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USATSI

We've had a lot of negatives to talk about this season, but I opened today's newsletter with an unquestionably good thing: C.J. Stroud's play. 

Stroud was, obviously, incredible on Sunday. That's underselling it. Stroud was incredible. It was one of the best games we've ever seen a rookie play from a statistical perspective. Stroud became just the fifth rookie in NFL history to pass for five touchdowns in a game, and he did it while setting the rookie record for single-game passing yardage with 470.

Stroud was arguably even more impressive from "pull your head out of the spreadsheets and watch the games" perspective. He set that record on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Tank Dell with six seconds left on the clock to push the Texans ahead of the Buccaneers, as they won a wild shootout, 39-37. They needed literally every single one of those yards. Stroud threw for 75 yards and a score on the final drive with just 46 seconds remaining to win the game.

It was an unbelievable performance, the kind that makes discussions of future MVPs seem entirely reasonable. It was the kind of game that forces the question, "Exactly how many quarterbacks would I rather have in Fantasy right now?" 

And I think the answer might be as low as seven: Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, and Joe Burrow. Now, that's not to say Stroud is No. 8. Before dropping 51.8 Sunday, he had just 47.3 in his three previous games combined, after all. And if you wanted to take, say, Trevor Lawrence ahead of Stroud, I probably wouldn't quibble with you. 

But the point is, Stroud has been remarkable, and I think the coaching staff hopefully learned a lesson from winning with an aggressive game plan in Week 9 after losing a very winnable game the previous week against the Panthers with an unusually passive, run-heavy approach. The lesson? Let C.J. cook. Stroud might not have an established No. 1 option, but he's got a deep receiving corps with viable playmakers, and is playing at an incredibly high level. So why wouldn't they take advantage of that at a time when it might give them a significant leg up over most of their opponents most weeks? 

Stroud is 92% rostered, so there probably isn't much actionable here. But I do think you should probably view Stroud as someone you can start most weeks moving forward – I reckon he'll be a low-end QB1 for me in Week 10 against the Bengals, a tough matchup – and not necessarily someone you need to be trying to trade away right now. Good quarterbacks are hard to find, and I very much believe you've found one.

We talked about that and plenty more in the Monday morning edition of the Fantasy Football Today newsletter, which you can subscribe to below:

I wrote about the top waiver-wire targets heading into Week 10 as usual on Sunday night, but I'll be honest: This isn't a great week for it. At least, not as of now – we'll surely learn more about injuries that could change that today and tomorrow. But, as of Sunday evening, Keaton Mitchell looks like the only player I'd be really aggressive on this week, and if he had four carries next week, I wouldn't be even a little bit surprised. So, rather than spend time on the early waiver-wire targets, I'll just link you to it here.