Week 10’s FLEX board is mostly a study in absence. Injuries have done the heavy lifting here, and the fallout is opening doors for a handful of backups, fill-ins, and one or two returning names who suddenly matter a lot more than they did a week ago.
The trade deadline barely moved the fantasy needle; the real shakeup came from Puka Nacua, Rhamondre Stevenson, Jaylin Noel and Michael Wilson leaving volume behind. Even the Colts’ receiver room got dragged into the chaos after Josh Downs and Keenan Allen changed teams, leaving the offense with a fresh batch of question marks.
At running back, Omarion Hampton is the kind of play you don’t exactly fall in love with, but the setup is workable. He’s down to $4,900, which is a bad sign in itself, yet the Ravens are starting Jacoby Brissett and Hampton is coming off a 13/60 game against the Texans. Baltimore’s run defense isn’t imposing enough to scare you off completely, so he lands as one of the safer FLEX options on the slate.
Corey Kiner is suddenly in line for a much bigger workload in New England. With Rhamondre Stevenson out with a knee injury and TreVeyon Henderson dealing with a terrifying-sounding neurological problem, Kiner becomes the next man up for the Patriots in a game with a 50.5 over/under overseas against the Lions. He had already started to chip away at carries, and the expectation here is that he gets the bulk of the work.
Audric Estime also benefits from a messy backfield picture. If Travis Etienne manages to play this week off injured reserve, then this gets tossed aside, but the read here is that Estime can keep piling up carries alongside Alvin Kamara. The Panthers have already shown they can get absolutely torched on the ground, and their lack of healthy good cornerbacks leaves them in passive coverages and box structures.
Emmett Johnson is another name worth circling. The Chiefs’ trade for Josh Downs should help stabilize the pass-catching group, but there’s no such thing as a one-week integration plan for non-quarterbacks. Johnson has scored in back-to-back games and should also pick up a small share of the Kenneth Walker workload, while the Falcons don’t exactly present a terrifying test with Kansas City road favorites.
The wide receiver pool is where the injuries really start to show. Konata Mumpfield is in line to benefit from Puka Nacua’s knee injury, and with the Rams, the question becomes which receivers are even left standing. The answer may not be pretty, but Mumpfield looks like one of the names positioned to gain from the vacancy.
Tank Dell is a different kind of play: less about pure volume panic and more about trusting the talent and the quarterback. Texans receiver snap counts matter, but targets are the real prize, and Dell saw nine.
He was always a favorite C.J. Stroud target before his devastating knee injury, and while the timing still looks like a work in progress, the connection is good enough to keep him in the WR3 conversation.
The Texans’ passing game looks solid, and the running game remains theoretical.
Savion Williams gets a spot too, even against a Vikings defense that makes this feel a little strange on the surface. Still, the Packers have shown they can dunk on anybody - including Minnesota in Week 1 - and there should be downfield shots available.
The screen game matters as a counter to the Vikings’ blitzing style, and after last week’s touchdown, the targets should keep coming. No Josh Jacobs could also push more gadget work his way.
Then there’s Ashton Dulin, who lands in the “someone has to catch the ball” category for Indianapolis. The Colts’ wideout room looks rough after Downs and Allen were moved out, and Tyler Warren can’t absorb everything.
Dulin was the offseason WR3 and broke a 55-yard touchdown on a screen against the Cowboys last week. With the Dolphins starting Kyle McCord at quarterback, the Colts are favored to win, and somebody is going to have to make catches.
Reggie Virgil is in a similar spot for Arizona. The Cardinals are another case of “someone here has to catch a football,” and Virgil was the only non-Trey McBride receiver still healthy who saw more than two targets last week.
Simi Fehoko looks like the other outside starter, Devin Duvernay has spent the better part of a decade as a punt returner, and Harrison Wallace III is a 23-year-old UDFA who was waived at final cuts and drew no interest. The practice squad is full of possible elevations, though most of the names have been irrelevant for a long time.
Phillip Dorsett still being around is incredible. The Rams will speed up Carson Beck’s clock and try to take McBride away, which is enough to make Virgil at least plausible as the guy who gets something done.
At tight end, Chig Okonkwo is still waiting for the full breakout, but the signs are better. The Chigassance hasn’t fully arrived, yet 6/56 against the Rams was a solid step, and he’s been more involved than Antonio Williams since Terry McLaurin’s injury. The Giants allow 8.5 passes to tight ends per game, which ranks top 10 in the league, per FTN’s numbers.
Darnell Washington rounds out the list, and the Bengals are the reason. They continue to be the cure for the common tight end line, and the two Steelers tight ends combined for 97 yards against them in Week 3. Washington also seems to be the one Pittsburgh leans on near the goal line, which makes him the preferred play over the more reliable Pat Freiermuth, even if both could get there in the end.
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Los Angeles is dealing with its own notable absences, with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams expected to miss the game, so the Rams will look different than usual on the outside. For Arizona, that creates both opportunity and pressure, because a start like this can help settle the quarterback picture or deepen the conversation around how the Cardinals want to move forward. [Read more 🡒]