Getty Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions
Welcome to Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em for Week 9 of the NFL season. In this week’s quarterback edition, we feature a signal-caller from Detroit primed for a monster game. Plus, arguably the best player in fantasy this season is matched with a horrendous matchup.
* Reminder: Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em is intended to present you with the non-obvious choices for your fantasy lineup. We dig deep into player matchups, scoring trends, and other factors to best help you with your fantasy decisions. Superstars such as Patrick Mahomes will not be found in this column. If you’re looking for players of his caliber check out our weekly fantasy football quarterback rankings.
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QB: Start ‘Em
Start of the Week: Matt Stafford at OAK
While Minshew has stolen headlines over the past few weeks with his play, Matthew Stafford has quietly flown under the radar despite back-to-back superb performances. Stafford is QB2 in fantasy since Week 7, accumulating seven passing touchdowns over that span. Over that same time frame, the Oakland Raiders putrid secondary has allowed a whopping 35.76 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. Stafford has tossed three-plus touchdowns in four of his seven games this season, while Oakland has allowed three-plus touchdown passes in four of their seven games.
Derek Carr vs. DET
Carr takes a lot of flack from mainstream media, but he’s an extremely capable quarterback who doesn’t have much to work with in the Raiders offense. Carr got back one of, if not his only, playmaker on the outside last week in receiver Tyrell Williams. All that did was help Carr rack up his first 20+ point fantasy outing of the season. Carr has now averaged 20.6 points over the past two weeks. In Week 9 he will face off with a Lions defense that has allowed an average of nearly 29 points per game to opposing quarterbacks over their past two games. Detroit allowed Daniel Jones to put up 28+ fantasy points against them last week, the most by any player at the quarterback position for Week 8.
Sleeper: Sam Darnold at MIA
Sam Darnold is the butt of many jokes at the moment. I get it, and that’s why it’ll likely be very difficult to convince you to plug him into your starting lineups this week, but that won’t stop me from trying. Darnold has managed to average 18.12 fantasy points in two of his past three games. The Miami Dolphins also happen to be a bottom-five fantasy defense in terms of defending the quarterback position this season (surprise, surprise). The ‘Phins surrender an average of 23.3 points per game to the position. Five of the seven QBs to face off with Miami this season have eclipsed 20 fantasy points.
QB: Sit ‘Em
Sit of the Week: Baker Mayfield at DEN
Honestly, is Mayfield even on anyone’s starting radar at this point? The 2018 first-overall draft pick has averaged just 163 passing yards in three of his last five games. He’s also accounted for 13 turnovers and just seven total touchdowns. Denver allows the third-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. The Broncos haven’t allowed a signall-caller to eclipse double-digit fantasy points against them since Week 4.
Carson Wentz vs. CHI
Wentz has averaged just 178 passing yards in four of his previous five games, averaging just 16.5 completions and failing to eclipse the 200-yard mark in any of the four. Chicago surrenders the sixth-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. QBs have averaged just 8.83 points in four of the last five weeks against the Bears.
Daniel Jones vs. DAL
Jones led all quarterbacks in fantasy points a week ago. Don’t let that deter you from the fact that he scored less than 11.50 points in the three previous games leading up to last Sunday. Dallas has held four of their last five opposing quarterbacks to 9.42 fantasy points or less.
Buyers Beware: Lamar Jackson vs. NE
You can’t bench Lamar Jackson, can you? At 25.8 fantasy points per game, Jackson is the highest-scoring player at his position this season. However, New England has allowed just three passers all season to eclipse double-digit scoring. They’ve also surrendered an abysmally low scoring average of just 3.32 points to opposing QBs in five of their last seven games. Proceed with caution.
READ NEXT: Fantasy: Quarterback Rankings Week 9
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