When Monday Night Football ends, our waiver wire clocks will begin ticking, as we look for a way to either save our teams from complete catastrophe or keep the lifeboat afloat. It’s the halfway point of the season, and it still seems like this NFL season may be an endless puzzle, attempting to take our teams off center. When NFL Sunday had subsided, we saw injuries to Patrick Mahomes, J.J. McCarthy, Gardner Minshew, and Justin Herbert. All four quarterbacks ended up finishing their games, which leads us to even more confusion in a season where just a little bit of transparency and certainty would be appreciated.
McCarthy was one of the three streamers we utilized for our streamers last week, and overall, his gameplay was mostly positive, despite leaving the game for about a quarter’s worth of time. McCarthy only had 19 attempts in his abbreviated start, but looked sharp in his start, finding Malik Nabers and Isaiah Likely with some quality passes during the game. Jameis Winston came in and took the lone passing touchdown on the day to Likely, but from what was seen in the game, the eye test favored McCarthy while the box score favored Winston. Winston had a solid quarter worth of gameplay, but McCarthy ultimately looked more poised and capable of taking this team somewhere. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to complete the whole game, but we could look at him again to stream later in the season.
Malik Willis unfortunately let us down, as he has the Dolphins on a consistent basis since the season started. Willis was unable to finish the game with over a 50 percent completion rate, and he looks like he may end up being a bane for this Dolphins squad after being their big offseason acquisition. The Lions’ defense was missing pieces, but it was very clear they were tuned up and ready to protect from Willis and his ability to pass if rushing doesn’t allow.
Sam Darnold was the final streamer of the week, and unfortunately it was written before we got the resurgence of Drew Lock. Matchup still intriguing, Lock was able to finish the game just shy of 100 QBR, and has continued to show up when the Seahawks need him most. The Cardinals are a shell of a team, and it seemed as if the Seahawks toyed with the Cardinals just as much as anything else, as Lock used A.J. Barner to the tune of two touchdowns, one of which was a bowling-ball fullback rush.
Drew Lock, Seattle Seahawks
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| @LV | 5/5 | 12 | 16.54 |
You know it’s an odd year when spending such a large portion of our fantasy lives discussing Drew Lock, but this seems like an unmined potential that not enough fantasy players are keeping an eye on. The Seahawks are one of the best-coached, most exciting teams that continue to thrive on defense, giving any quarterback wonderful field position. Lock was in on all 66 offensive plays and performed above average per PFF metrics, and he was able to benefit from bringing in Jadarian Price and Barner in favor of peppering Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 20-plus targets. While this style of gameplay was a tad less flashy, this could be something that continues to unfold in Lock’s second consecutive start. In a relatively low-scoring affair, it seems like Lock may be starting to unlock a bit more of the offense than what Darnold had prior, and while the discussion seems to be Darnold coming back after their bye week, this game going well for Lock could lead to a bit more discussion about who’s deserving of the starter’s role.
The Raiders are a team that has survived on the arm of Kirk Cousins, but overall their defense has been very bad and unable to hold off offenses throughout the year. This season, the Raiders have given up two more touchdowns than any other team in the league, and are a league low in pass coverage as well. While JSN was relatively quiet in Week 9, as the offense was far more balanced, with a defense like the Raiders, Lock could un-Lock another level of offense, going so far as to find JSN for his usual target threshold and also continuing on the path of getting Jadarian Price and Barner more involved. Through nine weeks, the Raiders have been unable to stop any offense, so it seems safe to think that the Seahawks’ qualified coaching staff will be able to take advantage of this matchup.
Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| @NO | 4/5 | 65 | 18.79 |
Bryce Young is attempting to be one of the most enigmatic quarterbacks of the season. Every time he zigs, we zag. Hopefully, when our teams start in week 10, we find ourselves lining up with Young at his most dynamic. Young had a solid Week 9, putting up 276 yards passing and 3 touchdowns against a Broncos defense that, on the season, is graded out sixth overall. The Broncos were able to keep Young corked up for almost the entire first half, until Young found everyone’s least favorite touchdown vulture, Tommy Tremble, to end the first half. Young has had two relatively disheartening performances before the Broncos matchup, but looking back at who he was playing gives us a bit more insight into the situation, as he faced the buzzsaw Packers defense last week and still was able to get over 200 air yards, and the week prior he faced a Bucs defense that, at 3-6, is grading out as the third-best defense in the league. Young took almost ten quarters of football to start to look like the player he was through Week 6, but the long and short of it is, Young has given us a lot of reason to believe he may have turned a corner on who he is as an NFL quarterback. Young has found consistent targets in Tetairoa McMillan (8.9 targets per game) and Jalen Coker (7.0 targets per game). The Panthers offense has also found itself able to finally rely on a consistent Chuba Hubbard in the backfield, as he’s been able to create over 100 all-purpose yards in three of his last five games (coming short four yards in one of those games), causing defenses to treat run plays just as important as passing.
The Saints defense, however, is unraveling at an unseemly speed. While the Bucs, Broncos, and Packers were all able to give Bryce some fits, this Saints defense is just one of 14 teams that have given up more than 200 points on the season, and is also ranked in the bottom 10 defenses in graded metrics on PFF. While this Saints defense hasn’t done anything particularly bad, they also haven’t done much well either. This season, the only thing they’ve been able to rely on is a consistent pass rush. Young will have the luxury of a well-rounded offense that will be able to work itself out of speed rushes, leaving the quarterback able to check down when needed to Hubbard, or unload a pass to either Coker or McMillan. It wouldn’t be surprising for us to see Young top or get close to another 300 yards in this matchup.
Jacoby Brissett, Baltimore Ravens
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| LAC | 5/5 | 3% | TBD |
Sometimes in pro sports, things don’t need to make a whole lot of sense for them to be humorous. In a weird twist of fate, the Arizona Cardinals benched Jacoby Brissett and went with the secondary hand of Gardner Minshew. Just days later, Lamar Jackson was declared out for the rest of the season, and Brissett was headed across the country to join the Ravens as their new starter. While this team is unlike the Ravens teams of old, being a Ravens quarterback this season is a much more coveted option than laboring in Arizona until an offseason when a new quarterback is likely drafted. This is much more of a hedge play for all the variables that Brissett has going for him than it is an anointing of Brissett as the next best thing in quarterbacking. Brissett wasn’t playing at an all-star level for the Cardinals, but he seemed like the fall guy for an organization that cannot get out of its own way. While he’s the 20th overall quarterback in the season in passing yards, he’s still ahead of Justin Herbert, Sam Darnold, and Malik Willis, and that’s including a week off in trade transit. Brissett will step into a Ravens locker room that has playmakers like Zay Flowers and Derrick Henry, who, more than anything, want to try and win some games to get into playoff contention with a competent quarterback who won’t make mistakes. The first course of action for the Ravens should be calming down and quieting the noise for Brissett, as he was in the top 10 quarterbacks for interceptions, but this is something that can be worked on with an offense that has more capable players ready.
The Chargers, on the other hand, are all but done with this season, as their new coaching setup has peeled out of the parking lot and is doing donuts on the standings. Mike McDaniels will likely be out by or before the end of the season, and the offense continuously stalling is leading to constant special teams play that will lead to shorter fields and more opportunities when they face the Ravens. The Chargers’ defense is easily the best of their three-facet attack, but that’s not saying much overall. Their pass defense has left a lot to be desired, as Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still have both allowed over 68 percent completion rate when being targeted. Isas Waxter has been a standout and has been 32 for 32 in pass-completion coverage, but he’s facing an uphill battle in a defense that also doesn’t have much of an identity. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise for the Ravens to let Brissett start this game and immediately attack the weak spots in this defense for confidence. Brissett could be one of the sneakiest streamers of the week and can be added at no cost.