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Week 9 Fantasy Football Starts and Sits

With six teams on a bye this week finding capable fantasy replacements may be difficult. Here we will help you find some sleepers for week 9.
Week 9 Start Sit

With six teams on bye, this week finding fantasy football starters may be difficult to find. Here we will try to help you find some sleepers for Week 9 with the Browns, Cowboys, Broncos, Giants, Steelers, and 49ers all on their bye weeks.

Week 9 Waiver Claims | Week 9 Stream Team

Week 9 Fantasy Football Starts and Sits

Quarterback Starts: Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford

Kirk Cousins is QB12 on the season averaging 18 fantasy points per game. The Minnesota Vikings offense is filled with weapons and they added another on Tuesday before the trade deadline. The Vikings traded for former Detroit Lions tight end T.J. Hockensen as a replacement for Irv Smith Jr.  It’s too early in the week to know if Hockensen will play this week or not.

Cousins has a good matchup against the Washington Commanders. This will be Cousins’ second time playing his former team and his first time playing in D.C. since leaving as a free agent in 2018. With this being a revenge game for Cousins look for him to throw the ball around early and often. The Commanders traded starting cornerback William Jackson III on Tuesday, leaving their secondary even more vulnerable than usual. With the changes in the secondary look for Cousins to take advantage early and often in week 9.

Matthew Stafford has been a sit for me for four straight weeks. That is mainly due to a rough schedule but also Stafford and Rams offense just being plain bad. That continued in Week 8 against the San Francisco 49ers but I chalk that up to matchup more than anything. It is possible that the Rams made some adjustments after the bye but they don’t match up well against the 49ers so that wasn’t going to show in Week 9. On paper, Stafford does have a tough matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but recent history suggests he’ll be ok.

In two games against the Buccaneers last season, Stafford averaged over 350 passing yards and three touchdowns per game, while also scoring 30+ points in both games. Now go back to 2020 before Stafford joined the Rams, Jared Goff threw for over 370 yards and three touchdowns against the Bucs. Sean McVay has some sort of advantage against Todd Bowles defenses that he’ll look to exploit for a fourth straight time.

Quarterback Sit: Jared Goff

Jared Goff is QB15 on the season and has been up and down for most of this year. Half of Goff’s fantasy production came in Weeks 2 and 4 when the Detroit Lions played in high-scoring games. Since the Week 4 game against the Seattle Seahawks, Goff only has one touchdown and six turnovers. Goff’s biggest issue is that the Lions are so run-heavy in the red zone, since week 5 Goff has had 13 red zone pass attempts and only one passing touchdown. Goff also lost T.J. Hockensen who was his number two option in the passing game behind Amon-Ra St. Brown.

This week Goff will see a Green Bay Packers defense that is great against the pass and bad against the run. The Lions will look to control this game on the ground and try to limit mistakes in the passing game. The Packers are bottom ten in the NFL in yards per carry and second-level yards allowed per carry. The Packer’s offense is also one of the slowest-paced offenses in the NFL. According to footballoutsiders, the Packers rank 28th in situation-neutral pace per play. So possessions in this game may come at a minimum compared to most weeks for the Lions.

Running Back Starts: Tyler Allgeier and Miles Sanders

Tyler Allgeier is starting to take over as the lead back for the Atlanta Falcons. Since Week 5 Allgeier has played almost 60% of the running back snaps for the Atlanta Falcons. Allgeier is averaging over 15 touches and 58 yards per game during that period. Allgeier hasn’t seen the fantasy production breakout yet but this may be his week. His matchup against a Los Angeles Chargers defense has been bad against the run. The Chargers are dead last in the NFL in yards per carry allowed to running backs. Running backs that have had at least 15 touches against the Chargers are averaging over 19 PPR points per game so far this season.

Miles Sanders is RB19 on the season averaging 14 points per game. Sanders is top three in the NFL in red zone carries and touchdowns. The Philadelphia Eagles are one of the best offenses in the league this year and Sanders has a great matchup this week against the Houston Texans.

 

The Texans are bottom five in rushing yards and touchdowns allowed this season. The Eagles are huge favorites in this game so Sanders is expected to see plenty of carries in this game with blowout potential.

