Fantasy football waiver wire: 5 quarterbacks to target for Week 10

We are almost through with the bye week grind of the fantasy football season. The good news is that there are no more weeks with six teams off. The bad news is there are still four teams on bye this week, and they include important names.

The teams off in Week 10 are the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, and Oakland Raiders. That means fantasy owners will be without Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, and Derek Carr -- a real who’s-who of 2016’s biggest fantasy stars at quarterback. Even Tyrod Taylor, erratic as he is, is a worthy starter more weeks than not.

So fantasy owners will likely have to dive into the waiver wire to fill their QB spot, but the position is pretty thin this week. If you didn’t already have a backup QB on your roster, you might have to hold your nose and play the matchups. With that in mind, here are the top five waiver wire picks at QB, owned in fewer than 50 percent of Yahoo! standard leagues.

Wentz continued to have his rookie struggles Sunday, throwing two early picks that led to quick points for the New York Giants and ultimately swinging the game in their favor. However, he filled up the stat sheet with 364 yards on 27-of-47 passing. Wentz is no longer a must-start in 12-team leagues, but he has a favorable streaming matchup with the Atlanta Falcons and their 31st-ranked pass defense. In a game that’s shaping up as a shootout, Wentz will be a borderline QB1 this week.

With Jay Ajayi being the new centerpiece of the Dolphins offense, Tannehill’s fantasy ceiling has predictably cratered. He was in full dink-and-dunk mode against the New York Jets, averaging just 5.3 yards per attempt and throwing for 149 yards on 17-of-28 passing. If there’s a silver lining, Tannehill hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 5, so he should at least have a stable floor if he keeps avoiding turnovers. He’s a QB2 dart-throw play against the San Diego Chargers’ 26th-ranked pass defense this week.

Smith is expected to return after sitting out Week 9 with an undisclosed injury (it was a concussion, but the Chiefs were playing coy for some reason). He’ll go on the road to face a Carolina Panthers defense that’s been much improved in recent weeks, but still ranks 29th in the league with 286 passing yards allowed per game. If the bye week has you scrambling for QB options, you could do worse than Smith.

Smokin’ Jay made his return to the lineup in Week 8 and shocked the world by playing good, mistake-free football. He threw for 252 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions on 20-of-31 passing against the Minnesota Vikings defense, which is certainly a performance that deserves notice. Who knows if the enigmatic Cutler will continue playing well or revert back to his old inconsistent ways, but he has the right matchup after a bye week with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ bottom-tier defense. Cutler will be worth starting in 14-team leagues.

With the Jets’ playoff hopes going up in smoke and Ryan Fitzpatrick leading the league in interceptions, it feels like only a matter of time before they see what they really have in Petty. Fitzpatrick also suffered a sprained MCL in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins, so that at least gives Todd Bowles a convenient excuse to make the switch under center. We really don’t know if Petty is actually good or not, so he’s just a speculative add in deep, deep two-QB leagues. The Jets host the Los Angeles Rams this week.