The Week 10 field guide to defenseless teams
The concept here is relatively simple: Every Tuesday, we review the NFL's most user-friendly defenses. We're looking at points and yards allowed, and we're checking schedules. The spreadsheets are dull, but the details are useful.
The information below is not difficult to apply. It should impact your start/sit decisions, and it should give you a few ideas about players to target in trades, depending on your circumstances.
If you were to compare last Tuesday's post on generous defenses to this one, you'd notice that the same 10 teams appear on the points-allowed list. A slight reshuffling occurred, but no team actually escaped from the bottom 10. To borrow an incredibly versatile phrase, these teams are who we thought they were.
Over the next two weeks, the Panthers, Cardinals and Dolphins each have a pair of inviting match-ups. If your team is scuffling along at 4-5 and needs to win out, look to those rosters when considering deals and waiver adds.
LaDainian Tomlinson gets the Chiefs this week, and that usually means a 20-point effort. Through eight games, Kansas City has allowed 20 or more fantasy points to six different running backs. Darren Sproles is a reasonable flex play this week, too. The Chiefs have somehow given up 50 rushing yards to 13 different backs.
Maurice Jones-Drew, Thomas Jones, Jamal Lewis and DeAngelo Williams are all no-doubt starts. Despite getting the short end of the workload split in Week 8, Jonathan Stewart should be useful against Oakland and Detroit.
In fact, if you told me that Tim Biakabutuka was in line for 8-12 carries against the Raiders and Lions, I might play him, too.
Here are a few other easily manipulated Ds:
We usually only give you the five worst rushing and passing defenses, but that would have meant excluding the Broncos from each list, and that just didn't seem right. Denver is one of only two NFL teams that gives up at least 5.0 yards per rush, and the Broncos are also the only passing defense that allows a completion percentage above 70.0. Injuries to Champ Bailey and DJ Williams probably won't help those numbers.
Tyler Thigpen (at SD) and Joe Flacco (at HOU) have nice match-ups this week, so they're at the distant fringe of start-worthiness in larger leagues. Chad Pennington versus Seattle seems like a better play, but he's also more heavily-owned.
OK, stop reading fantasy content and go vote. No, there isn't going to be a Daunte Culpepper post. Seriously. This isn't 2004. He's not a Week 10 fantasy starter. You can read about him here if you like. Or here. But please don't get distracted by Lion-rotica before you've voted.
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Photo via US Presswire
