Week 9 NFL Fantasy Recap

NFL Fantasy Recap

Week 9 has some really wacky games and some awesome games at the same time. We saw lots of division rivalries as well as AFC & NFC battles.

The top 5 quarterbacks for week 9 were C.J. Stroud, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Joshua Dobbs, and Josh Allen. How crazy is it that Joshua Dobbs was traded 5 days before the game on Sunday, wound up being the QB in the game, and won them the game on the final drive? He didn’t even know half of his teammates’ names! That’s insane. I am forever a Joshua Dobbs fan now. A few QBs let us down this week. Tua, Lamar, and Mahomes each had less than 15 points, no one wants to see that! C’mon fellas!

You know the week was bonkers when Rachaad White is the overall RB1 and Keaton Mitchell (BAL) is in the top 5. We also saw some familiar names like Austin Ekeler and Josh Jacobs in the top five as well. Tough to see Breece Hall, Tony Pollard, and D’Andre Swift each score 10 or fewer points, but fingers crossed they can turn that around going forward.

You don’t see rookies finish as the WR1 overall very often, but Tank Dell decided week 9 was his time! He just edged out CeeDe Lamb. Noah Brown (HOU) and Amari Cooper also made appearances in the top five. Diontae Johnson, Tee Higgins, and Chris Olave all made some noise in week 9, which was good to see. However, we saw guys like Kupp, Thielen, and Adams struggle to produce this week. Which stinks.

If you’re keeping track, the Texans had the QB1 in week 9 as well as the WR1 in week 9. But it gets even better. Dalton Schultz finished as the TE1 in week 9 as well! The top five TEs this week are eye-opening, I won’t lie. Schultz, Cole Kmet, Cade Otton, Jake Ferguson, and Jonnu Smith. Say what?? What a wild week!

Let’s jump into what went down at the beginning of the second half of the season.

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Steelers vs Titans

Week 9 kicked off with an AFC showdown. It was a rather low-scoring affair in this one but we had some decent fantasy scores on the board! The Titans were led by Derrick Henry and his 19 points. Henry ran for 75 yards and a touchdown. Also tacked on 3 catches for 27 yards. After King Henry, Kyle Phillips had the next highest score (10.8 pts), with DeAndre Hopkins not far behind him with 10.5. Phillips had 4 catches for 68 yards and DHop had 4 for 60. Pretty identical nights for them. Will Levis returned to earth after an incredible debut in week 8. Levis threw for 262 yards but no touchdowns and one interception. 8.6 points for him this week. He’ll be okay. Steelers at Heinz Field is a tough matchup.

The Steelers were led by the PPR king, Diontae Johnson. Johnson caught 7 passes for 90 yards and a TD. Diontae dropped a 22-point week for his managers this week. You love to see it. My favorite thing about the Steelers backfield is that Najee & Jaylen typically score around the same amount of points each week. For instance, this week, Najee had 15.6 points and Jaylen had 14.3 points. Najee found the endzone, getting him to the 15 points while Jaylen was catching passes which got him to 14 points. Kenny Pickett rounded out the fantasy-relevant players this week with 10 points. Pickett had 160 yards and a touchdown. Something to monitor is George Pickens’s situation. He had 2 catches for -1 yards and was not very happy about it after the game.

Dolphins vs Chiefs

Well, the narrative (or the truth) that the Dolphins can’t beat good teams continues. The Chiefs took this one 21-14. The weird thing about this game was the Dolphins were held scoreless in the first half and the Chiefs were held scoreless in the second half. Miami put together a hell of an effort to make a comeback but made back-to-back mistakes late in the game to put the nail in the coffin. Tua threw for 193 yards and a TD. He had 12.4 points this week. Leading the way was Raheem Mostert with 14.5 points. He ran for 85 yards and a touchdown. Tyreek was the second-highest score this week with 12.5 points. He had 8 catches for 62 points. He had an unfortunate fumble which lost him points. Cedrick Wilson scored 10 this week, so if you happen to be playing him with byes and injuries, woo friggen hoo. Jaylen Waddle only scored 8.4 points on 3 catches for 42 yards and one rushing attempt for 12 yards.

