Hey folks! We cannot understate the importance of being in on Week 10 waiver wire players early while the free agency acquisition budget (FAAB) price is cheapest (or free!), so you can add them to your roster. This is not just for adding them to your roster so your league mates don’t get them first; this will help you build a strong roster that has depth and can provide some additional cover from the chaos of the NFL season.

As we know, nothing goes exactly to plan in the NFL, so we want you to be as prepared as possible to weather the uncertain storm of injuries, role changes, scheme changes, and any other general chaos that can happen in a given NFL season.

I’m Kevin Tompkins, and while I may not have drafted a running back ever, I have picked up quite a few in my day as a noted “Zero-RB” guy; luckily, it won’t just be the running back position I’ll be helping you all with this season.

Each week, I’ll provide five players as look-ahead players for the next week, who could be THE waiver wire claims for the following week. But they won’t be available in your league because you already have them.

We’re already looking ahead to Week 10’s players, so you can be ahead of the game now that we’re back into this full slate with zero teams on bye.

Note: I cannot be held responsible if these players get hurt in Week 9, so please don’t tweet me @ktompkinsii if that happens.

~ Check out our Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings ~

Week 10 Waiver Wire QB

Jameis Winston (QB – CLE)

ESPN Rostership (8.4%)

The Cleveland Browns were supposed to just fade into that good night for the rest of the 2024 season once the gods of karma took the Achilles’ tendon of Deshaun Watson as payment. Even Dorian Thompson-Robinson wasn’t spared either, but not by the gods of karma. An injured finger sidelined him and brought forth a beacon of light from season’s past, Jameis Winston, to finish out Week 7’s loss against the Cincinnati Bengals. Winston immediately led a touchdown drive — their only passing touchdown of the game — and sparked a glimmer of hope in a moribund franchise.

One week later, at about the same time, the Browns were coming off the field with an upset of the rival Baltimore Ravens. Winston was the quarterback and finished with 334 yards and three touchdown passes, leading an aggressive pass-heavy offense with the sixth-highest pass rate over expected (PROE) to a victory. Now armed with hope, the Browns will rally around Winston and see if they can attempt to salvage their season.

What does it mean for fantasy? Well, the Browns now employ a pass-happy offense with Nick Chubb back, so defenses can’t just sit back and expect passes all day long. Capable weapons like Cedric Tillman, David Njoku, Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore and an experienced offensive coordinator (and new play-caller) in Ken Dorsey will be able to reign in Winston if he gets a bit squirrely.

The play-calling change from head coach Kevin Stefanski to Dorsey seems to have reinvigorated the Browns. For fantasy purposes, it means fantasy managers could be slower on the take to realize this new normal in Cleveland. I say that because Winston’s rostership is only at 8.4 percent, just a four percent increase from last week to this week.

People still haven’t realized that Winston has a massive upside in a position where people are still trotting out subpar players. Not to mention byes! Those exist! Winston should be universally rostered at this point, knowing the fantasy points bonanza he can bring to a fantasy roster weekly.

 

Week 10 Waiver Wire RB

Isaac Guerendo (RB – SF)

ESPN Rostership (8%)

With current starting running back Jordan Mason leaving in the second quarter of their Week 8 game with the Dallas Cowboys, Isaac Guerendo came in to do what most 49ers’ backup running backs do when pressed into duty: produce for the team and give immediate content for fantasy football writers on their waiver wire columns the next day. With an efficient 85 yards, with a touchdown on 14 carries and an additional three receptions for 17 yards, Guerendo was a top-10 fantasy running back with his output last week.

Not only that, but among 35 qualified rushers in Week 8, Guerendo finished ninth in rush yards over expected (RYOE) per NFL Next Gen Stats, was fifth in yards after contact per attempt with 4.3 yards and had the most 15 MPH runs in the league (seven), which shows his burst and ability to break and separate from defenders.

Easy waiver wire column this week:

               “Isaac Guerendo, immediate waiver wire add; end column.”

That’s how it’s supposed to go, right?

Well…

There’s a bit more to that, with San Francisco’s bye week this week, so it gives Mason time to heal his shoulder, which has flared up a couple of times in recent weeks. Not only that but for Week 10, we could see the return of some guy named Christian McCaffrey in the 49ers’ lineup. I heard he was going pretty high in fantasy drafts this summer. Therein lies the rub: Guerendo should be an immediate add for fantasy managers, but circumstance and a running back logjam could relegate him to RB3 on his own team. So why am I still saying he’s an add?

