NFL Reactions: Week 10

-There are worse developmental backup quarterbacks than Jeff Driskel, who was stuck with the short-notice start in Chicago, a game in which he completed 27-of-46 passes for 269 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He also ran for 37 yards on five carries. Marvin Jones was quite good (five catches for 77 yards on six targets) while Kenny Golladay was uneven at best, scoring on an excellent 47-yard touchdown but also dropping three passes on nine targets, two of which were egregious.

-Mitch Trubisky might be the only quarterback in the league capable of getting sacked five times versus 23 pass attempts against the Lions, but his overall box score was alright, completing 16-of-23 passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns. It's possible that Trubisky had room to throw because the Lions sold out against the run – any other explanation would be a bad look for David Montgomery (17 carries for 60 yards).

-As much as it's understandable to make Lamar Jackson the main subject of Baltimore's 49-13 win over Cincinnati – he scored four touchdowns after all, including a memorable 47-yard touchdown run – it's also worth drawing attention to how much better this offense gets when Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews are healthy. It takes a little help to score four touchdowns in 24 plays, and both Brown (four catches for 80 yards and one touchdown on four targets) and Mark Andrews (six catches for 53 yards and two touchdowns on eight targets) were at their best in weeks.

-I thought it would go even worse for Ryan Finley in his first start. Baltimore's corner rotation might be the best in the league, and it's pretty much unfair to throw a rookie against that crew in his first start. Finley went 16-of-30 for 167 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Finley was reasonably effective when throwing to Tyler Boyd, who caught six of eight targets for 62 yards.

-I'm all for analytics-informed playcalling and schemes, but the Bills need to realize that Josh Allen isn't a good enough passer to make their pass-happy approach especially reasonable. In multiple games this year they've gone too many snaps without giving the ball to Devin Singletary, and Sunday's narrow 19-16 loss to the Browns was no exception. Instead of 41 Allen passes and eight Singletary carries against the Browns, it should have been something more like 31 Allen passes for 18 Singletary carries. Singleton's eight carries went for 42 yards (5.3 YPC), while Allen's 22-of-41 line resulted in just 266 yards (6.5 YPA).

-It was ugly and could have gone much worse yet, but the Browns got their win and Baker Mayfield labored to a generally clean game despite an inefficient box score of 26-of-38 for 238 yards and two touchdowns. Odell Beckham was dreadfully inefficient (five catches for 57 yards on 12 targets) in what is clearly a lost season, but Jarvis Landry was almost automatic on his lower-difficulty targets, securing nine of 10 for 97 yards and a touchdown.

-Nick Chubb saw 20 carries (116 yards) to Kareem Hunt's four carries (30 yards), but Hunt saw nine targets (seven catches for 44 yards) to four targets (two catches for five yards) for Chubb. Hunt is the better pass catcher between the two, but neither saw much in the way of target quality.

-Patrick Mahomes posted his customary sort of production in his first game back from the dislocated knee, completing 36-of-50 passes for 446 yards, and three touchdowns. Tyreek Hill was unsurprisingly the leading contributor among pass catchers, turning 19 targets into 11 catches for 157 yards and a touchdown, but Travis Kelce was automatic with seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown on seven targets. Sammy Watkins was a huge disappointment (five catches for 39 yards on nine targets), and I wonder if Mecole Hardman might steal some snaps after taking his only target for a 63-yard touchdown.

-LeSean McCoy was reportedly scratched Sunday in large part due to ball security concerns, so the last thing Damien Williams owners wanted to see was Rashaan Evans' fumble return for a touchdown on a Williams fumble. Optics and irrational thinking generally determine a lot of decisions made in the NFL, but it'd be silly if Andy Reid let Williams' fumble alter the game plan going forward. Ball security hasn't been an issue in Williams' six-year career – Sunday's was the fifth of his career, leaving him with one fumble per 78.4 touches. Then again, McCoy has never been a fumbler either, and that supposedly didn't matter to Reid. I'd say Reid should have benched McCoy just because Williams strikes me as the better player, but anecdotal disruptions might keep us from getting a conclusive verdict on that question this year. For what it's worth, Williams ran for 77 yards on 19 carries and caught all five of his targets for 32 yards against the Titans.

-Ryan Tannehill is getting a lot of praise in post-game coverage, but he did very little to earn the 35-32 victory for the Titans. That credit goes to Derrick Henry, who had his first monstrous game of the year with 188 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. He's now up to 10 touchdowns in 10 games.

-The Falcons' baffling 26-9 win over New Orleans isn't explained any by Matt Ryan's play, as he completed only 20-of-35 passes for 182 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. It's not a bad first week back from an ankle injury, though it did prevent all of Julio Jones (three catches for 79 yards on nine targets), Calvin Ridley (three catches for 28 yards on five targets), or Austin Hooper (four catches for 17 yards and one touchdown on five targets) from providing useful fantasy outputs.

-Devonta Freeman suffered an ankle injury after 10 carries for 38 yards and three catches for 10 yards on four targets, forcing Atlanta to turn to Brian Hill at running back. Hill caught a 10-yard touchdown pass on two targets, but he mostly plodded otherwise with 61 yards on 20 carries. As much as Hill has flashed some talent at various points, I'd expect him to split carries with Qadree Ollison if Freeman misses any time. Kenjon Barner might also get more work in that scenario, though there's nothing additional on Freeman's prognosis at the moment.