Running Back Sits: Leonard Fournette and Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Leonard Fournette has been a bell cow for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season but here recently he has been wildly inefficient. In the last two weeks, Fournette has had 84 yards on 22 touches. The Buccaneers offense as a whole has been inefficient and had trouble scoring points. What’s helped Fournette for fantasy has been his touchdowns and receiving work but in the last three games, he has two touchdowns and is only averaging 26 receiving yards per game. Fournette will see a Los Angeles Rams defense that is top six in rushing yards, yards per carry, rushing attempts, and rushing touchdowns allowed.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is still ranked as a top 30 running back for this week and the top running back on the Kansas City Chiefs. Fantasy numbers will tell you that is the truth but as the season has progressed his numbers and snaps have declined. In the last three weeks, Edwards-Helaire has played 37% of the running back snaps and, in Week 7, he was third in running back snaps. The Chiefs will match up against the Tennessee Titans who are first in the NFL in running back carries allowed.

Wide Receiver Starts: Keenan Allen and Devonta Smith

Keenan Allen suffered a hamstring injury in Week 1 and has been sidelined with it since. He returned in Week 7 but played sparingly still struggling with the hamstring injury. In Week 7, Mike Williams suffered a high ankle sprain that will keep him sidelined for a couple of weeks. He has already been ruled out for this game so Allen will be the lone top receiver for the Chargers in Week 9. In the five games that Williams played without Allen, he averaged over nine targets per game. Allen averaged that number of targets last season so he should fit right back into that type of production. In Allen’s one career game against the Atlanta Falcons, he caught nine balls on eleven targets. The Falcons allow almost 90 yards per game to number one receivers.

Devonta Smith has been boom or busts this fantasy season, Smith has four games with at least fifteen PPR points and three games with seven points or less. Smith’s big games have usually come after A.J. Brown has had a blowup game, not sure if that is a coincidence but after Smith struggles he usually bounces back the next week. The Houston Texans have been good against number two receivers this year but this Eagles offense shouldn’t have any issues moving the ball through the air this week.

Wide Receiver Sits: Drake London and Brandin Cooks

Drake London is a number one receiver on the Atlanta Falcons, a Falcons team that is bottom five in the NFL in passing yards and attempts on the season. London has failed to reach more than 40 yards in his last five games. In his last three games, he is averaging under four targets per game.

 

This week he will see a Los Angeles Chargers defense that is awful against the run. With the Falcons already being a run-heavy team the Falcons should not be in a pass-heavy mindset. The Falcons are only averaging 22 pass attempts per game which takes a lot of target potential away from London.

The Houston Texans may have the worst offense in the league this year. Second-year quarterback Davis Mills has regressed this season and it is affecting the entire Texans offense. Brandin Cooks has only surpassed 60 yards twice this season, he averages only six targets per game. Cooks has a tough matchup this week against an Eagles defense that has two great cornerbacks who should limit Cooks when he does get targeted.

Tight End Starts: Gerald Everett and Zach Ertz

Gerald Everett has been a consistent fantasy tight end this season due to injuries in the Chargers receiving core. With Keenan Allen returning this week now the Chargers have another wide receiver injury with Mike Williams. This will leave Everett with more opportunities to get targets with the injury. What also helps Everett is the matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons rank 32nd and 30th in the NFL in targets and yards allowed to tight ends.

Zach Ertz targets have gone down since Deandre Hopkins returned from his suspension. He scored a touchdown last week which saved his fantasy production. You can’t expect him to score every week but he has a great matchup this week. The Seattle Seahawks allow 72 yards on 8 targets per game on the season. Earlier this year Ertz had 70 yards on ten targets against the Seahawks.

Tight End Sit: Kyle Pitts

Kyle Pitts had his best game of the season last week with 80 yards on five targets. He also scored his second touchdown of the season. Great game for him but five targets still isn’t enough to trust for consistent fantasy production. This week he will see a Los Angeles Chargers defense that allows just six targets per game to the position. Pitts will be matched up with Chargers All-Pro Safety Derwin James who will look to minimize his production this week.

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