Week 11 Fantasy Football Sneaky Starts & Sleepers

Nov 16, 2022

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Zach Ertz (knee) is done for the year, Cooper Kupp (high-ankle sprain) has been placed on IR, Dallas Goedert (shoulder) and Jerry Jeudy (ankle/calf) are likely out a while, while Leonard Fournette has a hip pointer heading into his team’s bye. Four teams–the Jaguars, Dolphins, Seahawks, and Buccaneers–are on bye, so the rankings are weird this week.

All but the luckiest fantasy owners at some point need to find the proverbial diamond in the rough—a waiver wire or bench player capable of putting up some points in a pinch. This weekly feature is dedicated to that part of fantasy football. It's not pretty, but it's part of the game.

Below is a list of players who are ranked higher than usual due to injuries, depth chart changes, or favorable matchups. As the bye weeks hit, it’s important to be able to find players who can produce.

I’ll put the matchup along with our signature strength-of-schedule metric, adjusted fantasy points allowed (aFPA), in parenthesis. The higher the number, the better the matchup.

Quarterbacks

Daniel Jones, Giants (vs. DET, 31)

It’s never comfortable to start Jones, but he usually delivers a decent fantasy line thanks to his legs. He’s averaging 43 rush yards per game and has an excellent matchup against the Lions, who just gave up 147 yards rushing to Justin Fields one week after yielding 40 rushing yards to Aaron Rodgers. The Lions are also allowing an average of 266/1.7 through the air.

Aaron Rodgers, Packers (vs. TEN, 27)

Christian Watson’s three-touchdown breakout game against the Cowboys gives the Packer passing game some hope moving forward. Randall Cobb may be back this week as well, and believe it or not, Cobb has been an efficient target for Rodgers this season. Rodgers has 2+ touchdowns in three of four games at Lambeau this season and has 17 touchdown passes on the season. The Titans have allowed an average of 294/1.78 on the year to opposing quarterbacks.