The Bye-pocalypse has come and gone. What kind of Fantasy landscape did you emerge to? Hopefully you were able to survive to play another day, but don’t get comfortable just yet, because Week 9 has another 4 teams (and some of the biggest names) resting up.
Are you scrambling to find someone to play? Do you need a new signal-caller to take over on your team? Well, you’re in luck, because our Week 9 Quarterback Sleepers and Streamers are here to lead you to victory.
More Week 9 Fantasy Football Fun!: | Sneaky Starts | Fantasy Football Waiver Wire | Weekly Sleepers & Streamers | Starts & Sits | Skrip’s Week Winners | NFL DFS | NFL Player Props | IDP Analysis | Bold Predictions | Survivor Picks | NFL Injury Report | Dynasty Trade Targets | Weekly Rankings | Dynasty Risers and Fallers
Week 8 Recap
We had a mixed bag with our Quarterback calls in Week 8, going 2-for-4.
Jordan Love finished as the QB1 going into the Monday night game. He played brilliantly, throwing for 360 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s shown he can have monster games from time to time; they just might be hard to predict. He gets a nice matchup against Carline in Week 9.
Joe Flacco was also a win for us. He had two passing touchdowns and another on the ground against the Jets, and was the #5 QB of the week. His volume, matched with the terrible Bengals’ defense, means that he’s a great option nearly every week.
Caleb Williams and Michael Penix were both duds on our end. Penix didn’t end up suiting up, but given how bad Kirk Cousins was, I’m willing to say it would have been a bad choice either way. Williams, on the other hand, had an okay game given the competition on the week. He wasn’t the worst choice, but no touchdowns meant that he didn’t win anybody’s matchup either.
Current Season Tally: 21-13
Let’s see if we can do better than .500 in Week 9!
Week 9 Quarterback Sleepers
Daniel Jones, Indianapolis Colts QB @ Pittsburgh Steelers
This is your friendly reminder that I’ve been hyping Danny Dimes since all the way back in Week 1. I’ve avoided putting him back in the article too much because he’s played so well this year that he’s probably already locked in lineups. If there are any doubters still out there, it’s time to listen up.
Jones hasn’t hit 300 passing yards since Week 2. That’s about to change. With their (lack of) performance on Sunday night, the Steelers are now giving up the most passing yards per game in the league. Yep, even more than Dallas.
Pittsburgh also let Jordan Love complete 20 straight passes. Jones thrives in the intermediate areas of the field and should be able to similarly carve them up this week with Michael Pittman and Tyler Warren. He also has weapons in the short area, with MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor, and a bona fide deep threat in Alec Pierce.
Jones also hasn’t had to run much in the past few weeks; Taylor has been doing that enough for both of them. With the amount that Pittsburgh likes to try and pressure QBs, though, I foresee him having some valuable scrambles in this one.
Jones already has two Top-5 finishes on the season. I expect this to be his third.
Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears QB @ Cincinnati Bengals
I haven’t had great success this year doubling down on QBs after a bad week, but let’s see if Williams can break that streak for me.
He gets a great matchup in Week 9 against the Bengals, who just made Justin Fields look competent without Garrett Wilson, and also let Breece Hall throw a touchdown on them. Currently, they give up the third most passing yards in the league.
Williams will also benefit from a fully healthy receiving core. DJ Moore looks to be back to 100%, and Odunze should be looking to bounce back with a big performance.
Williams has looked rocky this year and still seems like someone learning how to play at this level. When he gets cooking, though, he has the ability to be great, with an overall QB1 finish already in the books for Week 3.
A big key to unlocking his value is through his legs. He had a season-low 3 rushing attempts in Week 8 against Baltimore, but he’s attempted as many as 8 in a game already this season. The hope is that he finds some nice holes against a porous defense.
If he can get going, Williams has a decent back-half schedule. Let’s hope that Week 9 can be the start of some more consistent performances.
Week 9 Quarterback Streamers
Jaxson Dart, New York Giants QB vs. San Francisco 49ers
The Niners are coming off a game where they allowed C.J. Stroud to throw for over 300 yards and 7 rushing attempts. That’s more running than his last three games combined.
Dart, on the other hand, is coming off a good-not-great rematch with the Eagles. He continued to throw the ball well and found the endzone on the ground again.
The Giants lost Cam Skattebo for the rest of the season, which will take away some easy dump-offs for Dart. On the flipside, that might mean more designed runs for the QB. Tyrone Tracy is also a decent enough pass-catching back that he should pick up some of the slack.
Dart did get Darius Slayton back in the lineup on Sunday. The box score doesn’t tell the true story, though, as the two connected on a long touchdown that got called back on a terrible OPI call. Slayton fills a serious void on the offense and should have some big games in the near future.
Dart’s real upside rests on his legs, though, and we expect him to be able to use them against a banged-up San Francisco defensive line. You probably have someone else you drafted as a starter, but it might be time to turn your team over to the rookie.
Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks QB vs. Washington Commanders
Darnold is the most vanilla Quarterback in the league this year, and represents an every-week streamer.
He hasn’t dipped below 200 passing yards since Week 1, but has only one game with more than 300. He’s had multiple touchdowns in 4-of-7. The Commanders are currently giving up the 7th most passing yards in the league.
Darnold has been able to solidify Jaxon Smith-Njigba as an elite Fantasy WR, but hasn’t propelled anyone else to even weekly flex status. Anyone not named JSN finds themselves in an offense where the ball is (accurately) spread around by a competent game manager. Not great for the rest of the team, but good for Sam.
On the bright side, Darnold had more run attempts in the past two games than he did in the first five combined. While we haven’t seen it much lately, he can run when he needs to. He’s also coming off a bye week, so he should be rested and well prepared for the matchup with Washington.
Darnold is a true coin flip, with three Top-10 finishes on the year, and four bottom-half finishes. I envision him evening things up with another good performance. At the very least, he will do enough to not lose you the week. At best, he could win it.
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