Early Fantasy Football Waiver Wire For Week 10: Pat Bryant, Audric Estime & More

Week 9 felt like a tale of the haves and have-nots. You either had 1-or-2 of the face-melting performances from the Bengals/Packers duos or Ceedee/Puka/Bijan/Walker, or your entire team scored 80 points and got absolutely smoked—at least this was how things seemed to go for me personally.

Luckily, not all hope is lost if your team got annihilated in Week 9 because this is one of the more intriguing waiver wire weeks in a while. Especially at receiver, where finding talented upside options this far into the season is not super common.

FYI, the following players are ordered by position, NOT the order in which I would attack them on the wire. For detailed breakdowns on priority and pricing for each of these players, make sure to check out the premium version of this article, which drops weekly after Monday Night Football. I dive deep into FAAB recommendations in multiple league sizes and formats, including Guillotine Leagues™️. Also, don't forget to check out our fantasy football rankings and fantasy football projections.

Without further ado, let’s get right into it:

Week 10 Early Fantasy Football Waiver Wire

Quarterbacks

Geno Smith | NYJ

Roster: 42%

If you’re already looking ahead to potential streaming options for Week 10, Geno Smith would be my guy. Next Sunday the Jets play the Bills, who are currently the fourth-softest matchup by DvP against the QB position (allowing 3 more fantasy points on average to the position).

Smith shouldn’t be too expensive, and he’d be my favorite waiver option for next week specifically.

Shedeur Sanders | CLE

Roster: 19%

With Deshaun Watson sidelined due to injury, Sanders made his first start of the 2026 season in Week 9 and he did not disappoint:

19/31, 297 passing yards (QB5), 2 TDs
0.11 EPA / dropback
22.7 fantasy points (QB5)

Sanders’ 9.6 yards per attempt was a higher mark than Watson has hit in any game this season.

Even though I’d expect Watson will reclaim the starting job when he returns, this was an inspiring showing from Sanders. I don’t think he’s someone you’re targeting in 1QB leagues right now, but he should definitely be rostered in all superflex/2QB formats.

Running Backs

Audric Estime | NO

Roster: 13%

With Kendre Miller being released out of nowhere earlier this week, it was Audric Estime—not Alvin Kamara—who took the lion's share of work in the New Orleans backfield:

15 carries (68%), 72 rushing yards, 1 TD
100% of redzone carries (3)
14.7 fantasy points (RB8)

The big wrinkle here: Travis Etienne likely makes his return off of injured reserve in Week 10. If he does indeed return, Estime becomes super hard to trust. But if it’s just Estime and Kamara sharing the Saints’ backfield next week, I think Estime will project better than Kamara and I’d probably have him as a back-end RB2.

Nicholas Singleton | TEN

Roster: 20%

Nothing to note here about Singleton’s play specifically, as the Titans were on bye in Week 9 (and frankly, he hasn’t done much up unto this point in the season anyway). But this is your weekly reminder that he needs to be rostered, just in case Tony Pollard gets moved before Week 10.

DJ Giddens | IND

Roster: 9%

Similar story to Singleton—we haven’t seen second-year back DJ Giddens do much at all behind Jonathan Taylor and Seth McGowan in 2026. But if JT does indeed get moved before the deadline this upcoming week, Giddens will immediately be thrust into more of a workload.

The Colts definitely have not done anything to make us believe they think Giddens is a better option than McGowan, but both of these guys are super young. There’s a non-zero chance he just looks better than McGowan with an increased workload.

Again, we need to parlay multiple things occurring in order for Giddens to actually become startable, but if it did happen, he would be super valuable over the rest of the season.

Corey Kiner | NE

Roster: 18%

The Patriots running back room is falling apart at the seams with rapid pace.

Rhamondre Stevenson left Week 9’s matchup late in the 3rd quarter with a knee injury and didn’t return.

TreVeyon Henderson seems to be battling a mix of physical and mental adversity and we have no clue when he’s going to return.

This one will need some monitoring over the coming days, but if Stevenson and Henderson both can’t suit up in Week 10, it’ll be Kiner serving as the lead back in New England.

The Patriots will play the Lions in the international game next Sunday morning, and while the Lions aren’t a super-easy matchup for running backs (8th in DvP against the position this season), this profiles like a high-scoring matchup on both sides, and I just want pieces of the game here.

That being said, I think you’ll need both Rhamondre AND TreVeyon ruled out of this game to feel comfortable starting Kiner. If either one is active, I’d leave him out of my lineups.

