Week 10 fantasy football rankings: Bank on Brees

Week 10 fantasy football rankings: Bank on Brees
Photo via: Saints/Facebook

These are my very early ranks, so keep in mind I post these on Thursday. Make sure you check the injury report on Sunday for players that have missed practice. If it doesn't look like a player will play this week, I typically won't rank him. Keep in mind, these are PPR rankings, and don't forget to set your lineup for Thursday Night Football.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter. Be sure to check out my show MoneyLine with Jerry Bo on ESPN 97.5FM. We're on every Sunday morning from 10-noon, and we'll talk a lot of fantasy football and NFL gambling getting you ready for kickoff every Sunday.

@JoshJordan975

@Moneyline975

@JerryBoKnowz

QB

Rodgers should bounce back after a tough loss against the Chargers. Photo by Andy Lyons/GettyImages

1 Lamar Jackson

2 Drew Brees

3 Patrick Mahomes

4 Russell Wilson

5 Aaron Rodgers

6 Philip Rivers

7 Kyler Murray

8 Dak Prescott

9 Jimmy Garoppolo

10 Jameis Winston

11 Josh Allen

12 Matt Ryan

13 Jared Goff

14 Matthew Stafford

15 Derek Carr

RB

Feed Zeke...Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

1 Christian McCaffrey

2 Saquon Barkley

3 Ezekiel Elliott

4 Dalvin Cook

5 Aaron Jones

6 Alvin Kamara

7 Josh Jacobs

8 Mark Ingram

9 Derrick Henry

10 Marlon Mack

11 Melvin Gordon

12 Le'Veon Bell

13 Nick Chubb

14 Jaylen Samuels

15 Chris Carson

16 Austin Ekeler

17 Tevin Coleman

18 David Johnson

19 Todd Gurley

20 David Montgomery

21 Damien Williams

22 Devin Singletary

23 Devonta Freeman

24 Ronald Jones

25 Latavius Murray

26 Jamaal Williams

27 Matt Breida

28 J.D. McKissic

29 Joe Mixon

30 Tarik Cohen

WR

Thomas comes in at No.1 this week. Photo by New Orleans Saints/Facebook

1 Michael Thomas

2 Chris Godwin

3 Amari Cooper

4 Julio Jones

5 Cooper Kupp

6 Tyreek Hill

7 Mike Evans

8 Tyler Lockett

9 Keenan Allen

10 Davante Adams

11 Stefon Diggs

12 Kenny Golladay

13 Emmanuel Sanders

14 Allen Robinson

15 D.J. Moore

16 John Brown

17 Mike Williams

18 Golden Tate

19 Calvin Ridley

20 Christian Kirk

21 Michael Gallup

22 Odell Beckham Jr

23 Marvin Jones

24 Zach Pascall

25 Sammy Watkins

26 Jamison Crowder

27 Devante Parker

28 Robert Woods

29 Marquise Brown

30 JuJu Smith-Schuster

31 Tyler Boyd

32 Larry Fitzgerald

33 D.K. Metcalf

34 Tyrell Williams

35 Danny Amendola

36 Jarvis Landry

TE

It's hard not to like Henry against the Raiders. Photo via:Chargers/Facebook

1 George Kittle

2 Travis Kelce

3 Hunter Henry

4 Austin Hooper

5 Darren Waller

6 Mark Andrews

7 Greg Olsen

8 Gerald Everett

9 Jared Cook

10 Jonnu Smith

11 Jack Doyle

12 Jason Witten

13 T.J. Hockenson

14 Mike Gesicki

15 Vance McDonald

DEF

1 Ravens

2 Colts

3 Bills

4 Saints

5 Bears

6 Cowboys

7 Rams

8 Giants

9 Chargers

10 49ers

11 Steelers

12 Vikings

13 Packers

14 Lions

15 Browns

KICKER

1 Justin Tucker

2 Wil Lutz

3 Robbie Gould

4 Harrison Butker

5 Brett Maher

6 Zane Gonzalez

7 Michael Badgley

8 Greg Zuerlein

9 Matt Gay

10 Mason Crosby

11 Matt Prater

12 Adam Vinatieri

13 Joey Slye

14 Dan Bailey

15 Steven Hauschka

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Nobody saw this coming! Composite Getty Image.

