Field of Streams: Week Ten

In this weekly series, we narrow the focus to just the current week and give you some streaming options for the upcoming games. The goal is to identify a player at each offensive position, as well as a team defense, who is owned in less than 30 percent of leagues and may be in line for a productive outing.

You can read more about this series here. We use MFL rates for the ownership percentages.

Let’s take a look at how things went for our top picks in week nine, using standard PPR scoring. The weekly average through nine weeks is in parenthesis.

QB — Kirk Cousins, 11.68 points (19.02)

WR — Justin Hunter, 10.7 points (13.6)

RB — Orleans Darkwa, 2.3 points (9.4)

TE — Jacob Tamme, 12.1 points (12.2)

K — Mike Nugent, 7.0 points (9.1)

D — San Diego Chargers, 11 points (7.0)

Cousins turned in the worst quarterback performance of the season thus far from one of my streamers. He was unable to do much of anything with nearly a half’s worth of garbage time. Hunter salvaged a three-catch, 17-yard day with a touchdown. I whiffed on a banged-up Darkwa. Rashad Jennings led the Giants’ backfield in touches. Tamme continued his solid run with six grabs for 61 yards. Nugent had a decent day, while the Chargers came up with a pick-six and fumble recovery Monday night.

Here are the streaming picks for week ten.

Quarterback

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Matt Cassel, QB DAL

(owned in 13 percent of leagues)

After a great first two months of the season, I’ve hit a snag with my quarterback streamers. Some of that is due to Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kirk Cousins and Josh McCown passing the 30-percent ownership threshold. I’ve leaned on them pretty heavily. For this week, I like Cassel and his matchup with Tampa Bay. He is coming off his best game with Dallas in the Sunday night loss to Philadelphia. With Dez Bryant starting to look like Dez Bryant, Cassel should be in for another solid outing this week. With Ben Roethlisberger going down (again), Landry Jones isn’t a bad play for Pittsburgh’s home game with the Browns. Cousins, who is at a 34-percent ownership rate, has a sparkling home matchup with the Saints. If he’s available in your league, he’s an ideal plug-and-play for the week.

Honorable mention: Jones (vs. CLE), Cousins (vs NO).

Wide receiver

Dwayne Harris, WR NYG

(19.5 percent)

Despite recording just eight catches in the past four games, I really like how the Giants’ matchup with New England sets up for Harris. The Patriots game plan their defense to eliminate the opponent’s best weapon. That would be Odell Beckham for the Giants. With New England likely dedicating a lot of resources to halting Beckham, Eli Manning will be forced to look elsewhere. Harris could be that elsewhere. Jarius Wright is another sparingly owned wideout I like this week. Oakland ranks 30th against the pass, and Antonio Brown just had a decent season against them last week. Whether Teddy Bridgewater (concussion) plays or not, Wright could be in for a nice outing as the Vikings’ No. 3 receiver.

Honorable mention: Wright (at OAK).

Running back

Marcel Reece, RB WAS

(17.4 percent)

Choosing Reece is purely dependent on Latavius Murray (concussion) missing this weekend’s matchup with the Vikings. Reece has quietly been producing in PPR leagues, totaling 13 catches over the last three weeks. If Murray does play, I’d lean toward James White. It’s anyone’s guess how the New England backfield shakes out sans Dion Lewis, but White and Brandon Bolden figure to get a chance to be the pass-game specialists. I think White gets the first crack at it. Don’t expect the kind of numbers Lewis was putting up, but White has some talent, as well.

Honorable mention: White (at NYG).

Tight end

Jared Cook, TE STL

(28.8 percent)

With Tamme’s ownership shooting up 25 percent since last week, I’ll be departing the Tamme train. It was a fun ride. Already a thin position, with Tamme and Ben Watson now out of our ownership range, it’s slim pickings. I’m going with Cook. The Rams play the Bears’ soft defense in week ten. While Todd Gurley will probably go berserk, Cook may get some action as well. He’s seen at least three targets in each game, although he hasn’t been thrown to more than four times in a game over the past three contests. With Lewis out for the season, New England may opt to use Scott Chandler more in the passing game. He’s unlikely to see enough volume, though, making him extremely touchdown dependent.

Honorable mention: Chandler (at NYG).

Kicker

Connor Barth, K TB

(23.7 percent)

For fantasy kickers, Barth is in an ideal position. He’s not on a really good offense, which could limit him to extra points. Rather, he’s on a decent offense which usually moves the ball fairly well while having to settle for field goals. Barth has made at least three field goals in Tampa Bay’s last four games, going 13-for-14 in that stretch. He’s also a perfect 8-for-8 on extra-point tries. The only fear is that he could be rendered irrelevant if Tampa Bay gets into a huge hole. That’s unlikely to happen this week against Dallas. Everything I said about Barth also applies to Greg Zuerlein of the Rams. He just hasn’t been as efficient as Barth, missing four kicks over the past two weeks.

Honorable mention: Zuerlein (vs. CHI).

Team defense

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

(4.3 percent)

I picked Cassel as the quarterback streamer, so this seems contradictory. I do think he will have success against Tampa Bay, but the Buccaneers’ defense is still a nice play this week. It’s possible for both to have productive days. Cassel has been prone to turnovers, including a pick-six against the Eagles last week. Despite that, he finished with 22 points. It’s a pretty rough week for streaming defenses. The No. 2 option is Oakland, who is playing at home against Minnesota. If Bridgewater misses the game, things set up nicely for the Raiders.

Honorable mention: Oakland (vs. MIN).

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