The top scorer for the Chiefs was none other than Patrick Mahomes himself but it was not the weekly score you would want from Mahomes. Only 15 points from 185 yards and 2 TDs. After Mahomes, the next-best score was Jerick McKinnon with 10.4 points. McKinnon had 2 catches for 22 yards and a TD. Rashee Rice scored 9.7 points. 2 catches for 17 yards and a touchdown at the goal line. Travis Kelce was almost non-existent. He only logged 3 catches for 14 yards (4.4 pts). Rough outing for Chiefs fantasy managers but the Chiefs got the W this week. It’s not every week Noah Gray scores more fantasy points than Travis Kelce.

Vikings vs Falcons

Straight off the bat, I want to give Arthur Smith a middle finger because I don’t understand why they drafted a running back at number 8 this year and are giving more opportunities to an undrafted free agent from 2022. I know it’s an echo chamber discussing that topic but I want answers. Anyway, the Falcons couldn’t hold on to this one despite their best efforts. Jonnu Smith was their high-scoring fantasy player. Yes, you read that correctly. Jonnu Smith. 21 points for him on 5 catches for 100 yards and a TD. If you didn’t see his touchdown, go check it out on YouTube! Taylor Heinicke had 14.72 points from 268 passing yards and a TD. Tyler Allgeier rounds out the double-digit scorers with 11 points. He had 39 rushing yards and a TD. Bijan finished with 5.9 points. Rough. At least Youghoe Koo was the #1 kicker this week with 19 points!

The Vikings trotted Jaren Hall onto the field as the starter but was soon knocked out of the game. After trading for Joshua Dobbs 5 days prior, he wound up being the QB under center and led them to their 5th straight win in a dramatic fashion. He was their leading scorer in fantasy as well. 24.92 points with 158 passing yards, 2 TDs in the air, 1 TD on the ground with 66 rushing yards. He did have 2 fumbles, so his week could’ve been even better! Alexander Mattison had a solid week scoring 17.3 points. 44 rushing yards, 2 catches for 49 yards and a TD. T.J. Hockenson is going to miss Kirk Cousins. T.J. had 13.9 points off of his 7 catch for 69 yards performance. Jordan Addison didn’t have a week quite like he had been. Only 10 points for him on 5 catches for 52 yards. Electric week to be a Vikings fan! Hell, it’s been an electric month in terms of the winning streak.

Browns vs Cardinals

The Cardinals are riding the struggle bus right now. Traded away Josh Dobbs and rolled out rookie Clayton Tune who posted a whopping 58 passing yards and 2 picks. Big yikes. This recap is going to be a sad one because Marquise Brown led the team with 6.4 points. 4 catches for 24 yards. The promising tight end, Trey McBride, had a tough week only catching 3 passes for 22 yards. It’s clear that the Browns’ defense annihilated the Cardinals’ offense from start to finish. Held them to 0 points. A combined 19.1 fantasy points from all of the Cardinals’ players. That is horrible.

The Browns, who won 27-0 made out much better than the Cardinals this week. Leading the way was the trusty vet, Amari Cooper. Cooper had 24.9 points and was a few yards short of a deep TD catch that would have put him over 30 points. Cooper had 5 catches for 139 yards and a TD. Deshaun Watson had a solid day in his return to action. 219 passing yards, 2 TDs, and 22 rushing yards giving him 18.96 points. Jerome Ford was able to score double digits again, reaching 12.7 points this week. Ford had 44 rushing and 5 catches for 33 yards. No touchdown for him this week because Kareem Hunt snagged it. Hunt only had 9.8 points this week and most of that was the TD run. 38 yards and the TD for Kareem. David Njoku had a good day as well. He caught 4 passes for 26 yards and a touchdown. Love to see Njoku finding paydirt! Can’t forget the Browns’ stellar defense putting up 23 points.

