If you thought Week 8 was a crapshoot, let me introduce you to Week 9. My goodness, what a mess of a week this was for fantasy managers. Unless you are in a league where you’re allowed to start all D/ST’s, you were probably disappointed with the output of your lineup. A strong case could be made to say that this was, across the board, the worst week for fantasy football in recent memory.
With such a wide range of disappointing performances, there could easily be more than 5 players taking up the fallers section of this list. For the sake of time though, we will keep it at 5 with some of the worst of the worst and the few that actually performed well in Week 9. With that being said, here are your risers and fallers heading into Week 10.
Week 10 Fantasy Football Risers
Jonathan Taylor (RB, IND)
Jonathan Taylor has been on an absolute tear as of late. Over the past 6 weeks, Taylor has amassed 100 total yards in every performance he’s had. Whether it’s in the receiving game or the run game, he has found a way to get it done while putting up awesome touchdown numbers in every outing. Coming off 200 total yards against the Jets, Jonathan Taylor should be looked at as the number 1 overall player in fantasy. Heading into an extremely favorable matchup against the Jaguars, Taylor’s value should continue to be near the top of fantasy football.
James Conner (RB, ARI)
James Conner has been a touchdown magnet in this Cardinals offense throughout this season. In 6 out of the Cardinal’s 9 games, Conner has scored a touchdown and he’s also scored multiple times in 4 games. This role was valuable to fantasy rosters already but now we have the recent injury to Chase Edmonds to look at.
Instead of being solely the goal line back in Arizona, now Conner should take lead back duties. This should add in even more rushing and receiving opportunities while Edmonds recovers from his injury. Eno Benjamin could also play a role as he looked great on his 21-yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter. Conner should take the bulk of the workload for the coming weeks while Benjamin could play a complementary role.
Robert Woods (WR, LAR)
After looking like a complete dud to start the season, Robert Woods has picked up his production in the last few weeks. It seems like involvement was mostly the issue when it came to Woods’ output but he has been pretty involved for the Rams offense recently. He’s coming off of 7 receptions for 98 yards against the Titans even though the Rams were visibly shut down for the entire game. He isn’t putting up game-breaking numbers like his counterpart, Cooper Kupp, but he has been productive. Better days might be ahead for Bobby Trees and his recent involvement should bring a sigh of relief to fantasy managers.
George Kittle (TE, SF)
George Kittle was welcomed back to the 49ers’ offense with a 6 reception, 100-yard performance that came with a touchdown. This is the type of performance we have grown to expect out of Kittle for the past few seasons but this year has been anything but normal for him.
With the 49ers’ offense sputtering for most weeks, Kittle has been disappointing for fantasy rosters while also missing the past 3 weeks with his IR stint. Now with him back in the offense, he could be putting up performances like this more often while Kyle Shanahan starts to use his talented playmakers how they’re supposed to be used.
Rashod Bateman (WR, BAL)
Rashod Bateman isn’t putting up Justin Jefferson-like numbers yet, but he could be as the season progresses. Coming into the fantasy season, Bateman was hyped up to be a top rookie receiver until he suffered an injury that placed him on IR for the first 5 weeks. He made his return in Week 6 and since then, he has continued to improve week to week.
Bateman is clearly a top option in this Ravens offense and he is ticking up in opportunities as was seen with his 8 targets in Week 9. Those targets are expected to move up even further as his touchdown opportunities should be heading up as well. He is still widely available on waivers so a pickup is definitely warranted now with the possibility of a second-half rookie breakout looming.
Week 10 Fantasy Football Fallers
Aaron Jones (RB, GB)
Aaron Jones is a supremely talented running back but he might be moving toward more of a committee role with A.J. Dillon receiving more work as of late. Dillon is a talented runner and he actually ended up with a higher yardage total than Jones in the Packers’ ugly loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. Dillon has been getting more of the receiving work than Jones recently and that can be concerning for owners of the Packers star running back.
This could be a situation where the game was affected by the presence of Jordan Love at quarterback, and if that is the case, don’t panic on Aaron Jones too much. Dillon being more of the receiving back for this team is just concerning for Aaron Jones’ season-long upside in fantasy lineups.
Mike Williams (WR, LAC)
Mike Williams seems to have come back to earth after his amazing start to the season. Through the first 5 weeks, Williams looked like a top-3 wide receiver in fantasy and a possible league winner. Through the last 3 weeks though, he has looked dreadful with a combined 6 receptions during that stretch that resulted in a total of 104 yards. For a player that was just recently thought of as a set it and forget it, those are not the numbers you want to see. If he continues on this lackluster pace, this will be a massive fall from where Mike Williams once was in value.
Courtland Sutton (WR, DEN)
The return of Jerry Jeudy to this Broncos offense was concerning for Sutton owners as that would spell fewer opportunities for the talented receiver. Now it looks like Tim Patrick is getting more work than what was expected which lowers Sutton’s value even more. In a game where the Broncos dominated the favored Cowboys, Sutton only had 1 reception for 9 yards along with a 2 point conversion. Sutton’s output fluctuating week to week is certainly a possibility for the rest of his season as he is already in a very crowded offense.
Josh Allen (QB, BUF)
The Jaguars and Bills played in a complete mess of a game on Sunday where the normally explosive Bills offense sputtered out. None of their characteristically long plays occurred with Josh Allen never being able to get anything going. Whatever occurred on Sunday, it seems like defenses might be starting to figure out how to stop the Bills offense. If the Jaguars defense could do it, why can’t any other team?
This is similar to the case of the Chiefs where their previous ability to pass the ball downfield with tremendous efficiency is being stopped while defenses commit fully to defending the passing game. Without a decent run game, which the Bills don’t have, they can’t beat these defenses. If that style of defending becomes more popular, and it should, Josh Allen and the Bills might be in trouble.
D.J. Moore (WR, CAR)
After starting out the season 3-0 with D.J. Moore showing out as a stud, the Panthers have been a disaster. Sam Darnold is playing horrible and the team can’t get anything going without the presence of Christian McCaffrey. In their game against the Patriots on Sunday, Moore only had 3 receptions for 32 yards.
Head Coach, Matt Rhule, said that everything about this offense needs to change which could spell an end to Darnold being the starting quarterback. It is still up in the air if P.J. Walker will be any better, but a change is definitely needed. Maybe the return of McCaffrey will spell better days for this offense and D.J. Moore but until there are some noticeable improvements, Moore will continue to fall in value.
