Week 10 Start 'Em, Sit 'Em: Making the Call on Fantasy Football Fringe Starters

Given the unpredictable nature of the NFL, you never know which players are going to roll past their projections or fall way short of them. If enough of your educated guesses pan out, though, you'll use the players who post big games and avoid any pitfalls.

To help steer you in the right direction, we're making start or sit calls on a quartet of fringe fantasy starters for Week 10.

Sam Darnold hit a few rough pitches Sunday, throwing a couple of interceptions and losing a fumble. He also completed 82.4 percent of his passes for 290 yards (both season-highs) and three touchdowns.

Darnold is consistently delivering for fantasy managers, yet this recommendation might have less to do with him than it does with his matchup. The Jaguars have given up the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks, per Yahoo, and have allowed some remarkable performances by some non-remarkable signal-callers: 359 yards and three scores for Joe Flacco, 226 yards and four touchdowns for Caleb Williams.

If C.J. Stroud is on your roster, chances are you spent a valuable pick to add him. That's a bummer. It's also not something you should still be thinking about.

You can't view Stroud for what you thought you'd be doing but rather focus on what he's done this season...or maybe what he done is the better way to put it. He is buried down at 22nd among quarterbacks in fantasy scoring, and he has just a single 20-fantasy-point effort this season.

Don't look for him to snap out of this funk—one touchdown pass over his last three games combined—now. Not with his receiving core still banged up, and certainly not ahead of a matchup against a Detroit defense that is tied for the second-fewest touchdown passes allowed (six) and just addressed its pass-rushing void by acquiring veteran edge-rusher Za'Darius Smith ahead of the deadline.

There may have been a worry that Devin Singletary's return from injury would strip Tracy of his RB1 status. Clearly that hasn't happened. Singletary has 17 touches (14 carries and three receptions) in his three games back. Tracy has 48 (42 carries and six catches) over this same stretch.

When weighing fringe starters, reliable volume matters as much as anything. Tracy appears to have exactly that, not to mention a juicy matchup against a Carolina defense allowing the most fantasy points (by a mile) to running backs.

Javonte Williams was a 34-yard reception away from a disastrous effort on Sunday. Take away that catch, and he managed all of 50 scrimmage yards on 13 touches.

Oh, he also didn't sniff out the end zone, which comes as no surprise for those rostering him this season. He tallied two rushing scores against the New Orleans Saints in Week 7 and hasn't recorded a touchdown in his other nine tilts.

Add some running-back congestion to the mix, and Williams' forecast always appears cloudy at best. Things look downright ominous this week, though, as he'll tussle with a Kansas City defense that has given up the fewest fantasy points (also by a mile) to running backs.