Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Early Must-Adds for Week 10

Here's your early kick-start to the fantasy football waiver wire for Week 10.

Week 9 is of the 2024 NFL schedule is nearly done, with Sunday and Monday night games to be completed. But it’s never too early to being shaping fantasy football waiver wire plans for the week to come. In Week 10, four teams have a bye (Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Las Vegas Raiders, Seattle Seahawks).

Here are your early fantasy football waiver wire must-adds for Week 10.

Note: Yahoo! scoring is the default reference to scoring unless otherwise noted.

Justin Herbert, QB, Los Angeles Chargers

Herbert went 18-for-27 for 282 yards and two touchdowns against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. He has multiple passing touchdowns in back-to-back games, and at least 279 yards through the air in three straight.

In Week 10 Herbert gets the Tennessee Titans, who entered Week 9 in the top half of the league in fantasy points per game allowed to quarterbacks. Before Sunday they had allowed multiple passing touchdowns in three straight games though, and their overall standing against quarterbacks is greatly aided by games against Malik Willis, Tyler Huntley, and Drake Maye, along with one where Jared Goff didn’t have to do much.

From Week 11-15 Herbert has four matchups (Week 11-Cincinnati Bengals, Week 12-Baltimore Ravens, Week 13-Atlanta Falcons, Week 15-Tampa Bay Buccaneers) against teams who entered Week 9 in the bottom-eight of the league in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. Week 14 against the Kansas City Chiefs is a tougher matchup.

The fantasy sentiment was not good on Herbert coming into the season, leaning into what was sure to be a run-heavy Chargers offense under Jim Harbaugh. He’s still not throwing the ball a ton, but he also hasn’t had to in the last two games with the Chargers carrying double-digit leads in the fourth quarter.

Herbert is set to be a weekly low-end QB1 from here right into the fantasy playoffs. He has also already had his bye, which adds to his value/appeal as a waiver wire add in all leagues.

ESPN Ownership: 43.4%
Yahoo! Ownerhip: 44%

Xavier Legette, WR, Carolina Panthers

Legette’s catch and yardage numbers on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints won’t knock your socks off (four catches for 33 yards), but he caught a touchdown for the second straight game and he has scored in three of the last four. Going back a bit further, the rookie has scored in four of his last six games.

Legette has topped 50 yards just once in nine game so far this season. But his playing time is on the upswing, with snap shares of 77, 84, 62 and 83 percent in the last four games (h/t to Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus for the last number from Sunday’s game). He also has a 20.6 percent target share over the last two games, with Bryce Young back under center for the Panthers.

A Week 11 bye has be noted, but Carolina’s remaining schedule is very favorable for wide receivers. Week 10 against the New York Giants is a solid matchup, then four of their five opponents from Week 13-17 entered Week 9 in the bottom-10 of the league against the position. Week 12 against the Kansas City Chiefs promises to be a pass-heavy game script for the Panthers, and Week 15 against the Dallas Cowboys might not be as bad as it looks on the surface.

Fantasy managers cannot ignore players on bad teams, and even with Sunday’s win the Panthers are undeniably a bad team. Legette is functionally the team’s WR1 now, with Diontae Johnson traded and Adam Thielen possibly gone by Tuesday’s deadline too. Legette should be rostered in all 12-team leagues.

ESPN Ownership: 32.6%
Yahoo! Ownership: 27%

Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots

Henry had seven catches for 56 yards (on eight targets) against the Tennessee Titans in Sunday, with a near-miss on a deep ball. He has more than 50 yards or a touchdown and double-digit PPR points in all three games Drake Maye has started and finished, with five catches in the one Maye left with a concussion.

Before a Week 14 bye, Henry gets an even mix of good (Los Angeles Rams-Week 11, Indianapolis Colts-Week 13) and bad (Chicago Bears-Week 10, Miami Dolphins-Week 12) matchups. But three of the previous four games, including Sunday, could have been seen as not-so-great matchups and Henry was still productive.

Henry has been able to sustain fantasy viability since Maye took over under center for the Patriots. He’s still rostered in less than 50 percent of ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, for some reason.

ESPN Ownership: 40.8%
Yahoo! Ownership: 36%

Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals

Benson had eight carries for 37 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, along with one catch for 18 yards. He has clearly been James Conner’s backup, with five or more carries in four games. All four of those games, including Sunday, were games where the final margin was 20 points or more, two wins and two losses for the Cardinals.

But as broken down by Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus, Benson’s usage pattern was different on Sunday. He was on the field seven times in the first half, when the game was still close. From Weeks 3-8, he had played a maximum of three first half snaps. Benson also had three carries in the first half (including his one-yard touchdown), which was the most for him since Week 2.

Conner obviously isn’t going away as the Cardinals’ lead back. But Benson may start to eat a little bit into his workload, and Conner’s injury history is notable. On the other side of a Week 11 bye, Arizona has a very favorable schedule for running backs. As noted by Jahnke, using PFF’s strength of schedule metrics and including Week 10 against the New York Jets, the Cardinals have a top-five remaining schedule for running backs. In the fantasy playoffs, its a particularly good schedule (Seattle Seahawks-Week 14, New England Patriots-Week 15, Carolina Panthers-Week 16).