Rams vs Packers

Another miserable matchup in this NFC matchup. Fun fact, Matt LaFleur is undefeated against the Rams as a head coach. Makes sense as to why they beat the Rams up so badly. The final score in this one was 20-3. So maybe the didn’t really “beat up” the Rams but they took care of business. Cooper Kupp was the leading fantasy player for the Rams with 6.8 points. Man…that makes it three weeks in a row of Kupp scoring less than 10 points. Puka Nacua also struggled this week, scoring a measly 6.2 points. Darrell Henderson had 5.5 points this week and Tutu Atwell was not far behind with 5.3 points. Simply a terrible week all around for the Rams. Hopefully, we get Matthew Stafford back for week 10.

I’ll tell ya what, it is great to see Aaron Jones back and healthy! Jones scored 17.9 points this week. 73 rushing yards, 4 catches, and 26 receiving yards for the veteran RB. Switching to the younger generation, Luke Musgrave had a solid day at the office. 14.1 points on 3 catches for 51 yards and a TD for the rook! Love to see him flourishing. Jordan Love put together a 13.8-point performance. He had 228 passing yards and a TD. Not much production from anyone else this week. Jayden Reed had 7 points and Dontayvion Wicks scored 6.9 points. Romeo Doubs struggled to get much going only having 3 catches for 36 yards. Maybe next week!

Commanders vs Patriots

This is a rather patriotic matchup, wouldn’t ya say? It was a hard-fought battle for sure. The Patriots came up short in the end and lost 20-17. It didn’t help that the Patriots didn’t put points on the board until midway through the second quarter. Mac Jones was able to connect on a seam pass to Hunter Henry for a TD. Henry had 4 catches for 39 yards and that TD (13.9 pts). The high scorer for the Patriots was Rhamondre Stevenson this week. Stevenson had 22.9 points from 87 rushing yards, 4 catches, 42 receiving yards, and a long TD! Good to see Rham-bomb back! JuJu has been getting in the mix, he caught 6 passes for 51 yards (11.1 pts). Mac Jones finished with 11.1 as well. 220 passing yards and a TD for him. Demario Douglas, one of week 9’s waiver wire darlings, had 10.5 points on 5 catches for 55 yards. Not the Patriots week but they’ll be back!

The Commanders have now won in back-to-back weeks! If they keep this up, they might move ahead of the Cowboys (doubt it). Howell led the Commanders this week with 17.7 points. 325 passing yards, 1 TD, and 1 pick for Howell. He also added on 27 yards scrambling the ball. For the second straight week, Jahan Dotson scored 15+ points. 4 catches for 69 yards and a touchdown reception. Were you one of the people who gave up on Dotson? I sure wasn’t! Antonio Gibson posted his second double-digit score of the season in week 9. Gibson had 12.6 points. 34 rushing yards, 5 catches, and 42 yards to go with them. McLaurin didn’t have the best week, scoring 12.3 points and Brian Robinson had a good week reaching 11.7 points. Robinson found the end zone this week, which boosted his score. Solid win for the Commanders, especially, after trading away two core defensive players.

Bears vs Saints

It may not be pretty, and it certainly is not clean, but Tyler Bagent is trying his best to keep the Bears competitive. He threw for 220 yards and 2 TDs, but his 3 interceptions caused quite the hit to the Bears offensive success. He also ran for 70 yards, which is a lot for a QB! 15.8 points for Bagent this week. Bagent clearly likes to throw to Cole Kmet as he had another big week. Kmet caught 6 passes for 55 yards and 2 TDs giving him 23.5 points this week. Darnell Mooney seems to be his other favorite target, throwing it to him 5 times for 82 yards (13.3 pts). D.J. Moore took the back seat this week with only 3 catches for 44 yards (5.4 pts after a fumble). Justin Fields is on track to be back for week 10, so D.J. Moore will most likely return to form. Very little production from the running backs this week. D’Onta Foreman had the most points out of the group, with 8.3.

