Sunday Aftermath: Matthew Stafford's MVP campaign, the resurgent Lions, Jaxson Dart's injury and more

#PeopleForget, the first inkling of the Lions becoming the Lions was Week 10 of the 2021 season. They were 0-8 coming out of their bye week, and head coach Dan Campbell had seen enough. He took over play-calling duties from OC Anthony Lynn and … tied the Pittsburgh Steelers. That might not sound like much, but it was a lot when you have zero victories. The Lions ended up going 3-5-1 with Campbell as play-caller, a feat made more impressive by the fact that Jared Goff missed three of those contests.

Then they hired Ben Johnson and the rest was history. All of this is the long way of saying, it’s been Campbell the entire time. Not necessarily calling the plays — he never did so in 2022-24, of course — but setting the tone. Instilling the “go for it” mindset. The weekly pursuit of 50 points so many other teams refuse.

It was this final fact that seemed to be the final straw for OC John Morton, who was stripped of play-calling duties coming into Sunday’s romp over the Commanders. The Lions have been unable to get their down-field passing attack going. Enter Campbell, and enter Jameson Williams’ first 100-yard day of the season. They also had their best rushing effort of 2025.

Campbell is good at so many different things, and has a wide purview. He probably shouldn’t be calling plays long term. But fantasy managers should be glad he’s doing so for the 2025 stretch run. A Lions team that just didn’t seem like the Lions without Johnson looked a lot more like it on Sunday. Campbell could be readying his most magical act yet.

Five Week 10 Storylines

Matthew Stafford’s MVP march continues ahead of Seahawks measuring stick matchup. First things first — Stafford is a .500 quarterback for the first time in his long and winding career. After Sunday’s 49ers beatdown, he is now 115-115-1. What a strange game. Secondly, he’s … never been better? After spending some summer time in the Han Solo carbonite chamber, Stafford is leading the league in touchdowns. He already has his highest season total since 2021. He has thrown for four or more scores in three straight games, and three or more in 5-of-6. Truly, MVP stuff. It will be put to the stiffest of Week 11 tests as the Rams face a Seahawks defense fueling an unlikely NFC West/NFC No. 1 seed run. Mike Macdonald’s unit is top five by basically every metric, advanced or otherwise. It’s a challenge for the Rams — and measuring stick for managers wondering if they can trust Stafford as their QB11 for the fantasy playoffs.

Bucs look like a team that could really use Bucky Irving. Sean Tucker out-rushed Rachaad White for the second consecutive game. He had 53 yards. That number was 42 in Week 8. As the run game has remained stuck in neutral, Baker Mayfield has been left to spray the ball around to an undermanned skill corps being propped up by likes of Tez Johnson, Cade Otton and Sterling Shepherd behind Emeka Egbuka. It’s frankly a miracle they have gone 6-3. Mayfield’s sheer gumption has kept him in the QB1 mix, but he’s now the QB13 by average fantasy points. He needs to start spiking weeks, a task that would be made easier by having a legitimate rushing attack. That, or a potential shootout matchup. He does have that for Week 11 in the Bills.

Jaxson Dart tempts the football gods one too many times. At some point, Dart was going to come out of a Sunday as one of the “bad news” items. That’s life when you’re a dual-threat rookie quarterback, one without particular regard for your own life and limb. Dart’s recklessness has fueled his sensational first-year run. It’s also why he will probably miss Week 11 against the Packers. Even if Dart could technically go, should he really be allowed to face Micah Parsons one week after suffering what seemed to be a long-in-the-making head injury? (That’s even more true now that coach Brian Daboll has been fired.) You hope young QBs can learn this lesson without actually enduring the concussion. Dart has not been so lucky. Hopefully he can come back just as strong on the ground, but savvier, as well. As Lamar Jackson can attest, you can do this without being a crash-test dummy.

Justin Fields looks more ready than ever for benching vs. Browns. Fields completed six passes for 54 yards, 42 of which came on an emergency Breece Hall dump-off vs. a zero-blitz look. Without that play — which, ok, yeah, you can’t say “without his best play,” but we are — Fields wouled have finished with zero yards net passing. Yes, it was raining. Yes, the coaching staff is holding him back. Yes, Garrett Wilson got hurt again, leaving an undermanned skill corps even more so. It doesn’t matter. This is the NFL. If you are a viable quarterback, you throw for more than 54 yards. For his part, coach Aaron Glenn literally refused to talk about it afterward. He seems to want to move on. Fantasy managers should do the same in their QB2 streamer spots.

Woody Marks maybe, sort of, kinda takes over Texans’ backfield. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but Marks seems to have again surpassed Nick Chubb. It surely helped that Houston found itself behind 17-0 in comeback game script — aka not the time you are going to feature a plodding two-down runner — but Marks is making a habit of passing Chubb in the left lane. He’s also much, much more productive. He played 80 percent of the snaps on Sunday. This needs to happen. Maybe it finally will after the Texans snatched Jaguars victory from the jaws of defeat. Then again, we would expect coach DeMeco Ryans to simply grind out the miserable Titans in Week 11. That leaves Week 12 vs. the Bills as the most sensible calendar circling for “Marks week.”

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Five More Week 10 Storylines

Pats finally get the young guns going on offense. Sure, all it took for TreVeyon Henderson to finally be unleashed was Terrell Jennings de facto starting and carrying the mail early only to suffer a knee injury, but unleashed he was. Henderson entered the game with only one 20-yard carry all season. He exited with 55- and 69-yard touchdowns. He added his fifth longest run, a 16-yarder, for good measure. Henderson still couldn’t reach 15 carries for the first time in his career, but he’s now played north of 75 percent of the snaps in back-to-back weeks. With Jennings banged up on a short week, Hendo should feature against the Jets, probably as a high-end RB2. Elsewhere in New England, we loved Kyle Williams’ 72-yard touchdown, but he tied career highs with … one catch on two targets. He was on the field for more than 50 percent of the snaps for the first time. Baby steps, but more are still required.

