A bit of a tip-off the top for those of you in leagues with FAAB (which all leagues where everyone is active in waivers should). I’ve got no issue throwing one dollar every week at the top D/ST available. In some deeper leagues, I do it all season. I spend $1 every week, assuming it’s a $100 league (mine are), that’s about $13-14 off the top of my budget for the regular season. Assuming I don’t lose any of those $1 bids, that’s one middle-of-the-road addition to my team I’ll sacrifice for an entire season of having first dibs on the DST waiver wire. To each their own but for me that’s an absolutely worthy trade-off.
In Week 9 we see the 49ers, Lions, Jaguars, and Broncos on a bye. All options listed below will be available in 50% or more Fantrax Leagues.
Week 9 DST Streamers
New England Patriots
It’s Bill Belichick and the Patriots and for that reason, I will always trust them. Pair them up against an inconsistent Commanders squad and we’ve got a favorable matchup. Sam Howell has had his good games and bad games en route to an otherwise overall nice season, but Belichick LOVES to pick on young QBs. Howell struggles with taking too many sacks and not getting the ball out fast enough. Expect the Patriots to disguise their coverages and throw exotic looks at Howell to put him through the wringer.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons defense had a poor week last week but I’m sticking with them again in Week 9 because of another favorable matchup. Minnesota has talent at the skill position groups but they just lost Kirk Cousins for the season. Joshua Dobbs will get the SparkNotes version of the offensive playbook if he gets the start, otherwise it’s Jaren Hall who will operate the offense. Hard to say who will be QB1 but either way it feels like the Vikings offense will be playing with an arm tied behind their back.
New York Giants
Yet another week of no respect for the Giants’ defensive performance in this latest stretch of football. Here’s how the Giants’ DST has stacked up in recent weeks:
@ Buffalo: 7 FPts
vs Washington: 15 FPts
vs NY Jets: 13 FPts
Now the Giants take on the lowly Raiders fresh off a head coach change on a short week. It should be a great opportunity for Okereke, Lawrence, Kayvon, and Banks to put up another big performance.
Houston Texans
I told you last week, that it’s about time we start giving the Houston DST the respect they deserve. Another strong performance over Carolina should emphasize that. They’ve got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week and they’ve struggled to score of late. The Buccaneers have scored over 20 points in a game once since Week 3. Meanwhile, the Texans have scored six or more fantasy points in four of their last five games and nine or more in three of those games. It’s far from an elite unit, but the Texans can be relied on in favorable games like they have in Week 9.
Las Vegas Raiders*
Big star next to this one, which I’ll get to in a second. First, as I mentioned before the Raiders have made a change at head coach. Out is Josh McDaniels and in is Antonio Pierce who will face his former team the Giants. Teams always seem to play at a higher level in the first week following a coaching change such as this and I wouldn’t be shocked if Pierce got the Raiders ready to play with their hair on fire on Sunday.
Now for the *. Daniel Jones has been cleared to play BUT if for some reason he can’t go, Matt Barkley isn’t ready and Tommy DeVito gets the starting nod, the Raiders are a must-play. The Giants didn’t trust DeVito to throw the ball past the line of scrimmage and I think that was partly due to a lack of trust in DeVito and wasn’t solely on the weather and Jets defense. DeVito takes the Raiders from a desperate stream DST to a must-start.
Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End | Half-PPR by Position | Flex Rankings | Positional Ranks w/ K & DST | Dynasty | Superflex Dynasty