It’s a fun series between the Astros and Rangers through the weekend in Arlington, but by no means is it a critical series. It would be nice for the Astros to not lose three out of the four games (or obviously all four) to their upstate rivals. The Astros have lost their last five road series, dropping two out of three games in each of them. As with the Astros, pitching has been the strength of the team for the Rangers thus far. After the humdinger Hunter Brown-Jacob deGrom mound matchup Thursday night, the Rangers give the ball Friday to Nathan Eovaldi with his earned run average at 1.78, then Saturday it’s Tyler Mahle with his even more sparkling 1.47 ERA. Heading into Thursday play, the Mariners having lost five of their last six games meant just a game and a half separate first from fourth place in the American League West. The Astros, Rangers, and Athletics are all right there. Only the Angels are inconsequential.

Star power!

There is an asterisk to attach but Jeremy Pena is making a real charge at becoming a first-time All-Star game selection. Among American League shortstops, the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best. The clear number two in the pecking order coming into this season was the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, who is on fire after a slow start that began with him missing seven games on the injured list. Athletics’ rookie Jacob Wilson goes into the weekend batting .350 and amazingly has struck out just nine times in 164 at bats. Rangers’ stud Corey Seager being on the injured list with a balky hamstring for the second time this season helps the Astros this weekend and likely frees up an All-Star spot.

Now to that aforementioned asterisk. Pena has been sensational so far, indisputably the Astros’ best everyday player. We just need to see more staying power of performance before fully slotting Pena in the top tier of shortstops. Pena’s four-hit game Wednesday night hiked his batting average to .315, his OPS to .840. Well, last year Pena put head to pillow the night of May 15 with his batting average at .333, his OPS at .830. The rest of the season Pena hit .240 with a meager .653 OPS. That Pena drew a paltry 18 walks over his last 114 games. 2025 Pena has showed markedly better plate discipline. He’ll never be a high walks-drawn guy but incremental improvement matters, and can bear fruit in other ways.

Fruitless continues to describe an awfully high percentage of Christian Walker’s plate appearances. 2023 Jose Abreu was better (2024 Abreu was not). Plenty of season still remains for a turnaround, but more than a quarter of the season is gone and it’s not as if Walker is trending in the right direction. In three games against the Royals he went zero for 12 with seven strikeouts. With his final whiff, Walker reached the 50 strikeout “milestone” for the season in his 154th at bat. Feeble and lousy are fair characterizations of a .208 batting average and .625 OPS, magnified for someone batting clean-up most nights. Starting play Thursday 13 big leaguers actually had struck out more than Walker so far this season, among them only the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds carries a lower OPS. Walker has been even worse with runners in scoring position, batting just .171, with a sub-abysmal 20 strikeouts in 41 at bats.

Using Baseball-Reference's Wins Above Replacement statistic, the Astros’ three worst non-pitchers this season are Walker, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Altuve. Those are the three highest paid players on the team. Altuve’s extended funk has him hitting .202 over his last 27 games with a .538 OPS. Altuve was dropped to second in the batting order basically at his request. It has not sparked him. If Altuve doesn’t pick it up, manager Joe Espada will have to consider dropping Altuve several more spots down the lineup. Alvarez is at 11 games and counting missed with a muscle strain in his right hand. He will not be approaching the career-high 147 games played last season.

Relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a revelation last season. Before joining the Astros at age 31 Scott had a big-league ERA of 9.00 in 46 innings scattered over three seasons. So it was pretty much out of nowhere that the only South African pitcher in MLB history posted a scintillating 1.36 ERA into early August before fading and winding up with a still stellar 2.23 mark. The clock struck midnight on his Cinderella story this year though, and with the Astros needing to open a roster spot this week, Scott was designated for assignment.

Book it!

Longtime Astros’ broadcasting stalwart Bill Brown has authored several books. His latest is Wartime Athletes, which tells the stories of athletes across a number of sports who served in the U.S. military during various wars. If you know anything about Bill Brown, you know each story was meticulously researched and makes for an interesting read. I’m no Oprah when it comes to the power of suggestion for reading material, but Wartime Athletes is worth your time and/or is a worthy gift for someone else.

For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!

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