for only 111 yards while opposing signal caller Baker Mayfield passed for only 122 yards. Agholor rebounded nicely last week with 2 receptions for 55 yards and 1 touchdown on 3 targets. He also led the way in snap percentage among wideouts for the Las Vegas Raiders, playing on 84 percent of snaps.

The change of scenery has treated Agholor well this year, and he's caught a touchdown in four of his last five games while hitting or exceeding 55 receiving yards in three of his last four contests. He's quickly developed rapport with Carr, and he's attached to a tasty implied total of 28.50 points that's the fifth-highest this week.

Of the three receivers featured in this space, Agholor's my least favorite, but he's still a solid option.

Tim Patrick, WR, Denver Broncos

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 22%

Tim Patrick rejoins Lock as his stack partner again this week. Rookies Jerry Jeudy and K.J. Hamler stole the show, but Patrick amassed 9 targets and totaled 4 receptions for 29 receiving yards and 1 touchdown in Week 9. The yardage output left something to be desired, but the target total, receptions, and touchdown all checked out as solid. Patrick's caught three or more passes in six of seven games, scored a touchdown in three games, and twice surpassed 100 receiving yards this season.

Patrick cracks the top-40 receivers in PPR projections this week as WR39. My outlook is in alignment with the numberFire projection algorithm, putting him in fringe WR3 or flex territory this week.

Gerald Everett, TE, Las Angeles Rams

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 8%

The tight end streaming landscape is ugly, and Gerald Everett is essentially the best of a bad lot. With the Los Angeles Rams hosting the porous pass defense of the Seattle Seahawks this week, Everett's a matchup-based dart throw. Their pass defense ranks as our fourth-worst, and, as NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano pointed out on Twitter recently, they're on pace to shatter the all-time record for passing yards allowed in a season.


The Seahawks haven't given up eye-popping numbers to the tight end position, but they haven't faced the most challenging options at the position this year, either. Further, they've ceded a whopping 14.65 yards per reception to the position, per Pro-Football-Reference.

Even as the second tight end behind Tyler Higbee on the Rams, Everett's played a solid 50.09 percent of the team's snaps for the year and 60.35 percent of the snaps in the last three. He also has a route participation percentage of 41.6 percent, according to Player Profiler, so he's not simply being used to block.

The bar's low to be a viable option at tight end. Everett's riding a four-game streak of being targeted at least four times and caught at least three passes in each of those games. They're not exciting numbers, but they play at a weak position and amounted to a TE12 finish in average points per game in PPR formats from Week 5 through Week 8, according to FantasyPros.

Darnell Mooney, WR, Chicago Bears

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 12%

Darnell Mooney makes it three repeat visitors from last week's piece. Last week, I thought he'd have a blowup performance after weeks of teasing. It didn't happen, but 5 receptions for 43 receiving yards wasn't a total disaster in PPR formats. The modest line also doesn't tell the whole story.

Mooney was shoved out of bounds four yards from the end zone on one of his grabs and couldn't quite secure another target in bounds in the end zone on another look. In all, he was targeted 11 times. He's also an air yards darling, ranking 11th and accounting for 45.35 percent of his team's intended air yards in Week 9, per NFL Next Gen Stats. For the year, his 800 intended air yards are the eighth-highest mark, according to Sports Info Solutions.

A continued diet of targets and air yards will eventually lead to a big showing if he continues to receive both. With the Chicago Bears facing the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, the matchup is right for this being his spike week. The Vikings are tied for the fourth-highest average explosive pass rate allowed at 10 percent.

The numberFire projection algorithm projects Mooney to finish as WR48 in PPR formats, and I'm more bullish on how he'll fare this week. He's my favorite of the trio of deep sleeper receivers.


Joshua Shepardson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Joshua Shepardson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username bchad50. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.