Well, there’s still a chance that Mason may not return for Week 10’s game in Tampa against the Buccaneers, and the same for McCaffrey. Or both could return and be limited. Or one could return and be limited, leaving the door open for Guerendo to sneak in a week or two’s worth of solid production. We know there is a lot of meat on the bone for fantasy scoring from the 49ers’ backfield, so any worthwhile piece of the backfield that has produced needs to be rostered; full stop.

 

Week 10 Waiver Wire WR

Elijah Moore (WR – CLE)

ESPN Rostership (7.1%)

To dovetail nicely from the Jameis Winston puff piece you (hopefully) just read, we have one of his targets last week in Elijah Moore. Last week, I wrote about Cedric Tillman and how he absolutely needed to be rostered. That’s proving absolutely correct, as he could be one of the league-winning wide receivers you’ll need to win championships this season.

Moving to Moore, he’s been a forgotten-about slot man for the Browns this season. He has run between 60-70 percent of routes and has done it with no fanfare. Enter Winston’s aggressive arm and a renewed optimism, and Moore is back in the limelight. Not only that but being used downfield too. Moore’s 9.2-yard aDOT is a far cry from his 5.7-yard aDOT the previous seven weeks of the season, and he took 26 percent of the air yards en route to an 8-85 game on 12 targets, a 32 percent target share.

That’s also 29 percent of the team’s first-read targets as well, a clear sign of not only Winston’s intent on targeting a player but offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey’s intent as a play-caller to call plays, with Moore being the first read for Winston.

That kind of intent is glossed over by most people when evaluating wide receivers, but we’ve got you all covered here, and we won’t look past the real-life stuff that translates well to fantasy success. We’ve known Moore has always had talent back with his days as a New York Jet, but he couldn’t harness that in for whatever reason (Zach Wilson).

If you couldn’t get Tillman, don’t fret; Moore is an excellent consolation prize on an offense we know is going to pass a ton. The passing volume will be there for the Browns for more weeks than not, allowing multiple players to put forth solid fantasy weeks. Brown will be one of them, and you’ll have him stashed away.

Jalen Coker (WR – CAR)

ESPN Rostership (1.9%)

Some are calling Jalen Coker “the new Dontayvion Wicks,” and while that kind of rapid ascension turned instant adoration may draw parallels to the mercurial Packers’ fourth wide receiver, Coker has been solidly productive in his brief tenure in the NFL. I’m not sure that direct comparison is apt, but Coker’s recent efficiency makes him worth adding in most leagues to see if the production continues.

I wrote about Coker in Week 8 of this article, so I’m putting on my Bernie Sanders hat and proclaiming, “Once again, I am asking you to add Jalen Coker.” Many of the same things I wrote then are still true right now, except for the rostership percentage at just a paltry 1.9 percent in ESPN leagues.

Coker has been efficient and productive, and now Diontae Johnson is off to Baltimore. Xavier Legette has been a solid wide receiver for the Panthers, but he’s been more “boom-or-bust” with his production thus far. So when metering out potential returns for both Panthers’ receivers for the rest of the season, Coker seems like the player with more bankable week-to-week production vs. Legette.

He’s also earned more routes, and despite his utilization mostly in the slot, he’s a bigger 6-foot-1 receiver who can play out wide and be used at a longer aDOT, like last week, when he hit 16.7 yards with his most targets earned to date.

There’s a great chance Coker is sitting out in your leagues. He could be a solid weekly player with the potential for more depending on who starts at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

 

Week 10 Waiver Wire TE

Mike Gesicki (TE – CIN)

ESPN Rostership (10%)

The tight end carousel inevitably lands on Mike Gesicki for at least one spin around the carousel, but this time, the ride may last for a few weeks as the Bengals’ pass-catching group is in flux with injuries and a lack of depth. Tee Higgins has been dealing with a quad injury for the past couple of weeks, and the player who has stepped up the most in Higgins’ absence has been Gesicki.

‘

Gesicki has his highest snaps and routes per dropback of the season in a time of need, as he put up 7-73 on eight targets. Gesicki was actually used on a deeper aDOT (7.6 yards) than Ja’Marr Chase (7.5, sue me) and with Higgins remaining out or, at the very least, hampered, there isn’t much target-earning ability on the Bengals minus Gesicki.

Andrei Iosivas hasn’t caught a pass since Week 6 despite running 89 routes. Jermaine Burton is still a part-time player, though he ran more routes last week than at any point this season. But for consistency’s sake and known target-earning ability, Gesicki should find himself in the streaming category for fantasy managers and rostered in many more for those looking for a stopgap tight end solution at worst and a solid starter in the best-case scenario.

Kevin Tompkins is a contributor to Optimus Fantasy Football. Find more from Kevin on X (formerly Twitter) @ktompkinsii and right here on Optimus Fantasy.