-Michael Thomas had the big game everyone expected, catching 13 of 14 targets for 152 yards, but the rest of the New Orleans passing game disappointed. Drew Brees finished just 32-of-45 for 287 yards and no touchdowns, taking six sacks against a team with one of the league's worst pass rushes. Particularly given the success of the Atlanta pass rush, Sean Payton might face reasonable criticism for abandoning the run, as Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray combined for just 36 yards on nine carries.

-You'd like to see him take fewer sacks, but Daniel Jones was excellent against the Jets on Sunday, completing 26-of-40 passes for 308 yards and four touchdowns. Rookie fifth-round pick Darius Slayton continues to look like a steal, as he led the Giants in all receiving categories, catching 10 of 14 targets for 121 yards and two touchdowns. He's had a legitimately impressive start to his career, and he has the athletic tools to maybe be something like the next Mike Wallace. Golden Tate (four catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns on eight targets) still has it, too.

-Sam Darnold had an encouraging first two drives for the Jets, but pretty much fell asleep after that. This is a recurring theme with Darnold, and fair or not I'm inclined to blame Adam Gase. Demaryius Thomas seems to have something left (six catches for 84 yards on nine targets), but it's a bad sign for the Jets offense when it can't get Robby Anderson going (one 11-yard catch on three targets). Jamison Crowder (five catches for 81 yards and one touchdown on six targets) has repeatedly been productive even when Darnold otherwise struggled, so he seems like a top-35 PPR option at WR at the moment.

-Kyler Murray kind of blew it with a late interception in Sunday's 30-27 loss to Tampa Bay, but in the bigger picture it's an encouraging game for the rookie. He completed 27-of-44 attempts for 324 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception while leading the team with 38 rushing yards on three carries. Second-year wideout Christian Kirk has been playing outside more often the last two weeks after primarily playing in the slot before then, and it's possible that the switch favors him. Although not a burner, Kirk is a legitimate playmaker and placing him outside could put him in a better position to create big plays. He led the team with 10 targets Sunday, catching six for 138 yards (23.0 YPR) and the three touchdowns. With Kirk working more downfield Larry Fitzgerald remains as the clear lead slot receiver, and his eight targets resulted in a team-leading eight receptions for 71 yards. Andy Isabella encouragingly maintained his momentum from last week, seeing only three targets but catching all of them for 78 yards. The running game was otherwise a mess, with Kenyan Drake turning 10 carries into 35 yards and David Johnson plodding to two yards on five carries. The game couldn't have been much more disheartening for Johnson owners.

-In deeper dynasty leagues I would consider picking up Pharoh Cooper. Fitz is the unchallenged lead slot receiver for the rest of this year, but Cooper was a productive player very early in his South Carolina career, and at 24 the former fourth-round pick could develop into useful player in the upcoming years. He's getting targeted at a high rate (12 on 83 snaps going into Sunday, when he saw five targets on an undetermined snap count), and at 36 years old Fitzgerald only has so many snaps left. Even if Fitz sticks around in 2020, an improved offensive line would be another way for Cooper to see future snaps – the Cardinals might be running fewer four-wide sets in recent weeks to get more blocking assistance from the tight ends.

-Jameis Winston will be only 26 in January, but it still feels wrong to grant him more patience. He completed 30-of-48 passes for 358 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions against the weak Arizona pass defense, and Tampa didn't really deserve to win. O.J. Howard wasn't particularly efficient with four catches for 47 yards and a touchdown on seven targets, but it's still his biggest fantasy output of the year so far. I doubt it guarantees much going forward, but Howard has talent worth accommodating and I think it'd be in Arians' interests to target him going forward.

-Although Ronald Jones was declared the team's starting running back this week, a lost fumble might complicate Arians' assessment of what was otherwise an encouraging game for the second-year back. He caught eight of eight targets for 77 yards, adding 11 carries for 29 yards and a touchdown. The problem is that Peyton Barber ended up with 11 carries himself, going for 43 yards and a touchdown. The split might stick around a while longer, though perhaps Jones has at least displaced Barber and Dare Ogunbowale for the lead pass-catching role in the backfield.

-There were a lot of ugly throws, but Kyle Allen did better in Green Bay than I expected him to, offsetting some of the bad throws with a handful of strong ones while completing 28-of-43 for 307 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. D.J. Moore took advantage of his favorable matchup against Kevin King, snagging nine of 11 passes for 120 yards while Curtis Samuel caught four of eight targets for 35 yards and one touchdown.

-Aaron Rodgers seemed to play fine and definitely made a few nice throws at least, but 17-of-29 for 233 yards and no touchdowns is a big letdown for his owners. Davante Adams looked great (seven catches for 118 yards on 10 targets), but he's still looking for his first touchdown of the season. Meanwhile, Aaron Jones ran for three more touchdowns against the Panthers. It's not hard to see where Adams' 2018 touchdowns ran off to.

-While I'll admit playing in Pittsburgh is a tough task, I really don't see much hope for Goff and therefore I don't see much hope for the Rams at large. Bad defenses and great game planning can lead to some productive weeks here and there, but Goff needs extensive accommodation that just isn't available most weeks. You know things are bad when he can't even get the ball to Cooper Kupp once (four targets) in a 17-12 loss. He's one of the worst quarterbacks in the league right now, and Sean McVay might want to pull an Urban Meyer if he wants to compete for the Super Bowl in the next five years. The Rams are busted and they spent all their future resources on luxuries that might go underwater with the rest of the ship.

-It's interesting that James Washington (six catches for 90 yards and one touchdown on seven targets) and Diontae Johnson (four catches for 64 yards on six targets) were both productive against the Rams, but this might have been the best-case scenario for Mason Rudolph and he still completed only 57.9 percent of his passes at 6.4 YPA.