Kaleb Johnson and MarShawn Lloyd | GB

Roster: 12% and 41%

Here we go again …

Josh Jacobs left Week 9’s matchup early with a fractured finger, and with Lloyd out of this game with injury as well, it was Johnson leading the backfield:

14 carries, 68 yards, 1 TD
12.8 fantasy points (RB12)

Before you sprint to the waivers to grab Johnson … there’s a lot we don’t know here.

No. 1: will Jacobs even miss any time with this injury? It was reported they were trying to find a way to get him back out there to play through it, which makes me think it’s not super serious, but who knows? If Jacobs is ready for Week 10, then this is all moot.

No. 2: if Jacobs does miss time but Lloyd returns, who’s the back to roster? My money would be on Lloyd, who’s operated as the RB2 behind Jacobs for the past several games before this injury. He also offers more upside in the receiving game than Johnson.

All that being said … I’d rather let someone else spend up on Johnson this week. Grab Lloyd for cheap if he’s available, but honestly I think we’re going to see Jacobs in Week 10 and none of this will even matter.

Wide Receivers

Pat Bryant | DEN

Roster: 21%

The difference between Pat Bryant’s involvement with and without Jaylen Waddle on the field is pretty stark:

With Waddle (77 routes):

- 12% target share

- 0.31 fantasy points/route

- 1.45 yards/route

Without Waddle (45 routes):

- 23% target share

- 0.44 fantasy points / route

- 1.71 yards / route

Waddle left Week 9’s matchup early due to a concussion, and we saw this trend continue for Bryant. He finished with 4 receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown, second on the team in route participation behind only Sutton.

If Waddle were to miss Week 10’s matchup, Bryant would project like a solid wide receiver option with upside in this Denver offense. And even with Waddle coming back, I still really like Bryant as a breakout WR candidate over the back half of the season.

Tank Dell | HOU

Roster: 35%

Dell made his return in Week 7 after missing the entirety of the 2025 season due to injury, but he was clearly eased back in with only 20% of the routes. We saw a clear jump in utilization this week, and Tank clearly made the most of it:

55% route participation (5th on the team)
9 targets, 25.7% target rate (1st)
4 receptions, 105 yards (1st)
20.5 fantasy points

Tank Dell is looking fully healthy for the first time in years after dealing with brutal injury luck, and it’s awesome to see. At this point in the season, it becomes increasingly harder to find real talent at the WR position on waivers, and I think Dell is one of the few real upside shots left who could become a weekly starter down the stretch. He’d be a priority waiver add for me if I needed help at WR.

Adonai Mitchell | NYJ

Roster: 78%

I know, I know … AD Mitchell is already 78% rostered in all leagues right now. He’s probably not available in your league. On top of that, if you picked him up last week and started him in Week 9, you’re probably not super happy with his 0-point performance.

I’m including him in this article for that exact reason. I’d expect many unhappy managers to drop Mitchell following this game.

While the boxscore finish for Mitchell was absolutely abysmal, the valuable fantasy role was still there. In fact, with his -15.8 fantasy points under expectation not only making him the biggest underperformer of the week, but he was one of the biggest underperformers of any receiver so far this season.

If Mitchell does end up getting dropped in your league, I’d absolutely be looking to scoop him up in the next waiver run. He didn’t get it done in Week 9, but the data suggests he’s likely to bounce back.

Jordan Watkins | SF

Roster: 12%

In another week without Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel, Jordan Watkins looked like the 49ers wide receiver you want to start. He led the team in routes (26), tied for second most in targets (4) and first in receiving yards (86).

I will say, I don’t see Watkins as a long-term option at receiver. He’ll project like a serviceable starter next week against Dallas if both Evans and Deebo remain out. But once they return, I think he’ll revert to more of a rotational player.

Tight End

Tyler Higbee | LAR

Roster: 33%

With the Puka Nacua injury news breaking after the game, I simply had to find a Rams pass catcher to write about. That pass catcher for me is going to be Tyler Higbee.

The reason for this is two-fold:

I don’t think the Rams have any trustworthy WR options behind Puka or Davante Adams. Even if they’re both inactive, I don’t want to start Konata Mumpfield or Jordan Whittington.

Higbee has shown the ability to step up as a strong target earner in this offense without Puka. Over the past two seasons, Higbee has run 119 routes with Stafford under center and no Puka on the field:

31% target share
7.8 FPPG pace

If Puka were to miss time—which still remains to be seen after his MRI results in the coming days—Higbee would be the one Rams pass catcher I’d be interested in getting into my lineup.