Fantasy football 2024: One QB, RB, WR and TE primed for huge Week 11 performances

My wife is a Chiefs fan. Fun story: KC hasn't lost since she had a baby last December. Our son was born just a few days after Kansas City's last loss and now he's 10-and-a-half months old and the Chiefs have still not lost. The kid has literally never been alive for a Chiefs loss.

I thought that streak was going to end on Sunday as the Broncos lined up for a relatively easy game winning field goal.

And then the snap.

The hold.

The kick.

Blocked.

At this point, what will happen first — my son's first birthday, or the Chiefs losing a game?

Alright, enough rambling about how a baby might be a good luck charm. On to fantasy football, which is why you clicked on this article. We're fast approaching the fantasy playoffs, so now's the time to make sure you're making the best possible moves for your roster.

Let's take a look at one player at each skill position who is set to have a strong 2024 Week 11 performance for fantasy football.

Quarterback: Russell Wilson - Pittsburgh Steelers

Russell Wilson has now started three games for the Steelers. Last week, he threw for a season-low 195 yards in a win over the Commanders, but he also managed to toss three touchdown passes to still give him a strong overall showing.

This week, Wilson has a juicy matchup against the Ravens, a team that allows the second-most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks.

The defense has especially struggled lately. Take last Thursday night's game against the Bengals. Sure, Joe Burrow is an elite quarterback, but even elite quarterbacs don't often throw for 428 yards, especially when a player as important as Tee Higgins is out. But that's what Burrow did, obliterating the Baltimore defense.

Late stage Russell Wilson is no Joe Burrow, but he's proven this year that he can still be a capable NFL quarterback and that whatever the last two seasons in Denver was...well, it's in the past now.

Running back: Joe Mixon - Houston Texans

Look, no one needs to tell you that Joe Mixon should be in your fantasy lineup. Of course he should be. If you benched Mixon, we'd need to have a serious conversation about whether you know what you're doing or not.

But some of you might be looking at this article for DFS advice, so I want to highlight why Mixon is a top three play this weekend.

Coming into this game, Mixon has finished as a top 10 fantasy running back in five of the seven games he's played, and he's found the end zone in six of the seven games he's played.

Houston's passing attack has looked sluggish at times, but Mixon has just kept chugging along. He has keeps churning out 100-yard games with four in a row before he suffered a little dip last week, finishing with 46 rushing yards in a loss to the Lions.

This week, Mixon should be poised for a big bounce back effort against a Dallas Cowboys defense that allows the fourth-most fantasy points per game to opposing running backs.

The Boys are coming off a game where they were smashed by the Eagles run game, giving up 187 rushing yards. Only 66 of those went to Saquon Barkley as the Eagles spread the touches out a bit, but don't expect Houston to mimic that approach. They'll feed Mixon early and often against a defense that's been struggling to slow down the run.

Wide receiver: Calvin Ridley - Tennessee Titans

The Titans traded DeAndre Hopkins after the Bills game. It's no coincidence that Calvin Ridley has been on fire since that contest.

Over the past three games, Ridley is averaging 10.7 targets, 6.7 receptions and 100.0 receiving yards per contest with a pair of touchdown receptions.

Now he's set to take on the Minnesota Vikings, a team that allows the third-most fantasy points to the wide receiver position.

Ridley is ranked as a low-end WR2 this week, but he has the upside to do much better than that. He's finished as a top five fantasy receiver twice already since the Hopkins trade. The former Falcon and Jaguars is in the midst of a career resurgence. Maybe the path he's taken to get to this spot has been a lot more windy than anyone expected, but he's currently playing some of the best football of his life and is proving that he can be a No. 1 receiver in the NFL.

Tight end: Jonnu Smith - Miami Dolphins

We're running it back with Jonnu Smith. Last week, I wrote about Smith and the results were...meh. He caught three of his four targets for 45 yards, finishing as the overall TE20. Not great, but 7.5 points in full PPR isn't the end of the world. If you streamed Smith, he didn't kill your lineup.

I'm back on the Jonnu Smith train again this week. Maybe I'm a masochist? I don't know. What I do know is that Smith and the Dolphins take on a Raiders team that allows the fifth-most fantasy points per game to opposing tight ends.

Smith enters the week with 45 or more yards in four of his past five games. He has three top 15 fantasy finishes in that stretch. Overall, I'm digging what Smith is doing, even if I'd love to see an uptick in his volume at some point.