Another week, another shocking performance by Taysom Hill. Hill led the Saints in fantasy points this week scoring 20.62 points. He had 3 passing yards and a TD. I’m sorry, I had to include that! HE ran the ball for 52 yards and caught 4 passes for 13 yards and a TD. Taysom Hill has solidified himself as a fantasy Konami code. The other QB, Derek Carr, had 16.74 points this week from 211 passing yards and 2 TDs. Love to see Carr avoiding interceptions this week. Chris Olave jumped back into relevancy, he caught 6 passes for 46 yards and a TD (16.6 pts). Heck, even Juwan Johnson made some noise this week, Johnson scored 13.9 points this week. His 5 catches for 29 yards and a TD got him there. Huge bummer to see Alvin Kamra only scoring 11 points but you almost knew he was going to have a low output at some point! The Saints got a good win here and are in first place in the NFC South.

Seahawks vs Ravens

Man oh man, this Seahawks recap is going to be a brief one. They scored 3 points. In the entire game. I don’t know if Geno Smith has lost his mojo but they need to do something to get him out of the funk. When D.K. Metcalf is only catching one ball, you know things are not going well. The leading fantasy scorer was Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 12.3 points. Which makes it three straight weeks in double-digits! The boom week is coming folks…stay tuned! JSN had 6 catches for 63 yards. The next high score was Tyler Lockett with 6.2 points and he had 3 catches for 32 yards. As I mentioned, Metcalf had 1 catch for 50 yards. So he had 6 points but wow that is bad. Good luck managing your Seahawks players going forward!

As for the Ravens, they had plenty of success in the fantasy world, let alone the real world. Without looking, can you tell me who their high scorer was? No shot. It was Keaton Mitchell! The rookie running back out of Georgia. 20.4 points and 138 rushing yards with a TD later, he had a breakout week. Now, I don’t know if that will continue, because a good chunk of his carries came in garbage time while they were up multiple scores, but he is worth adding off waivers if you have the spot available. Gus Edwards also had another solid week scoring 17.2 points. Gus had 52 rushing yards and 2 TDs this week. He has been carrying my RB spot! Despite Seattle shutting down TEs for the most part, Mark Andrews was able to log 17 points against their defense. 9 catches for 80 yards from “MAN”drews. Odell Beckham even got in the action, he caught 5 passes for 56 yards and even found the end zone this week! Good to see Odell back. The Ravens are in first place in the AFC as of right now!

Buccaneers vs Texans

My vote for the game of the week is this one! If you weren’t able to watch this one, you NEED to go watch the highlights on YouTube. The Bucs tried their darndest to win this one, but C.J. Stroud has ice in his veins! The Bucs were led by Rachaad White, who is RB1 for week 9! White scored 27.9 points this week. He had 73 rushing yards, 2 TDs on the ground, and 4 catches for 46 yards. Hell of a day for the year 2 running back. Not far behind him was another sophomore player, Cade Otton, who scored 23 points this week! 6 catches for 70 yards with a TD puts him near the top of the tight ends in week 9. Baker has had a solid year so far. Scoring 19 points this week makes it 5 out of 8 games this season where he scored 15+ points. This week, he had 265 passing yards and 2 TDs. He did everything you would want out of him, getting the go-ahead score at the end of the game, but the defense let them down. Mike Evans managed to score 12.7 points which is fine, but Chris Godwin had a dud of a week with 3.6 points. Rough outing for him.

I don’t even know where to start with the Texans! They had the QB1, WR1, and TE1 for week 9. I’m not sure how often that happens, but I’m damn sure going to remember this one. C.J. Stroud had a MASSIVE game. 41.8 points is insane for a rookie! Stroud threw for 470 yards and 5, yes FIVE, touchdowns. That’s ROTY-type stuff. Tank Dell was the recipient of 114 of those yards and 2 of those TDs. All on 6 catches as well. That’s one hell of a day for a rookie WR. Noah Brown even continued his solid streak of good games scoring 27.3 points on 6 catches for 153 yards and a TD. It’s crazy how many high-scoring players the Texans had this week. Dalton Schultz scored 20+ as well. He had 27 points from 10 catches for 130 yards and a TD. Touchdowns for everyone! Even Nico Collins scored! Nico caught 3 passes for 54 yards and a TD (14.4 pts). Singletary was a hot commodity on the waiver wire but barely scored 4 points. Hate to see it. But LOVE to see the Texans win in dramatic fashion! Stroud is the real deal!

