Fantasy Football Week 11 sleepers: Audric Estimé seeks to run away with Broncos RB1 job
Week 10 was a messy week for scoring, and the Sleeper Page felt the brunt of that. Ricky Pearsall got home on a nifty touchdown at Tampa Bay, but the rest of the sheet was filled with bricks. That's life. We're onto Week 11.
Everyone listed below, as usual, is rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues as we go to press.
QB Russell Wilson vs. Ravens (43%)
Normally we think of a Baltimore-Pittsburgh game as the ultimate rock fight, with the first team to 17 points the likely winner. That's not the shape this year. Lamar Jackson is playing the best football of his career — a big statement given that he's already won two MVP awards — and the Baltimore secondary has been a sieve all season (22 touchdown passes allowed, 294.9 passing yards per game). The Ravens could also be without safety Kyle Hamilton, a key piece.
Wilson has been steady as a fantasy pick since joining the lineup, grading out as QB3, QB24 and QB9. He's yet to get past 30 pass attempts yet, but with the game total set at 48.5, Pittsburgh will probably be more aggressive than usual.
RB Audric Estimé vs. Falcons (46%)
Perhaps we need to give Estimé more props for last week's 14-53-0 line at Kansas City — the Chiefs, after all, are a nightmare to run on this year. The Falcons' front seven is also a plus unit, but it's not in Kansas City's class. The Broncos are at home and a mild favorite, so game script will likely favor Estimé. And even if he doesn't get any work in the passing game — he's yet to catch an NFL pass, after 17 grabs his final year at Notre Dame — Estimé probably has 13-15 touches already in his back pocket. The goal-line work will probably be his, too.
WR Jerry Jeudy at Saints (49%)
It's surprising his roster tag is so low, given that Jeudy has 19 targets and a credible 12-152-0 line since Jameis Winston took over as the Cleveland starting quarterback. The Saints' secondary is the 11th-easiest for opposing wideouts to score against, and obviously it lost Marshon Lattimore to a trade two weeks ago. Cedric Tillman looks like the first read for Winston, but Winston certainly prefers targeting wideouts downfield as opposed to taking the safe checkdown. Jeudy can easily return value as a WR3 this week.
WR Kayshon Boutte vs. Rams (2%)
His role continues to expand, with nine catches and 18 targets over the past three games. And that run came against three difficult matchups in a row. Boutte now takes aim at a Rams secondary that's handed out the eighth-most points to opposing wide receivers. New England certainly trusts Boutte; he's played 96% and 97% of the snaps the past two weeks. The Patriots were able to beat Chicago with a buttoned-up game plan, but they'll probably need to be more pass-friendly if they want to hang with the Rams.
TE Taysom Hill vs. Browns (51%)
Hill has crept over the threshold for inclusion in this column, but he's a sound enough play that we'll color outside the lines and push him into the mix. Hill always carries a heavy chunk of goal-line equity into any matchup, and note he lost an 88-yard touchdown last week to penalty. Alvin Kamara is obviously the featured guy in the New Orleans offense, but there's room for someone else to collect 5-8 carries, and that could be Hill. Mix in a handful of catches and maybe some goal-line work and Hill has a plausible case to land in the top 10 at tight end. With Trey McBride and Cade Otton unavailable this week (perhaps Dalton Kincaid, too), Hill could be a reasonable fill-in.
TE Will Dissly vs. Bengals (8%)
He hasn't scored a touchdown yet, and goal-line equity is what we look at most of the time with tight end sleepers. But Dissly does have 24 catches in his last five games and the Chargers appear to be souring on Hayden Hurst, who dropped his only look in Week 10. Dissly might be a pickup that you hold for a while because the next five LAC opponents have struggled to mark the tight end. Justin Herbert is playing at a high level but the volume hasn't been there most weeks; perhaps the Cincinnati offense can force the Chargers out of their comfort zone in Week 11.
