Believe the Hype - Week 10

Week 10 has come and passed in the NFL and has left us with some spectacular performances! With the Fantasy Football regular season coming to an end, managers are looking for those key players to add who will pay extreme dividends when the fantasy playoffs come.

Here are some players who may not be owned in every league, but had amazing weeks in Week 10. I’ll let you know if I think they’re going to continue their success or not.

Case Keenum

Week 10 performance: 21/29, 304 Yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs

Believe the hype? Not for the rest of the season.

            Let me start off by saying this, I think Case Keenum has done a fine job this year filling in for Teddy B and Sam Bradford, this weak probably being one of the best weeks he’s played in his career. This game was his 3^rd highest completion percentage game this season, the 2^nd most yards he’s throw in a game this season, the most TD’s he’s throw in a game all season and his 2^nd highest QB Rating in game all season. This performance against a Redskins D that really does defend the pass well was a complete surprise in my eyes.

            Case has really been a backup QB his entire career but has started a career total of 31 games in his 6 year career, which is just over 5 games/season (very high for a “backup”. In his first starting gig for the Rams last season, He looked atrocious before getting the hook for rookie Jared Goff, but it wasn’t his entire fault. In LA, he had a terrible offensive line and barely any playmakers that he could throw the ball too.

            This season he’s 5-2 as starting QB and a lot of that has been thanks to the Vikings defence. Before this week, the Vikings D hasn’t allowed more then 19 points in a game, giving Keenum and the Vikings offence the 9^th best average starting position in the league and a real shot at success. Also, even with rookie sensation Dalvin Cook going down, Keenum has still managed to constantly spread the ball around and let his playmakers, Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, make the plays to get them down the field.

            He’s having a career year, but I really don’t think that’ll stay the same. His best games have come against the Bucs D, the Bears D (while it was struggling in the early part of the season), the Packers D, the Browns D and the Redskins D (this is the only surprising one). He’s struggled this season against better pass defenses and just looking at his remaining schedule, I predict a lot of struggles for the rest of the season. Also, I’ve been hearing more and more of the possibility that Teddy Bridgewater might actually return this season, so it seems that Keenum’s hold on the starting QB job in Minnesota is getting weaker and weaker every week.

Austin Ekeler

Week 10 performance: 10 Car, 42 Yards, 5 Rec, 77 Yards, 2 TDs

Believe the Hype? Not sold yet, but worth a pickup.

Before you Google who the hell Austin Ekeler is, I’ll let you know who he is. Austin Ekeler is the backup running back for the Los Angeles Chargers; he’s an undrafted rookie out of Western State. Honestly, I didn’t even know who this guy was at the beginning of the season, but he’s managed to impress the Chargers coaches enough to not only jump Brandon Oliver on the depth chart but now I consider him very fantasy relevant.

If you have heard his name before its because he’s vultured a couple of TDs from Melvin Gordon earlier this season and this past week was his most impressive performance to date.  This isn’t a knock on Melvin, he’s still a locked-in RB1 in my opinion, but Ekeler is a very interesting pickup not only as a handcuff, but also as a stand-alone possible PPR Flex value receiving back.

What impressed coaches the most is his versatility and speed. It seems Phillip Rivers is starting to trust him as a very reliable check down option, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he continued to see more and more looks as the season winds down.

If you’re a Melvin Gordon owner, I’d forsure consider picking up Ekeler as his handcuff (Yes, handcuff season is beginning). Ekeler had 15 touches last week and averaged 4.2 yards/carry against one of the best run-stuffing defenses in the league. Continue to monitor his progress, but if you have an extra roster spot available and Ekeler is on your waiver wire, consider picking him up this week before its too late!

Devin Funchess

Week 10 performance: 5 Rec, 92 Yards, 2 TDs

Believe the Hype? Won’t see another line like that, but will still continue to be solid

            In the lights on Monday night primetime football, Cam Newton took advantage of an extremely weak Dolphins pass defense, going off for his best performance of the year and finding Funchess 5 times, for 92 yards and 2 TDs. This was by far his best performance of the season, and while I don’t expect another performance like that one for the rest of the year, I expect him to be a solid WR3 by season’s end.

            This week was actually tied for Funchess’ least amount of targets since week 3. He gets the volume from cam, 6+ targets a game since week 2, but hasn’t had a game with more then 5 catches sine week 5. Especially now that Kelvin is gone, Devin has found himself the #1 option in Carolina’s passing game, a great fantasy asset on paper. He’s dealt with his inconsistencies from weeks 6-8 but seems to have turned a corner.

            There are however a couple of issues which really concern me with Funchess moving forward. First off, Panthers expect Greg Olson to be return after their bye week, which means that Funchess’ targets will take a hit as he will no longer be the #1 option in their passing attack.

The Panthers’ offense has been getting hotter just as it enters its bye week, we’ll have to wait until week 12 to see how it will remain. With Christian McCaffrey living up to his hype as an excellent receiving back, he should begin to gain more and more attention by defenses, opening up more opportunities for Funchess’ as well.

All in all, I do believe that Funchess may not post another 5/92/2 line for the reason of the season, but he’ll be very reliable as a WR3 moving forward (especially considering he’s one of the last players to take his bye week). If he’s still available in your league (which I highly doubt), pick him up now! If you’re in the need for that 3^rd receiver to complete your starting roster, I’d consider trading for Funchess, but don’t overpay because he will regress.

So there you go! Hope you guys enjoyed the Week 10 edition of Believe the Hype and good luck in your fantasy matchups for Week 11 (unless you’re against me of course)