Colts vs Panthers

The Panthers stink. There’s really no other way of putting it. There’s very little talent surrounding Bryce Young. I love Adam Thielen just as much as the next guy but him being their WR1 is not great. Their off-season singing of Miles Sanders has blown up in their face, and Chuba Hubbard has become the starter. It’s all bad. Hubbard was the leading fantasy scorer with 10.7 points. 58 rushing yards and 4 catches for 9 yards. Yikes. Miles Sanders was next with 9.1 points. He had 39 rushing yards and 3 catches for 22 yards. Lots of below-average running back play from those two. Bryce Young scored 9 points. Only had 173 passing yards and 1 TD for him this week. Not much fantasy relevance after that. Tough week for the Panthers’ fantasy production.

The Colts had a couple of players with good weeks. Leading the way was none other than Jonathan Taylor himself. Taylor ran for 47 yards, caught 5 passes for 22 yards, and added a receiving TD on top of that. Taylor had 17 points in week 9. Michael Pittman Jr. may not have had the big week we thought it would turn into once Josh Downs went down with an injury, but he managed to score just shy of 15 points. Pittman had 14.4 points from 8 catches for 64 yards. Gardner Minshew had a crappy week if we’re being honest. 127 passing yards and 1 passing touchdown (9.58 pts). The best performance was the Colts’ defense having 2 pick-sixes on Young. It was the same guy who took them to the house too! They were the #1 defense in week 9.

Raiders vs Giants

I feel for the Giants fans. It’s never a good day when you lose your franchise quarterback for the season. Not to mention, they scored 6 points. Saquon was really the only sign of life from this offense. His 14.3 points led the team. Saquon ran for 90 yards and added 3 catches for 23 yards on to that. If only he found the end zone… Wan’Dale Robinson came in with the next high score at 13.5 points. He caught 4 passes for 35 yards and a TD. He was so open on that touchdown that he stood still and caught it with his back to the stands. It was very weird to see live. Darius Slayton finished with 9.9 points, he logged 4 catches for 59 yards. After Slayton, it is a scary place for fantasy scores.

The Raiders clearly have a new energy in the building after the Josh McDaniels’ firing. The players looked like they had a weight lifted off their shoulders and Josh Jacobs clearly had beef with McDaniels because we saw one of his best outings of the season as soon as he was fired. Jacobs scored 21.9 points this week on 98 rushing yards and 2 TDs. Love to see him running all over defenses again. A bit of a drop-off after Jacobs. Jakobi Meyers was next in scoring with 13.5 points. He had 2 receptions for 38 yards but also had a rush for 17 yards that resulted in a TD. Davante Adams had quite the miserable performance after hootin’ and hollerin’ last week. Maybe the rookie QB had something to do with that but you almost expected a big week out of him. Oh well. Raiders got the W.

Cowboys vs Eagles

This is another game that is potentially game of the week. NFC East showdown and a battle for the top of the division. Dallas had their chances at the end of the game but botched the opportunities. Dak had another fantastic week scoring 28.36 points. He was QB2 in week 9 and that makes three straight weeks in the top 5! 374 passing yards and 3 TDs will do that. He’s been playing lights out and hasn’t been making errors like INTs or fumbles which is great for Dak. CeeDee Lamb showed out as well. WR2 overall this week thanks to his 11 catches and 191 yards. Love to see him putting up 28 fantasy points. Hell, even Jake Ferguson had a huge week. He scored 22 points off of 7 catches for 91 yards and a TD. Jalen Tolbert had a sneaky good week with 13.9 points, but I would be shocked if many people played him. Maybe some Cowboys homers. Pollard struggled a little bit this week only scoring 9.3 points, but most running backs do against Philly’s front 7. Tough loss for the ‘Boys, but they’ll be alright.

