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For more in-depth analysis and discussion of these injury scenarios, tune in to the Fantasy Finish Line Podcast, Week 10 Preview: ADP vs. Reality

QUARTERBACK

Jacoby Brissett (MCL Sprain) – Brissett has still not been ruled out for Week 10’s game against the Dolphins after going down early in the Steelers game last week. Brian Hoyer filled in for him and went 17/26 for 168 yards and 3 TDs with 1 INT. Brissett put in a limited practice today and he is still expected to try and play, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Colts held him out one more week since their matchup against the Dolphins is still winnable with a backup QB and without T.Y. Hilton (calf).

Cam Newton (Lisfranc) – Newton was put on the IR yesterday, ending his season. Kyle Allen will fill in for the rest of the year at QB and although he’s not playing at a high level he has been managing the team to wins since Newton’s departure – something Cam was not excelling at. It’s likely at this point that Newton will be under center for some other team next season.

Patrick Mahomes (knee) – Andy Reid said that the Chiefs were increasing Mahomes’ workload in practice this week before starting him against the Titans on Sunday. He participated fully today and should be expected to start this week barring any setbacks, putting Matt Moore back behind the clipboard.

RUNNING BACK

Le’Veon Bell (knee) – Bell had an MRI on his knee Monday, and the Jets signed Josh Adams – causing fantasy team owners around the world to hold their breath – but the Adams signing was apparently a defensive move in order to block the Dolphins from acquiring him in the wake of Mark Walton’s suspension. The latest news on Bell is that he has no structural damage to his knee and wanted to practice today, but the team forced him to rest instead. It’s still possible that Bell is held out, so watch the news this week to see if he suits up. Ty Montgomery would fill in if he did miss time but he would not be a big fantasy asset by any means.

David Johnson (ankle) – The Cardinals’ best receiver so far this year, Johnson says that he’s “definitely playing” this week against the Buccaneers. Expect a tandem of Johnson and the newly acquired Kenyan Drake, which may impress more than people think. The Cardinals are getting healthy again with Kirk back, and Week 10’s matchup against TB (allowing a league-leading 37.91 points against WRs this year) may be a lucrative one for Cardinals’ pass catchers.

James Conner (shoulder) – Tomlin is optimistic that Conner will play in Week 10 but Samuels will be the guy if Conner is unable to. Conner’s backup Edmunds didn’t practice today which was a surprise – but Conner did put in a limited session. Sounds like he’ll go. Editor's Note (11/7): Sounds like he won't go now, and depth behind Samuels is a bit of a mystery.

WIDE RECEIVER

DeSean Jackson (abdomen) – Surgery later this week, off fantasy radar for the rest of the season. We’ll see him again next year, but it’s always sad from an explosive player like Jackson who put up 8 receptions for 154 yards and 2 TDs in Week 1. Mack Hollins will continue to act as the WR3 on the Eagles, but Miles Sanders gets a lot of benefit out of the extra targets on this offense as well.

Preston Williams (knee) – This injury ends Williams’ season, but he was very solid as a receiver and we’ll see him again next year!

Adam Thielen (hamstring) – Thielen tried to rejoin the offense last week but limped off early in the contest and is now expected to miss several weeks in order to get fully healthy. Week 13 looks like the target for him to get back on the field, with the Vikings on bye in Week 12. He has been disappointing this season from a fantasy perspective and is only on pace for 48 catches and 695 yards.

T.Y. Hilton (calf) – Head coach Frank Reich now expects Hilton to be out for 3-4 weeks, and Zach Pascal is filling in while Hilton is out. Pascal was a hot waiver wire pickup over the last 2 weeks, and he did have nice games in Weeks 7 and 9, but he is still very much boom or bust and capable of performances like his 6-yard game against the Broncos in Week 8. Buyer beware!

Sterling Shepard & Brandin Cooks (concussion) – Shepard and Cooks are probably at the same specialist in Pittsburgh consulting about concussions.. it looks like both of them may end up on IR, which would be a big blow to those offenses.

TIGHT END

Chris Herndon (hamstring) – Looks like Herndon will suit up (for real this time) and play his first snaps this week. He was a beast last year and should be owned in every league, regardless of format, with the TE landscape being as barren as it is this year.

O.J. Howard (hamstring) – Howard will be out there against the Cardinals in Week 10 and we all know what the Cardinals weakness is.. tight ends. Do we think that Howard will actually put up fantasy start worthy stats? Coin toss.

