NFL Week 10 Recap: Instant fantasy football takeaways from Thursday’s games

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Las Vegas Raiders @ Denver Broncos

Raiders continue without Meijers: The Raiders’ top wide receiver was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars at the trade deadline on Tuesday.

The Raiders started the season with third-round rookie Dont’e Thornton as their X receiver, Tre Tucker as their Z and Jakobi Meyers in the slot. Second-round rookie Jack Bech began taking over Thornton’s role in Week 5 and took over completely in Week 6. The Raiders brought in some help in the wide receiver room after their Week 8 bye, adding veteran Tyler Lockett, who reunited with quarterback Geno Smith and head coach Pete Carroll. He took over for Bech as the X receiver in Week 9, despite it not being his usual position. This brought Bech to the bench and he played no offensive action, while Thornton was healthy inactive.

The loss of Meyers prompted Las Vegas to shake up its strategy. Lockett took Meyers’ spot as the slot receiver. Lockett’s played at least 170 snaps from the slot every season of his career, including this one with the Tennessee Titans. However, Meyers consistently played in sets with two receivers, and Lockett was not on Thursday night. Instead, Dont’e Thornton, who was inactive last week, played in sets with both two and three receivers as their X receiver. Thornton earned his first reception since Week 3. Bech was the fourth wide receiver, rotating in at times, especially on run plays.

It’s not a good sign for Bech that he’s lost playing time to a veteran who has joined the team, especially since he hasn’t kept the X job after recently taking it over from Thornton. Anyone who added Bech because Meyers is no longer on the team could probably drop him. Lockett would be a prime waiver target in deeper leagues.

Broncos miss Marvin Mims Jr. for a second week in a row: Mims was inactive due to a concussion.

Denver has spent the first eight weeks of the season with a typical Sean Payton wide receiver rotation, with all five wide receivers playing at least 25% of the offensive snaps. Courtland Sutton was the only receiver to play more than 65% of snaps this year. Troy Franklin was the clear second option, playing 64.3%, while Mims and Pat Bryant were in constant battle for third spot.

The Broncos used a similar wide receiver rotation to last week, as Franklin and Bryant played much more consistently in three-receiver sets. The receiver snap counts were similar to most teams, as there was a clear top two receivers and a third receiver in three-receiver sets. Franklin, as usual, was the Broncos’ top target. That didn’t lead to many receiving yards, but he scored the Broncos’ touchdown.

Mims was limited in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to be ready to play in Week 11 with 10 days left until the game. The question is whether the Broncos will go back to their old rotation from two weeks ago. Franklin leads the Broncos in goals this season, and the gap between him and Sutton has widened in recent weeks. It would make sense to keep him on the pitch more regularly, as they have done over the last two weeks. Mims has the second-most yards per route among the Broncos’ wide receivers this season, and Bryant is a distant fourth. While he had a big catch of 43 yards, he also committed two offensive penalties this week. It makes sense to give the third-round rookie some playing time, but it shouldn’t often come at the expense of Franklin.

Various comments

• Denver rookie running back RJ Harvey has had JK Dobbins’ playing time cut short for the second week in a row due to early downs, but that hasn’t resulted in Harvey getting a notable increase in touches or Dobbins losing possession.
• The Broncos signed wide receiver Michael Bandy from their own practice squad on Thursday. He was called up to the practice squad last week while Mims was out. While on the roster, he was not involved in the offense despite being a bigger part of the rotation last week.
• Denver tight end Nate Adkins did not practice all week due to a knee injury. He was ruled out on Wednesday. The Broncos activated Marcedes Lewis from the practice squad for this game on Thursday to take his place for the second straight week. Lewis’ playing time increased in his second game with the team, cutting Evan Engram’s playing time by 12 men.
• Broncos kicker Wil Lutz did not practice Tuesday due to illness, but was able to practice Wednesday.
• Running backs Zamir White and Jaleel McLaughlin were both healthy inactives, as they have been for most of the season.
• Raiders quarterback Geno Smith played the entire fourth quarter through a quadriceps injury. The Raiders’ next game isn’t for another 11 days, as they play the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football in Week 11, so that will ideally be enough time for Smith’s quadriceps to heal.
• Las Vegas tight end Carter Runyon was a healthy scratch this week. He was active last week, so the Raiders only had three tight ends instead of four.
• The Raiders used two-plus tight end sets exceptionally high 45 times last week. This week, that percentage was down significantly, though still higher than their season average, with Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer healthy.
• Bowers’ playing time remains significantly lower than most of last season. Bowers connected on at least 85% of the offensive snaps in each of his last ten games last season, and he hasn’t reached that mark in any games this season. Las Vegas ran two plays within 10 yards of scoring, and Bowers was not in on any of them.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Objectives may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be the result of an obviously thrown pass, where the NFL could give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data does not.
• Carries are only possible on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.