MathBox +/- Week 9 Projections

Predictions by each position for Week 9 Fantasy Football in Standard and PPR Formats

You can learn more about our models and our Week 9 projections and Waiver Wire pickups by listening our weekly Fantasy Outliers podcast: iTunes, streaming.

Week 9’s another tough one with six teams on bye—including two big fantasy teams in the Steelers and the Patriots. Once again, a number of regular starters aren’t available (fortunately, things return to something more normal next week).

Here are the teams on bye and some of the players you might be missing this week:

• Pittsburgh Steelers: Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Ben Roethlisberger
• New England Patriots: Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Dion Lewis, James White, Mike Gillislee, Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady
• Minnesota Vikings: Jerick McKinnon, Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Kyle Rudolph
• Chicago Bears: Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen
• Cleveland Browns: Isiah Crowell, Duke Johnson, Jr.
• Los Angeles Chargers: Melvin Gordon, Keenan Allen, Hunter Henry, Philip Rivers

Ok. So… with that many players out I’m sure we’re all looking for some people to plug into lineups to help. Let’s get to it.

Quarterback Notes

• Kirk Cousins is ranked #1 this week by MathBox despite the tough matchup against Seattle. Our projections weren’t scared of this matchup last week for Deshaun Watson (which was for the best—Watson was great) and we’re inclined to believe that the #1 is warranted here, too.
• There are few surprises in the top 10 at QB this week—which also unfortunately means that there aren’t really any options for low ownership-percentage/high rank spot starts this week.
• Eli Manning is MathBox’s highest rated QB (at #11) with less than 50% ownership and we think he’s a decent option for a bye week fill-in, too. We’ll also be taking long looks at Dalton (#16), McCown (#17), and Goff (#18) if we need to stream a signal caller this week.

Runningback Notes

• MathBox has Mark Ingram ranked #1 in standard scoring this week with Alvin Kamara not far behind at #15. We’re still starting both right now.
• Jay Ajayi’s gotten a bump after his move to Philadelphia (#8 standard, #10 PPR)—he’s moved up around 6–8 ranks on our list post-trade. We think it’s warranted and he’ll return that kind of value as part of the great Eagles offense.
• Notable streaming candidates this week include Samaje Perine (#28 in PPR) and this week’s trendy waiver add Alex Collins (#27 in PPR).
• MathBox might like Ajayi’s situation in Philly, it still doesn’t like either of his potential understudies in Miami. We have Damien Williams at RB#60 and don’t even have Kenyon Drake ranked this week. I’d avoid for at least one week if you can.

Wide Receiver Notes

• Two receivers in QB trouble (Jordy Nelson (#4) and Jarvis Landry (#5) in PPR) are still ranked pretty high going into this weekend. Despite our misgivings about QB talent, we’d start both this week—though Nelson has the much better matchup this week. We also believe that Nelson is most likely to stick around towards the top of the rankings for the rest of the season.
• Streaming options start around WR#24 this week and goes until about WR#30. The list includes Marvin Jones, Sterling Shepard, Marqise Lee, Willie Snead and Ted Ginn. Our favorites out of that list are probably Jones and the Saints receiving pair—though I personally favor Ted Ginn at this point.

Tight End Notes

• A ton of TEs are missing this week, both due to bye and to injuries. The injury group includes Charles Clay, Jordan Reed, and potentially Delanie Walker. Keep an eye out for how practice goes the rest of the week to see if any of these players suddenly become usable.
• With Jordan Reed almost certainly out, Vernon Davis becomes an attractive streaming option towards the back half of the top 10.
• Two other waiver wire grabs at TE include Jack Doyle and Jared Cook. Both have great matchups against defenses that rank low against opposing TEs.

That’s it for this week! Good luck managing your way through this challenging week. Also if you want a little more commentary around our projections, check out our podcast here.

Chris Seal and Jeremy Mobley contributed to the weekly models.

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