The NFL trade deadline has come and gone, but you won't really know it much as a fantasy football player. With most of the big trades happening on defense, we enter Week 10 with a pretty good sense of how things changed, which is: not much.
When you're trying to set your fantasy lineups, taking some of the mystery out of things can be a good thing. You're not looking at your team right now and thinking, "how will the Breece Hall trade impact things in Kansas City and New York?", because the Jets didn't trade Hall to the Chiefs. Maybe it wasn't a "fun" deadline, but it was a relatively simple one for fantasy managers.
With that said, here is my top start and top sit for each position for Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season.
Start: Jaxson Dart, QB, New York Giants
Last week, the Bears defense let Joe Flacco throw for 470 yards. There's no way they allow that to happen for a second week in a row, but it wouldn't be a shock to see rookie Jaxson Dart have the first 300-yard game of his NFL career on Sunday.
Dart's mostly been good since taking over as the Giants' starting quarterback, even if the win-loss numbers haven't been there for New York just yet. Last week against the 49ers, he completed 72.7 percent of his pass attempts and tossed a pair of touchdowns.
Yes, his lack of weapons is a concern, which does give him a slightly lower floor than some fantasy managers might want, but the upside is too great to ignore.
Sit: Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars
If your fantasy starting quarterback is playing the Houston Texans, then you actually don't have a fantasy starting quarterback.
Houston has allowed the third-fewest passing yards and second-fewest passing touchdowns while also being the only team in the league to have more interceptions than passing touchdowns allowed this season.
Meanwhile, Lawrence has thrown multiple touchdowns in a game just twice all year, and his first meeting with Houston saw him throw zero touchdowns. Jacksonville should win this game against a Texans team that will be starting Davis Mills at quarterback, but it will be a low-scoring win, something like 10-6.
Start: Quinshon Judkins, RB, Cleveland Browns
Last time out, Quinshon Judkins banged up his shoulder against the Patriots and posted the worst numbers of his rookie season with nine carries for 19 yards. But after healing up over the bye week, Judkins should be in good shape against the Jets this week.
New York allows the eighth-most fantasy points per game to running backs, and that's before the team's deadline defensive fire sale. Assuming Judkins is close to 100 percent this weekend, I struggle to really see a way that the Jets slow him down.
Sit: Rachaad White, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
We're assuming here that Bucky Irving will miss another game. He's been out for Tampa's last four contests, with White getting double-digit touches in each game over that span. If Irving suits up Sunday, then just stop reading and take White out of your lineup.
But even with Irving out, White's been a resounding "meh" for the Buccaneers. Over the past four games, White is averaging 44.8 rushing yards per game and just 3.3 yards per carry.
This week, he runs into the Patriots defense, which is allowing the second-fewest fantasy points per game to the position. Opposing running backs have an NFL-worst 484 rushing yards against New England this season, and that's with the Patriots having already played nine games.
Start: Jameson Williams, WR, Detroit Lions
The Washington Commanders defense is not good. The team allows the third-most fantasy points per game to the wide receiver position and has allowed the second-most receiving yards to wide receivers despite only allowing the eighth-most receptions.
You know what that says to me? Washington is more likely to give up big plays than other defenses, and the Lions have a guy who's been pretty good at generating big plays in his NFL career. Those plays haven't necessarily been coming this season for Williams in the way you'd usually expect, but this meeting with Washington could serve as a great cure for that.
Sit: Nico Collins, WR, Houston Texans
As mentioned above, the Texans are starting Mills this weekend as C.J. Stroud is out with a concussion. We saw last week that Houston's offense struggled to move the ball once Stroud went out, with the team failing to score a touchdown in the 18-15 loss.
It was a decent game for wide receiver Nico Collins as he caught seven passes for 75 yards, with six of those coming from Mills. Still, the Broncos defense was without its best corner, so that should have been a smash spot for Collins. With Mills in the game, it turned into nothing more than a solid day.
Collins caught eight passes for 104 yards and a touchdown in the first meeting with the Jags, but that was with Stroud under center. With Mills starting, it's hard to see him replicating that, especially factoring in how much fall-off there seemed to be from the Texans offense after halftime last week once the Broncos had time to plan out how to attack Mills. Jacksonville has had a week to figure that out. It might be a bloodbath.
Start: Kyle Pitts, TE, Atlanta Falcons
The Colts allow the fifth-most fantasy points per game to opposing tight ends, which puts Kyle Pitts in a great spot this week.
I know, I know, I know — trusting Pitts in fantasy is one of those insane things that no one should do. Through eight games this season, he's finished with under 50 receiving yards in half of Atlanta's contests.
Still, this is just such a good spot. Sure, the Colts added Sauce Gardner on defense at the deadline, but that mostly just impacts the wide receivers this week, not the tight end.
Sit: Luke Musgrave, TE, Green Bay Packers
With Tucker Kraft done for the year, you might be tempted to plug his replacement, Luke Musgrave, into your lineup, especially considering how the Packers didn't add another tight end at the trade deadline.
I understand the impulse, but I'm not starting Musgrave until I actually see him produce. He enters this week with nine catches for 88 yards on the season, and while the former second-round pick could be a big winner of the trade deadline, the smart thing for fantasy managers to do is to leave him on the bench this week while we wait to see what his new role in Green Bay will look like.