Evan Engram (foot) – He’s hanging out in a walking boot. Mid-foot sprain will have his status squarely at week-to-week. As Rotoworld smartly states, “mid-foot” can refer to a Lisfranc injury.. which tends to put people on the bench for multiple weeks or even send them home for the season. Monitor carefully, as he was performing at a high level before being injured.

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters.

1.38 Yards per Carry

Thursday night's game was another slogfest, and while the games have been more competitive this year than they have in past years, the poor quality of play really shines through. This week, the leading rusher in the game, Adrian Peterson, with 29 yards on 21 carries, had a whopping 1.38 yards per carry. He beat out both of the Seahawks rushers, who finished with 27 yards (Thomas Rawls) and 26 yards (J.D. McKissic). Of course, the big story in this game is the achilles injury that Richard Sherman. Sherman had been previously critical of the NFL regarding Thursday night games, and he was battling this injury all season. The numbers of injuries may not be significantly higher than on Sundays, but it's clear that the quality of play on short rest is affected nearly every single week.

6 Rushing Touchdowns

The Saints set a franchise record with 6 rushing touchdowns on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. They also rushed for 298 yards on the day behind impressive performances from Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram, who combined for over 50 points. Ingram and Kamara were the 1st and 4th highest scoring fantasy RBs on the week, mixed in with the 3 TD DeMarco Murray and the unknown Austin Ekeler. The Saints improved to 7-2, and it's really surprising that Drew Brees has only thrown for 300+ yards once in those wins, and only twice overall. The Saints run game was really by far the most impressive aspect of this game, peaking with a 10-play 94 yard TD drive that was all rushes of 15 yards or less. The Saints averaged 6.2 yards per carry on the day, just shy of Drew Brees's 7.4 yards per passing attempt.

208 Consecutive Starts

Congrats to Eli Manning, who tied his brother Peyton with 208 consecutive starts on Sunday - good for second on the list behind Brett Favre. This start, like most this year, was very forgettable for Eli. Going in to Sunday's game in San Francisco, this was the first time in 33 years that two teams met this late in the season with only 1 victory between them. Clearly, the stage was set for mediocrity and this game delivered. The Giants managed to make C.J. Beathard  look great, putting up the 4th most points this week among QBs - 26.02 points. This was the 49ers first win against a team that wasn't the Rams in 708 days. On the other side, the Giants gave up yet another touchdown to an opposing TE, making it one in every game this season, and this streak goes back into last season. Looks like a good sign for Travis Kelce and the Chiefs against the Giants next week.

297 Passing Yards

It was strange seeing Mitchell Trubisky on the passing leader boards all afternoon and evening. His 297 yards is easily a career high (the previous was last week's 164). He completed 60% of his passes with 21 completions on 35 attempts. One TD and no picks are a good way to show that you can take care of the ball, ok, Coach? I didn't really write about Trubisky for his sake, though congrats to the rookie on a solid outing, but to poke at head coach John Fox. In the 2nd quarter, Fox threw a challenge flag on a play where Benny Cunningham was called out of bounds short of the goal line. Upon review, it was determined that Cunningham did not, in fact, step out of bounds. Great news? Nope, it was then determined that he lost control of the ball before it struck the pylon, thus ruling it a fumble out of the end zone and a touchback for the Packers. This play is kind of a microcosm of Fox and the Bears over the last couple of years. There's always been flashes of good things happening, but it all winds up looking mismanaged and it's never the desired outcome. Here in Chicago, it's pretty clear that he's going to be on the hot seat before too long.

4-60+ Yard TD Passes

If you read this column, you know I'm a sucker for milestones that haven't been reached in a while. On Sunday, Jacoby Brissett threw a pair of 60+ yard touchdowns against the Steelers' formerly league leading passing defense. It's been over 50 years since a Colts QB had 4-60 yard touchdown passes in a single season. Johnny Unitas did it back in 1966, and both Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck were not able to reach that mark, not even with all of the great receivers they have had. Brissett has 4 on the season now, and has improved as the year has gone on and is one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal season in Indy. The Colts are only 3-7, but did hang in there against a Steelers team that is tied for the best record in the AFC. If the Colts could figure out a run game, they would have something for Andrew Luck to look forward to when he comes back. Right now, Brissett's league leading 35 sacks has to be alarming for a guy who is probably not nearly as mobile. Get well soon, Andrew!

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.

