Week 10 is here and it starts on Thursday night when the Bengals face the Ravens in a must-win game to get back to .500 this year.

As for Baltimore, Thursday’s game offers the Ravens a chance to take their place as one of the league’s best teams. Sure, the start of the year was a bit erratic, but a 7-3 Ravens team would be one of the top two contenders in the AFC behind the Chiefs.

And although KC won head-to-head, you could argue that injuries have weakened the undefeated Chiefs enough that they don’t want to face Baltimore again.

Anyway, enough chatter about a game that wasn’t even mentioned in this week’s article. Let’s take a look at a player at each skill position in fantasy football who will have a strong Week 10 performance in 2024.

This is the second week in a row I’ve written about AFC South defensive tackle Sam Darnold.

Last week against the Colts, Darnold was fired up and threw three touchdown passes in the win against the Colts. He finished the season as QB9 with his fourth top-10 finish. (Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that Darnold turned the ball over three times in the game, but doesn’t that make his finish all the more impressive?)

This week, Darnold will face the Jaguars, who allow the quarterback position to yield the second-most fantasy points per game. The team has allowed 200 or more net passes in all but one game this season.

Darnold has only been ranked outside the top 20 in fantasy once all season, so fantasy managers should confidently fire him for QB1 play ahead of this strong matchup.

Devin Singletary was New York’s starting running back when this season began, but his ineffectiveness combined with his one-game absence due to injury opened the door for Tyrone Tracy Jr. to take over that role.

And it doesn’t look like Tracy will be giving it back anytime soon.

The Purdue product has reached double-digit carries in four of the last five games. He has gone over 100 yards twice in those four games and has a pair of touchdown runs.

His best game was two weeks ago against the Steelers. In that one, Tracy completed 20 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown, finishing the week as the overall RB4.

He has a competitive matchup with the Panthers this week. No defense in the NFL has allowed more fantasy points at the running back position than the Panthers. The team gave up 197 yards to the Saints last week and could only hold one team to under 100 yards on the ground. And that team was the Raiders, so not really.

Tank Dell doesn’t seem as explosive in his second NFL season as he was in his first, but he’s having his best game of the year, catching six of his nine targets for 126 yards and finally showing off some of his big hits. It’s his playing ability that makes him a big threat in 2023.

We don’t know right now if the Texans will bring back Nico Collins for this matchup, but I’m not sure I care one way or the other.

That’s because the Lions, despite being one of the NFL’s best teams, have had some issues in pass defense at times, allowing the third-most fantasy points per game against opposing outfielders.

So, scenario 1: Collins is out and Dell serves as Houston’s top receiver. Considering how Houston’s receiving corps quickly dropped off after Dell, it looks like he’ll be stacked with targets against a defense that has some secondary issues.

Scenario 2: Collins plays and gets a lot of defensive pressure. This opens the way for more one-on-one shots so Dell can take advantage and make a few big moves throughout the game.

Either way, I expect a strong performance from Dell in this regard. I know CJ Stroud has fallen behind a bit lately, but Dell still had a strong game last week despite Stroud completing just 11 passes. Stroud had 126 of his 191 yards.

Maybe one day I’ll stop betting on Jonnu Smith, but I’ve been doing that since the Tennessee days and will probably continue to do so until two years after I retire. I’m not sure what happened, but I always think Smith was on the verge of a breakout. I think it’s worth remembering this bias before reading the rest of this chapter.

Smith has been putting up solid goal numbers recently, scoring six or more goals in four consecutive games. With Tua Tagovailoa returning, Smith averaged 6.0 touchdowns and 4.5 receiving yards per game.

This week he will face the Los Angeles Rams, who have allowed 40 catches for 474 yards and four touchdowns this season. Overall, the Rams allow the sixth-most fantasy points per game at the position.

So yeah, this week I’m running Jonnu Smith as TE2 with TE1 advantage. His recent usage and this matchup make him attractive at a position where, frankly, you’re in trouble unless you draft an elite guy or have the good fortune to get Cade Otton off the waiver wire.