Commentary

Week 10 fantasy matchups intel

Owners should look to start Matt Schaub, Chris Johnson; avoid Jay Cutler, others

Originally Published: November 10, 2011
By Danny Tuccitto | Football Outsiders

In most fantasy football leagues, this week is the trade deadline. Because the waiver wire is basically a wasteland at this point, the trade deadline is fantasy owners' last opportunity to meaningfully tinker with their rosters. If they're on the outside of the playoffs looking in, this means trying to acquire players who will make the fantasy postseason more likely. If they're the juggernaut of the league, then Week 10 is the time to trade for players who have soft fantasy playoff schedules.

With this in mind, let's revisit fantasy strength of schedule, which was featured in this space three weeks ago. If you're on the playoff bubble in your league, then you'll want to pay attention to this next table, which presents the easiest and toughest schedules from Week 10 to Week 13 according to Football Outsiders' DVOA measure of defensive efficiency:

If you're looking to improve your roster for the stretch run, here are a few players to either target or jettison, based on the above table.

Tony Romo, QB, Dez Bryant, WR, and Jason Witten, TE, Dallas Cowboys
Dallas has the second-easiest passing schedule for the remainder of the fantasy regular season with games against Buffalo (ranked 17th in pass defense DVOA), Washington (10th), Miami (31st) and Arizona (29th) over the next four weeks. Along with the Eagles, the Cowboys are one of only two teams with a top-eight passing schedule that doesn't face a top-eight pass defense during that span.

Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars' next four opponents are ranked 29th, 25th, 10th and 27th in run defense DVOA, respectively. Furthermore, they're the only team that doesn't play at least one top-eight run defense in that time. Even against the 10th-ranked Texans, who he already faced in Week 8, Jones-Drew still accumulated 74 total yards and a touchdown.


To see the players with the easier and toughest fantasy playoff schedules, and to read more fantasy advice, including which players you should start and which you should avoid in Week 10, you must be an ESPN Insider.

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