Matchup: Panthers @ Eagles

Monday Night Football

Carolina @ Philadelphia

The stigma associated with Mark Sanchez is decidedly negative. He was an NFL draft bust with the Jets, playing competitive football only when New York fielded a successful, high-volume run game and elite defense. Sanchez isn't particularly strong armed or accurate and is an average athlete. He's also now starting games in the NFL's quarterback-friendliest offense, where a run-game commitment is consistent and unyielding, and Chip Kelly uses scheme and design to get his receivers one-on-one opportunities. Nick Foles (collarbone) wasn't a vastly superior talent to Sanchez, and even in a down year Foles was averaging 291 passing yards per game with multiple touchdown passes in 5-of-7 weeks before going down. Sanchez is a recommended QB1 streamer against a Panthers team that ranks 21st in Football Outsiders' pass-defense DVOA and has a 17:9 TD-to-INT ratio against. Carolina permits a 69.3% completion rate to enemy passers, the second worst mark in the league. ... Sanchez's target distribution off the bench last week: Jeremy Maclin 4; Darren Sproles, Jordan Matthews, Josh Huff, and Riley Cooper 3; Brent Celek, Zach Ertz, and Jeff Maehl 2. ... Sanchez connected on all four of his throws to Maclin for gains of 52, 7, 21, and an 8-yard touchdown. Maclin versus Panthers LCB Antoine Cason might be the biggest mismatch on an NFL field in Week 10. Burned up by Kenny Stills two Thursday nights ago, Cason has allowed five touchdowns over his last seven games, according to PFF, including an 81.8% completion rate on throws into his coverage. That's the worst clip of any perimeter cornerback in the NFL. There is some chatter Cason will be benched for Melvin White, who was benched himself just a few weeks ago after opening the season as Carolina's starting right corner.

Sanchez's other touchdown pass was good to rookie Matthews from 11 yards out. As the Eagles have committed to a base three-receiver offense, Matthews' snap rates are 70% and 63% over the past two weeks. Matthews plays slot receiver in Chip Kelly's offense, and Carolina has been particularly vulnerable in slot coverage, where they've rotated bodies. Matthews is worth a serious look as a bye-week WR3 play. Training camp reports indicated Matthews was Sanchez's favorite target throughout August. ... Two of Sanchez's Week 9 targets to Cooper fell incomplete, and the third was picked off. Sanchez is a good bet for production in Kelly's attack, but one of his primary weaknesses is making throws outside the numbers. Cooper runs almost all of his routes outside the numbers. ... Two-tight end sets have fallen out of favor in Philadelphia, resulting in snap rates of 52% for Ertz in Week 8 and a season-low 28% in last week's win over Houston. Celek's playing time is correspondingly up, but has only translated to stat lines of 2-8-0 and 2-7-0 since the Eagles' Week 7 bye. This is a situation to avoid against the Panthers, who have a lot of range at linebacker and rank 21st in fantasy points allowed to tight ends. ... Sproles returned from his MCL sprain in last week's win over the Texans, handling seven touches and playing 22% of the Eagles' snaps. Because of Carolina's second-level speed, Sproles has a challenging Week 10 matchup. Sproles hasn't hit double-digit touches in a game since Week 2. ... Gutted by Mark Ingram two Thursday nights ago, the Panthers have allowed the third most fantasy points in the league to running backs, including an explosive 4.89 per-carry average. This is a great matchup for Shady McCoy, who is red hot over his last three games with 349 yards on 66 carries (5.29 YPC). Strongly consider McCoy on FanDuel this week. ... Chris Polk vultured an eight-yard touchdown against the Texans, but is just a "breather back" and direct handcuff for McCoy owners. Polk is a quality backup, but has not earned standalone flex consideration.

Panthers-Eagles has a solid 48-point over-under, fourth highest of Week 10. The Panthers' offense has been abysmal in three consecutive games, but is coming off what amounts to a bye week after playing on Thursday night in Week 9, and returning for Week 10 Monday Night Football. The Eagles' loss of team leader ILB DeMeco Ryans (Achilles') sets up Carolina to run a read-option-heavy offense, exploiting liability replacement Casey Matthews. Philly's No. 22 pass defense has a 17:4 TD-to-INT ratio against, one of the worst marks in the league. Fantasy owners need to shake off Cam's awful three-week stretch and start him in a potential shootout. The last time Eagles DC Billy Davis' unit faced a true dual-threat quarterback, Colin Kaepernick ripped Philadelphia for 276 all-purpose yards, including 58 on seven scrambles, and a pair of passing touchdowns. Against the blitz-happy Eagles, this is a great opportunity for OC Mike Shula to call an aggressive game. ... Cam's target distribution on the year: Kelvin Benjamin 77; Greg Olsen 58; Jerricho Cotchery 48; Jason Avant 40; Philly Brown and Brenton Bersin 12; Jonathan Stewart 11; DeAngelo Williams 2. ... Benjamin has had three games this year where he just played terribly, making mental errors and dropping passes. Last week was one of them. In the weeks following the previous two, Benjamin recorded stat lines of 8-115-1 versus Pittsburgh and 7-49-1 at Cincinnati. Although Benjamin's on-field performances don't always cooperate, his usage has never wavered with eight-plus targets in 7-of-9 games this year. As Benjamin runs the vast majority of his routes against right cornerbacks, he will square off early and often in this game with Eagles RCB Cary Williams, who ranks 83rd among 109 qualifiers in Pro Football Focus' coverage grades.

Although Cotchery is not nearly as heavily targeted or physically imposing as Benjamin, he too has a plus matchup with Eagles LCB Bradley Fletcher, whom PFF has charted with the eighth most yards allowed in the league to enemy receivers. You could do worse than Cotchery as a WR3 bye-week filler. ... No. 4 overall fantasy tight end Olsen has earned every-week starter treatment, but has the toughest matchup in Carolina's pass-catching corps. Keyed by coverage maven ILB Mychal Kendricks, Philadelphia allows the fewest fantasy points in the league to tight ends. To be fair, the best tight ends the Eagles have faced are Dwayne Allen (0-0 in Week 2), Vernon Davis (2-8-0 in Week 4), and Larry Donnell (1-6-0 in Week 6). Still, Olsen is probably best viewed as a mid-range to low-end TE1 in this particular week. ... On the season, Philadelphia has held enemy running backs to 747 yards and just three touchdowns on 204 carries (3.66 YPC). As Carolina's backfield has fallen back into a two-way timeshare and Newton is running more, this is a fantasy situation to avoid. In last Thursday night's loss to New Orleans, DeAngelo Williams played 23 snaps and handled nine touches. Jonathan Stewart played 34 downs, but finished with eight carries and wasn't involved in the passing game. If one of the Panthers' running backs has a good game on Monday night, it wasn't because either was a good fantasy bet going in.

Score Prediction: Eagles 27, Panthers 24