Trevor Lawrence falls to 1-3 all time vs. … Davis Mills. We are going to start a dialogue. Except, ok, we already have been. And, yes, also ok, we mostly seem to agree: Lawrence simply isn’t good enough. Maybe one day he will be, but through five years, he is not. Blowing a 17-0 lead to the Davis Mills-led Texans should not be possible. It was enabled in part by Lawrence mustering zero fourth quarter passing yards. As his team blew a game to Davis Mills. Everyone is hurt, blah blah blah. This is the NFL. It’s actually a rather frequent occurrence that everyone is hurt. Perfect circumstances are not just rare, they are nonexistent. Lawrence continues to fail to rise above even the most cursory of setbacks. This franchise could be nearing its “Kyler moment.”

J.J. McCarthy struggles for positives vs. Ravens. McCarthy completed 7-of-23 attempts to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Jefferson, in particular, “struggled.” But guess when a wideout struggles? When the passes aren’t on target or on time. Aside from his scripted series, McCarthy can’t deliver a ball his wideouts are capable of catching. In fact, his “uncatchable rate” was on par with Michael Penix and Davis Mills, and historically aligns with the likes of Mike Glennon and Cooper Rush. If something doesn’t change in a hurry, a desperate Vikings team might decide it would rather hold Max Brosmer’s hand instead of watching McCarthy’s repeatedly get slammed in the car door. Until/if that happens, Jefferson is a volatile, low-end WR1, and Addison is on the outside looking in of WR3 status.

Dalton Kincaid adds injury to the Bills’ Dolphins insult. The Bills don’t have enough pass catchers. They really don’t have enough pass catchers who can make plays. So you can say it’s unideal Kincaid is now dealing with a hamstring injury. In fantasy, it had long seemed a dud was coming for a seam stretcher who had yet to command more than six targets in a game this season. We finally got it, just not the way we expected. As middling as the Bills’ offense has been by its standards this season, we would not expect them to rush Kincaid back when a potential Super Bowl appearance remains the only game that matters. Kincaid will probably find himself sitting for Week 11 against the Bucs.

Oronde Gadsden II suffers knee injury vs. Steelers. One of the season’s most surprising rookies, Gadsden is getting one of his most dreaded “welcome to the NFL” moments: The MRI machine. Although it’s bad news for the Chargers, this is one of the league’s deepest skill corps. It’s a far worse development for fantasy managers who had discovered the cheapest TE1 in recent memory. At the very least, Gadsden will probably miss Week 11 against the Jaguars. At worst, he could end up on injured reserve, removing him from the remainder of the fantasy regular season. Tight end is deeper than usual this season, though mostly with TE2 mediocrity. Prepare to scan the wire for the likes of Theo Johnson if you are a Gadsden manager.

Questions

1. Which of your J.J. McCarthy posts are you most confident will win the argument?

2. What did you think would happen when a team starting Bryce Young was favored by more than a field goal?

3. There’s no way Sam Darnold finished as the QB24 in a week where his team scored 44 points, right?

QB: Aaron Rodgers (vs. CIN), Jacoby Brissett (vs. SF), Tua Tagovailoa (vs. WAS), Geno Smith (vs. DAL), Marcus Mariota (@MIA)
RB: Emari Demercado, Tyler Allgeier, Blake Corum, Bam Knight, Devin Singletary, Brian Robinson Jr., Brashard Smith, Devin Neal
WR: Alec Pierce, Tez Johnson, Parker Washington, Tre Tucker, Christian Watson, Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, Kyle Williams, Adonai Mitchell
TE: Colston Loveland, Juwan Johnson, Harold Fannin, Cade Otton, Theo Johnson, Dalton Schultz, Luke Musgrave, Isaiah Likely
DEF: Falcons (vs. CAR), Chiefs (@DEN), Vikings (vs. CHI), Bears (@MIN), Cowboys (@LV), Dolphins (vs. WAS)

Stats of the Week

Via FOX’s research department: The Giants became the first team in 25 years to turn the ball over on downs six different times.

TreVeyon Henderson’s big day, via Davis Mattek: ‘Treveyon Henderson had two touchdowns today that were longer than all but one play of Rhamondre Stevenson’s entire career.”

Giants pain, via Adam Schefter: “Giants are now 0-4 this season in games in which they led by 10 or more points on the road.”

Daniel Jones’ seven turnovers over the past two weeks are his most ever over a two-game span. Hopefully the bye week can get this cleaned up.

Awards Section

Week 10 Fantasy All-Pro Team: QB Matthew Stafford, RB Jonathan Taylor, RB De’Von Achane, WR Drake London, WR Emeka Egbuka, WR Jameson Williams, TE Trey McBride

Week 10 All Bank Examiner Squad: QB Bo Nix, RB James Cook, RB Derrick Henry, WR Garrett Wilson, WR Michael Pittman Jr., WR Justin Jefferson, TE Brock Bowers

Quote of the Week, from Rome Odunze on being targeted on the Bears’ first play: “Yeah, thanks dad.”

Quotes of the Week: Clete Blakeman completely melting down attempting to explain the concepts of time and space to the fine football fans of Berlin, Germany.

Week 10 “Did You Know” Award: Did you know that Treylon Burks was on the Commanders?