5 Fantasy Football Takeaways for Week 9
As you could tell, this weekly series has now shifted from “overreactions” to “takeaways” as we’re almost at the midway point of the regular season. Although this NFL season has been a bit disappointing for fantasy football, with scoring going down by 22% compared to last year, there’s still plenty of things to dive into. As ya’ll know, I will be doing this takeaway article over the course of the 18 weeks of the NFL season, so let’s jump right into it.
1. TUA IS AN ELITE QB…FOR FANTASY
Now Tua Tagovailoa is certainly not an elite QB in real life among names like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow, but for fantasy, he certainly is looking like a top 5 option every week no matter the matchup. Since coming back from his concussion, he’s been the QB3 behind Josh Allen and Joe Burrow from Weeks 7–9. With Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, Tua simply doesn’t have to do much to produce for fantasy — he just has to get the ball in the hands of his elite playmakers. He certainly looks like a league winner, and enjoy the rest of the ride with him.
2. D’ANDRE SWIFT SHOULD BE BENCHED
With Lions head coach Dan Campbell coming out and saying that he would peeling back Swift’s usage, we didn’t know what to expect this week, but after playing a measly 10 snaps, it’s safe to say that Swift could be in a limited role all season, meaning he should not be in your lineups. Jamaal Williams is a weekly RB2 right now, and until there’s confirmation that Swift will be returning to his normal role, you can’t play him.
3. CORDARELLE PATTERSON NEEDS TO BE IN LINEUPS
Patterson came back from his knee surgery in a triumphant way, finishing as the RB6 in on the week with two touchdowns to his name. Although he played the same number of snaps as Tyler Allgeier, and the Falcons some how found themselves in a four way RB committee, Patterson is simply too efficient with his touches to not start. In a juicy matchup against the Panthers on TNF, who just allowed Joe Mixon to put up 55+ fantasy points on them, Patterson could finish as a top 10 option again.
4. GO BUY LOW ON CHRIS GODWIN AND AMON-RA ST BROWN
Right now, Chris Godwin and Amon-Ra St Brown have been massive disappointments in fantasy. Godwin hasn’t find the end zone yet this season, and St Brown has been the WR59 from Weeks 5–9. However, these underwhelming performances provide a prime buy low opportunity for both. Godwin is still seeing elite target volume, as he’s seen double digit targets in 5 of the past 6 games. He’s still a locked in WR2, and if you could trade a name like Terry McLaurin or Rondale Moore to get him I would. Like Godwin, St Brown is still seeing elite usage, and most people forget that he’s now unquestionably Jared Goff’s number one passing option with the departure of TJ Hockenson. St Brown should be able to return back to his WR1 form very soon, and he could very well do so this week in a soft matchup against the Bears, so make sure you buy low on him as well.
5. TJ HOCKENSON IS A TOP 5 TE REST OF SEASON
Speaking of Hockenson, there were worries that he wasn’t going to relevant in fantasy anymore after joining the Vikings due to a lack of targets, but in his first game, he was used heavily and finished as the TE5 on the week, most importantly catching nine passes. Moving forward, it looks like Hockenson has surpassed Adam Thielen as Kirk Cousins’ number two option, and with the way the Vikings are rolling right now, there’s no sign that his production should decrease moving forward. Hockenson is going to be a top five TE in fantasy easily.