In terms of Week 10 alone, Benson is an add-and-stash as one of the best handcuffs around. But if Sunday was the start of something he could become lineup-worthy in leagues with 12 or more teams, and if something happens to Conner he could be much more that at league-winning time.

ESPN Ownership: 15.5%
Yahoo! Ownership: 16%

Theo Johnson, TE, New York Giants

Johnson had three catches (on six targets) for 51 yards and a touchdown against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. He has 10 targets over the last two games, and at least three catches in four of the last five games. That latter number might not seem impressive, but stick with me.

Four of the Giants’ next seven opponents entered Week 9 in the bottom-eight of the league against tight ends-the Carolina Panthers (Week 10), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Week 12), Baltimore Ravens (Week 15), and Indianapolis Colts (Week 17). And the other three (Dallas Cowboys-Week 13, New Orleans Saints-Week 14, Atlanta Falcons-Week 16) aren’t exactly daunting.

I’ll let Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus take the baton here:

"The fourth-round rookie has played enough snaps to be a fantasy starter all season. He averaged 28 routes per game over the first four weeks but was only targeted on 6.3% of his routes. Two of his seven targets were uncatchable and another two were dropped."

"Over the last five weeks, his routes per game have increased slightly to 32 per game. He was rotated out slightly more than usual this week, mostly for run situations. His target rate over the five weeks has increased to 11.9%. Particularly in this game, his target rate was 27.3%, which led to three receptions for 51 yards and a touchdown, although the 35-yard touchdown occurred in the last three minutes."

The Giants’ quarterback situation is not ideal, and holds down the ceiling of all their pass catchers. But Johnson is on a positive trend and he’s a tight end, which is enough to put him on the waiver wire radar in leagues with 12 or more teams.

ESPN Ownership: 1.3%
Yahoo! Ownership: 1%

Mike Gesicki, TE, Cincinnati Bengals

With Tee Higgins (quad) out again for Cincinnati on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, Gesicki had five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns. He has at last five catches, at least six targets and over 70 yards in three of the four games Higgins has missed this season (19 catches for 264 yards and two touchdowns total). In the five games Higgin has suited up in, Gesick has combined to have eight receptions for 7 1 yards (four catches for 47 yards in one game).

The Bengals now have a short week before taking on the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night to start the Week 10 slate. So it’s fair to say Higgins’ status is a question mark until shown otherwise, and Baltimore entered Week 9 in the bottom-10 of the league against tight ends. In six of their seven games before Sunday against the Denver Broncos, an opposing tight end had at least 9.7 full PPR points against them. Five of them topped 60 yards, and three of those topped 90 yards.

Higgins being able to play on a short week would be a buzzkill for Gesicki’s fantasy value. But before Monday’s “estimated” practice report for the Bengals, we just can’t have a good idea what his status will be for Thursday.

So Gesicki is a little bit speculative as a waiver wire add as we start looking to Week 10. But tight end beggars can’t be all that choosy, so he’s automatically on the radar in leagues with 12 or more teams-on the notion he has at least one more week of TE1-worthy numbers in him if Higgins is out.

ESPN Ownership: 10.8%
Yahoo! Ownership: 13%

Aaron Rodgers, QB, New York Jets

Rodgers had a rough start in Week 9 against the Houston Texans, but he had a nice second half to finish 22-for-32 for 211 yards and three touchdowns. He has multiple passing touchdowns in four of his last five games (276 yards in the other), with zero interceptions in the last two.

In Week 10 Rodgers gets a favorable-looking matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, who entered Week 9 allowing the seventh-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. They have allowed three rushing touchdowns to the position to skew things some, but it’s still a solid matchup.

In Week 11 Rodgers will face the Indianapolis Colts, who entered Week 9 allowing the 12th-most fantasy points to quarterbacks (Yahoo! scoring). Remove games against Malik Willis (Week 2), Will Levis (Week 6) and Tyler Huntley/Tim Boyle (Week 7), and Indianapolis has allowed multiple passing touchdowns and/or at least 285 passing yards in each of their other five games.

Rodgers is playing fairly well, with two top-end targets in Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams. Be aware of a Week 12 bye, but the future Hall of Famer is on the streaming radar in each of the next two weeks in one-quarterback leagues and he should be added in superflex leagues.

ESPN Ownership: 52.2%
Yahoo! Ownership: 43%

Zamir White, RB, Las Vegas Raiders

Trailing big in a blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals pushed Ameer Abdullah to the top of the snap count heap in the Raiders’ backfield on Sunday. But when the game was closer, White had seven snaps to Alexander Mattison on Las Vegas’ first two drives (h/t to PFF). White has six carries on those seven snaps, notably taking goal line work from Mattison as he scored a touchdown early.

If the game had been closer, it’s worth wondering how the work would have been split between Mattison and White. Last week, head coach Antonio Pierce said he wanted to get White more involved. Early on, before Cincinnati scored 21 unanswered points, that came to fruition. It always felt like a matter of time before Mattison proved he wasn’t worthy of as much work as he was getting, with White having missed two games (Week 5 and Week 6).

The Raiders have a bye in Week 10. Their offense is also pretty bad, which diminishes the fantasy value of all involved. But the running back waiver wire requires digging deep, so White makes the list this week as an add-and-stash who might turn into something.

ESPN Ownership: 34.7%
Yahoo! Ownership: 28%

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