Fantasy Football Week 9 Recap

Six teams were on bye, including the Chicago Bears, and still Week 9 proved as exciting as any other in the NFL with the 49ers, Broncos, Chargers and Cowboys all losing. Nothing is guaranteed in this league as the Arizona Cardinals sit alone as the only one loss team. Likewise Fantasy football is as unpredictable as ever with streaks starting and ending in any given week. Week-by-week it pays to notice the trends. Here now the Fantasy Football Week 9 Recap.

Quarterbacks:

After 12 passing touchdowns in two weeks, Ben Roethlisberger has become one of the most sought after quarterbacks in fantasy football. It’s easy to admire a player who’s scored nearly 90 fantasy points in two weeks, but with a high score of 17.90 fantasy points on the road he remains dependent on being at Heinz Field.

Just look at the numbers: 

Ben Roethlisberger At Home: 155.2 fantasy points in five games (31.04 points per game). His lowest fantasy game in Pittsburgh this season is 19.55.

Ben Roethlisberger On the Road:  56.3 fantasy points in four games (14.075 points per game).

In New York next week against the worst rated pass defense in the league, Big Ben will have a chance to prove he can be a reliable fantasy option outside of Pittsburgh…

Andrew Luck scored his fifth 30+ point fantasy game of the season on Monday night. No other quarterback has scored more than 30 points in more than three games this season (Peyton Maninng- 2, Tom Brady- 2, Ben Roethlisberger- 2)… After putting up 40.25 fantasy points in a loss in the first game after the Percy Harvin trade, Russell Wilson has scored 27.5 in the two games since. Both wins. In fact, the Seahawks ran the ball 38 times on Sunday, their highest total in a game this season.

In the past month the quarterback scoring leaders include Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning,  Ryan Tannehill, Aaron Rodgers, and Carson Palmer. Of these seven quarterbacks, only Tannehill and Palmer have yet to finish a season inside the top 10 in scoring since 2010. Both Tannehill and Palmer have only one game of under 20 points in their past four, and combined they have only one game of under 15 fantasy points (Tannehill, Week 1: 14.70 points) . Though Palmer’s early-season injury will prevent him from finishing atop the quarterback scoring leaders at season’s end, Tannehill could certainly find himself in top-10  if he continues his strong play (currently 11th with 163.85 fantasy points).

Running Backs:

With just 79 rushing yards on 19 carries DeMarco Murray falied to reach 100 rushing yards for the first time this season. He still managed 9.00 points and remains the top fantasy back heading into the final month before the playoffs. However, with Murray’s single digit performance, Le’Veon Bell becomes the only back to score double digit fantasy points in every game this season. After being overlooked in this years draft, both will be considered top picks next season.

After 4.8 fantasy points in the first three games of the season, Jamaal Charles has scored 89.8 fantasy points in five games since (an average of 17.96 points). Games against red-rated defenses in the next two weeks (Buffalo, 30th, and Seattle, 27)  should help to prove whether Charles is still a top fantasy back or not … With four straight games of over 20 fantasy points and coming off a bye Matt Forte should be more than ready to go against a Packers defense that allowed Mark Ingram 172 rushing yards and a touchdown…

Wide Receivers:

Through nine games this season, Antonio Brown is on pace for over 183 targets, 126 receptions, 1,771 yards, and 14 touchdowns. With only one single digit fantasy game this season (Week 5, 8.40 points) Brown has emerged as the number one fantasy receiver in 2014… Aside from Roethlisberger and Brady, no player has scored more fantasy points in the past two weeks than Jeremy Maclin (58.80 points). Coming off a Week 7 Bye the 26-year old receiver has been unstoppable and his strong play should continue even on a Mark Sanchez led team. After Foles went down on Sunday, Maclin caught 4 balls for 88 yards and a touchdown with Sanchez under center, finishing the game with over 150 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Though the injury will hurt the team’s playoff chances, I don’t expect Maclin’s fantasy value to dip significantly.

With just 12 touchdowns in his past 48 games Andre Johnson has become almost completely dependent on yardage for fantasy points. Currentlym he’s tied for 18th with 563 receiving yards. At this point in his career, the  31-year old has become a more reliable PPR starter than he is in standard formats. In fact, teammate DeAndre Hopkins has quickly emerged as the most valuable Houston Texan receiver in fantasy football (currently 13th in total fantasy points among wideouts).