Welcome back to Lucid Streams. Our goal here is to help you find emergency help that’s potentially available on the waiver wire or on the back of your bench when you’re scrambling for options due to injuries or plain old poor drafting at wide receiver and tight end. We also want to equip you with the tools to go out on your own and find the best fantasy football sleepers yourself in case the options listed here each week aren’t available to you. Our goal is to find WRs who have at least a reasonable chance to contribute 10+ PPR points to your lineup this week and TEs who can chip in at least seven points in PPR.
Last week was a bit of a bust on our WR recommendations, with only two recommendations hitting: Xavier Legette and Demarcus Robinson. At TE, we also had just two recommendations that hit, but we nailed the TE1 on the week, Mike Gesicki. This week, with four teams on bye, we’ll have to dig a little deeper to find winning plays, but we know they exist every week.
The Process
What we are looking for each week is to find the players most likely to pop for one of several reasons. They may have an increased role in their offense due to the misfortune of a player ahead of them on the depth chart, or they may be facing a defense that will have trouble defending them due to a positional mismatch. Maybe that’s a chronic problem of the defense, or maybe it’s due to injuries in the coverage units, which will allow a unique opportunity for success by our streamer. At the intersection of high opportunity and low rostership is where we want to pan for gold in the stream. Remember, these are recommendations for those who are really in a bind for a starter and should not be played over anyone you’d normally start.
We’ll use a variety of tools to help us, including schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to the WR and TE positions. If you’re not familiar with this metric, it removes the variance that can skew fantasy points allowed by a defense due to the quality of the passing attacks they’ve faced. For example, if Defense A has faced four top-tier passing offenses in the first four weeks while Defense B has faced only weak passing offenses over that same period, it could appear that Defense B is better at defending WRs than Defense A, when in reality, Defense A might be the tougher matchup. The further we get into the season, the more relevance this analysis has.
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Streaming Wide Receivers Week 10
Xavier Legette, Carolina Panthers
Legette paid off last week with a stat line of 4-33-1 on six targets as Carolina notched a rare win. This week, he gets the Giants in a Sunday morning tilt in Germany. Legette has been a key cog in a slowly improving Panther offense, so we’re dialing him up again.
Jalen Tolbert, Dallas Cowboys
Things have gone from bad to worse in Dallas, with CeeDee Lamb likely to be very questionable for Week 10 and Dak Prescott headed for Injured Reserve. Tolbert may stand to benefit against the Eagles, since garbage time points count the same as any other fantasy points. He’s likely to be targeted frequently by Cooper Rush, who is not a completely terrible option as a thrower of footballs.
Sterling Shepard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There may be a shootout brewing in Tampa vs. San Francisco. If that happens, Shepard is in a prime spot to benefit. Trey Palmer is looking more like a special teamer than a legit WR, and Jalen McMillan is dealing with balky hamstrings. That leaves Baker Mayfield‘s college teammate as the top WR option for the Buccaneers.
Quentin Johnston, Los Angeles Chargers
Fantasy gamers have been very slow to embrace former first-round pick Quentin Johnston, but he’s done a 180-degree turn from a lost year in 2023. Often, when a previous regime is ousted, their busted draft picks are marginalized at best or flat-out discarded, but Jim Harbaugh’s staff decided to see if they could make chicken salad out of QJ. Turns out, they found a recipe for success.
Honorable Mentions
- Noah Brown: Brown is starting to stake a claim to the WR2 role in Washington. No help came via trade this week, so look for Brown to continue to earn targets opposite Terry McLaurin.
- Nick Westbrook-Ikhine: All he does is catch touchdowns, but at a certain point, we have to acknowledge that this might be more skill than luck.
Streaming Tight Ends Week 10
Mike Gesicki, Cincinnati Bengals
If you didn’t pick him up on waivers this week, you’ve probably missed the boat here, but Mike Gesicki is suddenly riding high in Cincinnati. The Bengals have a short turnaround to a Thursday game this week against the Ravens, who have struggled against TEs all year. Tee Higgins seems unlikely to play yet again, and Erick All is out for the season with a torn ACL. Suddenly, Gesicki finds himself an integral part of a potent passing attack.
Jonnu Smith, Miami Dolphins
Over the past five weeks, Jonnu Smith has been a TE1, yet he is still lightly rostered. Sometimes, we just have to lean into what teams are telling us with their player usage, and Miami is telling us that Jonnu is an integral part of this offense. At this point, he shouldn’t be available on waiver wires much longer, so if you’re struggling at TE, it’s time to follow the Dolphins’ lead and trust Jonnu.
Theo Johnson, New York Giants
The Giants don’t have a bankable passing offense, but Theo Johnson has been gaining steam as the season rolls on. This week, the rookie gets a weak Carolina defense that should allow plenty of yards and points. If you’re in a jam, Theo could produce for you.
Ja’Tavion Sanders, Carolina Panthers
Another rookie who is earning a bigger role with his team, Sanders is showing off his pass-catching chops for the Panthers. He’s gotten at least five targets in four of the past five weeks. The Giants are not the most fantasy-friendly defense for opposing TEs, but they’re not a shut-down defense by any means.
Honorable Mention
- Grant Calcaterra: Dallas Goedert is still struggling to return from his hamstring injury, and Calcaterra has been a solid fill-in. This week, he faces a beaten-down Cowboys squad.
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