158.3 Passer Rating

The NFL’s all-time leader in passer rating, Aaron Rodgers (with 103.2 for his career) finally posted his very first game with a perfect passer rating on Sunday. Rodgers went 25/31 for 429 yards and 5 TDs, adding another TD on the ground in perhaps the best game of his career. This was good for 43.76 fantasy points, which is 10 more than the next closest player this week. Perhaps Rodgers has finally figured out the new system that has been implemented in Green Bay this year. While they have done fantastic in the win-loss column, they definitely have not looked like the juggernaut offense that we all expected from a team led by Aaron Rodgers, until this week. This game was domination from start to finish, with Rodgers throwing for a TD in every quarter, and also spreading the love. All 5 TDs went to 5 different players. Honorable mention goes to Marquez Valdes-Scanting, who averaged 66.5 yards per reception (2 catches for 133 yards and 1 TD).

576 Rushing Yards

Lamar Jackson, after fooling us all with only 6 rushing yards in Week 1, just posted his third game out of the last 6 where we went over 100 rushing yards. This is a historic pace and projects to 1,316 yards over 16 games. If Jackson can keep this up, he will crush the single-season record by Mike Vick, which is 1,039 yards back in 2006. Jackson also continued his fantasy dominance, leading the league with 180.6 total fantasy points in 7 games. When you consider that he has not thrown for a TD in the last two games, this is just amazing. Not bad for a guy who was drafted 106^th overall on average (QB14). He’s the kind of player that allows for league dominance when you can find that kind of value. To further put Jackson’s rushing dominance in perspective, he’s on pace to break Vick’s career total of 6,109 rushing yards in only 111 games, versus Vick’s career 143 games. That’s two full seasons worth of games.

9% of Yahoo Leagues

This week’s leading RB scorer was Chase Edmonds, who was started in only 9% of Yahoo leagues on Sunday. Currently, he’s owned in 48% of leagues, which includes a 14% jump from yesterday. To me, this means that 14% of Yahoo leagues probably do not operate with a waiver system, which is bizarre to me, but I digress. Edmonds was able to dominate the Giants non-existent rushing defense, scoring 3 TDs all from at least 20 yards or more. Edmonds will definitely be the #1 waiver wire pickup this week, and deservedly so. It looks like David Johnson might wind up sitting a week or two, considering he spent almost all of Week 7 on the sideline and the Cardinals were able to win with only 104 passing yards. Edmonds’ 33 points basically doubled up the rest of his entire team combined, which was led by Kyler Murray’s whopping 6.96 points. On a side note, Murray joined Patrick Mahomes and Matt Ryan in the formerly high-floor group falling back to earth. At least Murray doesn’t have an injury he’s nursing.

1 of the Top 10 Fantasy Performers

Only one of the top 10 fantasy performances turned in this week was by a player owned in 100% of Yahoo leagues. To give some context, there are 23 players owned in 100% of leagues and another 15 owned in 99% of leagues. This is usually a stat that I like to track early in the season to find out who’s performing that we weren’t expecting. To see this kind of disparity halfway in the fantasy season means that we’re probably flat out ignoring some players. And I think we are – guys like Matt Stafford (58% owned) who is the QB8 in points per game, Jacoby Brissett (48% owned) who is QB10 in the same category and Kirk Cousins (64% owned), who is averaging 26 points per game the last 3 weeks. Throw in big performances by Latavius Murray and Marvin Jones and you have an average ownership of just 75% across the top 10 fantasy performers in Week 7. This is probably just a fluky week, but I think it’s time to take notice of a few of the QBs that fantasy players seem to insist on not rolling out there.

104 Rush Yards Per Game

The NFL’s rushing yards leader is currently Dalvin Cook, with 725 yards across 7 games. There’s only been one 200+ yard performance this season (Leonard Fournette, 225 yards, Week 4), so we’re lacking the gaudy totals that we have seen in previous years. But, none of that really matters to fantasy players as long as your guys are finding the end zone as well, which is what Cook is doing. Cook has scored 8 TDs on the season, which is tied with Aaron Jones for the league lead. Cook has also managed to have an amazing points floor, never scoring below 11.4 points on the season. Only Ezekiel Elliott can claim such a double-digit elite status. Even super fantasy RB Christian McCaffrey (who still leads Cook in points despite having his bye week already) cannot claim such a floor. Cook and McCaffrey sit alone in tier 1, about 30 points above the tier two guys, who all have 107-111 points. Cook’s ADP of RB10 this season makes him one of the few second round “steals” that are pretty rare any year.