Happy Thursday!

Odds are, you’re finding yourself searching the wire for a streaming QB this week. With QB injuries and bye weeks hitting us, there are some rough QB availabilities this upcoming week.

We’ll all still get wins this week though.

Let’s talk some fantasy football!

In this week’s newsletter:

• 🤷 What the heck happened this week?

• 💭 Week 8 takeaways

• 📊 Week 9 ranking highlights

• 💥 Week 9 Booms and Busts

📰 What the heck happened this week?

• Raiders fire both HC Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Siegler

  • McDaniels ends his Raiders coaching career with a 9-16 record, while sitting at 3-5 for the current season. Hopefully this changeup bodes well for Josh Jacobs and Davante Adams in fantasy.

• Vikings trade for QB Josh Dobbs

  • Add this news bit to the injury to Kirk Cousins - tearing his achilles this past week. Things looked real gloomy for the Vikings offense and now things appear slightly better. I expect boosts to Hockenson targets especially with Dobbs under center.

• Lions trade for WR Donovan Peoples-Jones

  • I consider this more of a move to add WR depth after Marvin Jones Jr. announced he was stepping away from football, but I also believe this is the Lions’ attempt to get a solid field stretcher as Jameson Williams is still only playing on about 50% of routes.

👀 Week Eight Takeaways

🦅 AJ Brown may finish the year as the WR1
Since week 2 when Brown had only 6.9 fantasy points, he has been the WR1 - slightly above Tyreek Hill. On the whole season, however, Hill is still the WR1. These two are balling out and I love it.

😲 Will Levis is… legit?
FOUR passing TDs. FOUR. This is the electricity the Titans offense has been in need of to wake up. Levis looked great, and I personally think it wasn’t a fluke week but there’s plenty of season left. Sending positive vibes to you DeAndre Hopkins owners, hopefully this is permanent.

🦁 Jahmyr Gibbs has arrived… again
I know, I know… I had this as a takeaway last week. BUT Gibbs finished week 8 as THE RB 1. This was certainly boosted by a Raiders defense just being poor at stopping the run, but Gibbs having 26 rushing attempts really looks good for him continuing to have touches when David Montgomery returns. Gibbs is now the RB18 on the season.

Other things to check out:

• Trade Value Charts are updated and live on our site!

• Sign up for Rival Fantasy using this link, you'll get a first deposit match up to $200 and a FREE $25 Voucher

• Underdog Fantasy currently has a $100 deposit bonus offer if you use code FIRSTSEED at signup!

📊 Week Nine Rankings Highlights

Every week here I’ll highlight a few players I may be ranking higher than other experts, or some players I’m just excited to see play this upcoming week.

Feel free to check out my full weekly rankings at the link below!

🐎 Jonathan Taylor - RB9
🐎 Zack Moss - RB19
The Carolina Panthers defense allows over 135 rushing yards per game this season and the combo of Jonathan Taylor + Zack Moss could both have huge games this week. The only reason Taylor isn’t higher in my ranks is because of Moss, but I believe both are startable.

🐈‍⬛ Adam Thielen - WR6
The PPR darling. He’s had double-digit targets in four out of his last five games and has only had a sub-15 point PPR performance in Week 1. Thielen is a fantasy football gem.

❓ Advice Requests ❓

Need some start/sit help? Looking to fill a bench spot with with someone from waivers? Need a DST streamer?

Feel free to reply to this email with any questions and I’ll answer whatever you have for me. Let’s get some wins.

💥 Week Nine Booms and Busts 👎

Start your studs.

That being said, let’s highlight some players I’m expecting some big weeks from and a few I’m pretty low on. This isn’t necessarily a start/sit column, but more so some players I expect a bigger week from and some players I’m not excited about.

💥 RB Zack Moss, Colts (vs. Panthers)
As mentioned above, the Panthers defense is one of the worst in the league against the rushing game. Jonathan Taylor should be an auto-start, but if you were on the fence about flexing Moss this week I’d get him in that lineup.

👎 RB D’Onta Foreman, Bears (vs. Saints)
I personally can’t trust this backfield. Last week, with the return of Roschon Johnson, touches were split up between Forman, Johnson and Darrynton Evans with Evans being the TD scorer of the bunch. Add in the Saints being one of the toughest run defenses this year and I’m out.

💥 WR Nico Collins, Texans (vs. Buccaneers)
Bounce-back week incoming. The Buccaneers offense just allowed over 15 fantasy points to the Bills WR trio of Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis and Khalil Shakir. The passing defense has been weak of late and I expect CJ Stroud and the Texans passing to have a great game.

👎 WR Christian Watson, Packers (vs. Rams)
Watson has been… struggling quite hard. QB Jordan Love appears to be spreading out his targets as both Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed have been performing much better for fantasy. Watson has become too TD dependent for his fantasy relevance and I feel comfortable sitting him until he proves otherwise.