Philly is rolling into their bye week with an 8-1 record and at the top of the NFC. They’re going to be a scary team heading into the playoffs. Jalen Hurts was the top-scoring fantasy player for the Eagles this week. 25.88 points puts him at the QB3 for week 9. 207 passing yards, 2 TDs in the air, 36 rushing yards with a tush push TD. A.J. Brown continued his hot streak logging 7 catches for 66 yards and a TD (19.6 pts). He broke his streak of games with 125+ yards but we knew it was going to happen eventually. DeVonta Smith had a decent week, scoring 14 points from 3 catches for 51 yards and a TD. As a manager, you can’t be mad at that. D’Andre Swift had an OK week. He only scored 9.4 points but there were far worse options out there. Dallas Goedert suffered a forearm injury and is due to miss some time. I would look for Cade Otton or Logan Thomas as a replacement option.

Bengals vs Bills

Buffalo just can’t seem to compose themselves in these win-able matchups. Sure, the Bengals are on a good streak right now, but they are beatable. But the Bills just aren’t clicking and it shows. They move to 5-4 on the season and the schedule remaining for them is no easy task. Buckle up, Bills mafia! Josh Allen did well this week despite the loss. He scored 24.72 points off of 258 passing yards, a TD in the air, 44 rushing yards, and a running TD. I LOL’d when he pump faked a pass at the goal line and made a defender jump followed by pointing at him while Allen ran in the TD. The refs didn’t laugh, because they threw a flag for it. Soft. Stefon Diggs came to play, of course. Diggs scored 22.6 points this week and he did that after catching 6 passes for 86 yards and a TD. We also saw Dalton Kincaid continue his hot streak! Kincaid caught 10 passes, yes 10, for 81 yards. 16 points out of a rookie tight end? I’ll take that! James Cook had a stinker week, scoring 7.9 points. As did Gabe Davis who had zero points. None. Nada. Hate to see it.

The Bengals are hot! Joe Scheisty and his crew are kicking ass ever since the bye week. Burrow threw for 348 yards and 2 TDs this week. Which gave him 22.32 points and was good for QB6 in week 9. Love to see it. After the Ja’Marr injury (keep an eye on that situation) Tee Higgins became his guy. Tee caught 8 passes for 110 yards. 19 points and a fantastic “get right” game for Tee. Joe Mixon had his second solid game in a row. He only logged 37 rushing yards, but he had 5 catches for 31 yards and a rushing TD to get him to 17 points. Burrow must have spent some time with the TEs in practice because both Drew Sample and Irv Smith Jr. caught a TD this week. 12 points for Sample and 11.6 points for Smith Jr. Great win for the Bengals this week.

Jets vs Chargers

Both of these teams needed a win this week. It was a matter of which offense would show up because we know their defenses can. In the end, the Jets offense struggled to get things going. The leading scorer was Garrett Wilson, who had 13 points. Not a great sign for the rest of this recap. Wilson caught 7 passes for 80 yards. Tyler Conklin had a solid week, however. He caught 6 passes for 66 yards giving him 12.6 points this week. I hate seeing Breece Hall score 10 fantasy points. But when the Jets’ offensive line is as discombobulated as it is, it is bound to happen. They need to script more screens for Breece. 50 rushing yards and 4 catches for 10 yards this week. Zach Wilson stunk, scoring 7.2 points. No interceptions, however. So that’s a plus.

Los Angeles could not afford to lose this game and they made sure they did not. Austin Ekeler had his second straight week of 20+ points scoring 21 this week. He ran the ball for 47 yards and 2 TDs while catching 2 passes for 23 yards. He would have had more catches if he hadn’t lathered his gloves with butter before the game. Keenan Allen did rather well, scoring 15.7 this week. I was hoping after the turnover late in the game that the Chargers would toss it to him at the goal line since he crossed the 10,000 receiving yards mark during this game. Oh well. Maybe next week! Allen caught 8 passes for 77 yards. Shitty week for Herbert, I won’t lie. Only 7.14 points which is unusual. 136 passing yards and 17 rushing yards for him. Probably because I had him for 225+ passing yards in my parlay. Sorry folks! Quentin Johnston still has yet to make an impact, and they really need him to get going because this offense misses Mike Williams.