Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings Thoughts Plus Ask Mike

We are at about the halfway point of the NFL season, and past halfway of the fantasy football regular season, but it is time to try something new. This is a post to discuss Week 9 fantasy football rankings. I will update this throughout the week as the rankings are posted and changed, typically from Wednesday through Sunday morning.

Plus, feel free to ask your own fantasy football questions in the comments. Waivers, free agent add/drops, trades (although I am not a big trader), and start/sit are all fair game. I’ll try to answer as many and as quickly as I can.

Rankings Posted Wednesday

Week 9 fantasy football rankings are up. I moved D’Andre Swift way down at the bottom of the RB rankings, given uncertainty about his status after some comments by Dan Campbell coming out of Sunday. Other players who have a questionable status are marked with a warning sign.

The initial rankings I mostly use for waivers. Plugging in the league_id for my leagues on MyFantasyLeague.com, Sleeper, or Fantrax, highlights the players who are rostered to identify free agent acquisition targets. If you ever notice a player not marked correctly then let me know. It probably means the player_id for that player isn’t matched in my database.

Wednesday Evening Changes

• Jonathan Taylor tweaked his ankle, the same that kept him out earlier this season, and isn’t practicing. Doesn’t sound good, so I moved him all the way down with the expectation he won’t play. Deon Jackson is up to the top of Tier 4. Not a great match up, but high volume expected and he caught the ball well back in Week 6 (10 catches on 10 targets). Admittedly, that was with Matt Ryan at QB.
• Honestly wouldn’t surprise me if the Colts are on to their old Suck For Luck playbook. Owner Jim Irsay must be dying for a top tier QB after failed attempts with Carson Wentz and now Ryan in back-to-back years.
• Hard to judge the Devin Singletary versus Nyheim Hines split for this week, so continuing to assess that from practice reports and insight from beat reporters. Still, pick up Hines if available.
• Surprisingly, the Cardinals placed Darrel Williams on IR. He just got back last week. Door still slightly open for a Keaontay Ingram opportunity if James Conner can’t return. I generally don’t expect much from Eno Benjamin.
• This tweet:

• Deserves this gif:

via GIPHY

• Brandin Cooks at WR30, but will he play? He isn’t really injured, but clearly disgruntled with the Texans about not being traded before the deadline. Have a backup plan.
• Isaiah Likely is on the high side right now if Mark Andrews plays as usual. If Andrews sits, then Likely is too low. After that performance last week, surely the Ravens intend to get him more involved regardless, right? I did pick him up in a league today essentially as a handcuff for Andrews, even though I have Taysom Hill. Speaking of which… Hill never seems to pop in the preliminary rankings.

Pre-Thursday Night Football Update

• Not surprisingly, Brandin Cooks is ruled out tonight. Texans weren’t good before, now look worse. Dameon Pierce at RB12 is a tad worrisome but he’s been a solid weekly contributor, he’s catching passes, and clearly should be the focal point. Keep expectations low and hope the Eagles defense sleep walks through the second half to Pierce’s benefit.
• Chris Moore and Phillip Dorsett are the top two receivers for Texans. I lean to Moore out of the slot, but hopefully you don’t have to rely on either. Thanks to the Game 3 rain out, the schedule shifted and we’ve got Astros-Phillies World Series Game 5 to watch tonight if this football game becomes unbearable.
• Went through all of the games, made some minor adjustments, mostly inserting third and forth wide receivers. James Conner, Gus Edwards, Chuba Hubbard, Cooper Kupp, Mark Andrews, Darren Waller are all in the rankings, but the biggest question marks right now as to whether they are going to suit up.
• Cam Akers is an interesting one to try to figure out. Apparently coach and player had a good talk? So he might play Sunday, but I can’t rank him yet. He’s down at the bottom, along with Kyren Williams, not expected to play at this time but there as a reminder to keep them on the radar.

Friday-Saturday Changes

I did make changes Friday and Saturday based on news and practice reports, but missed writing any of those changes here. Some clarity on a lot of questionable players, and unfortunately, many are in late window Sunday or the Monday games. We’re going to have to make a call on them for our lineups. Some of the changes included:

• Mark Andrews and Gus Edwards both appear very doubtful for Monday night. I removed them from the rankings, moved Isaiah Likely up to TE5 (!) and reluctantly moved Kenyan Drake up to the top of Tier 5 at RB. That tier could be described as, “you could do something, you’ve got an opportunity, but we sure don’t trust you.”
• Jonathan Taylor confirmed out, queue up Deon Jackson. The rankings already reflected that Thursday.
• Cordarrelle Patterson is back. Nice. Always tough to rank, but this first week after a long layoff, presume they will ease him in to some degree.
• Chuba Hubbard is out, that moved D’Onta Foreman up for volume. Still not a very good team, keep expectations in check.
• The Rams did not activate Kyren Williams.
• Keenan Allen, Marquise Goodwin, Devante Parker all out, to clean up the wide receiver rankings.

Sunday Morning

Key players we are still unsure about and monitoring include Ryan Tannehill vs. Malik Willis (Sunday night game), Cam Akers (expected to be active), James Conner (expected), D’Andre Swift (expected), Demarcus Robinson (questionable, Monday), Allan Lazard (banged up), and James Robinson (questionable-expected).

Darren Waller is not expected to play as of this morning, which is no real surprise. I’ll remove him shortly.

Damien Harris is not expected to play. Going to confirm this, remove him. Can’t really move Rhamondre Stevenson up much more, can we?