Welcome to the Monday edition of the Daily Dose newsletter, our “Fantasy Fallout” day. In this article, you will get a quick rundown of the relevant things we learned from the week’s games from Thursday through Sunday. 

We won’t talk about every single player and we usually won’t spend time on studs who go nuts (no one needs to be told to start CeeDee Lamb right now!), but rather, the idea is to update you on usage trends, injuries, and other relevant things to help your decisions with your teams.

Vikings at Rams

• Puka Nacua made his return to the field after aggravating a knee injury in Week 1 and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat, producing 106 yards on seven catches. 
• Cooper Kupp also returned from injury and had a positive impact with 51 yards and a TD. Like Nacua, he should be a weekly starter moving forward.
• Matthew Stafford had his full complement of weapons back and took advantage, leading the now 3-4 Rams to four passing TDs and a 30-20 win.
• Kyren Williams retained a strong grip on the backfield, turning 28 touches into 116 yards and a TD. Blake Corum had five touches and is strictly a bench stash at this point.
• T.J. Hockenson didn’t suit up but was added to the active roster over the weekend. He’s an every-week starter at TE moving forward.

Packers at Jaguars

These are the top players to consider adding from waivers this week. Unless otherwise noted, all players below are available in greater than 50% of Yahoo leagues (as of Sunday evening).

Week 9 teams on bye: 49ers, Steelers

QB Pickup of the Week

Matthew Stafford, LAR, Week 9 at SEA

• Why: Stafford has his “Big 3” back intact with Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, and Kyren Williams all healthy for the first time this season. Coming off a four-TD game, Stafford gets a matchup with the Seahawks defense that just got shredded by the Bills and has had a “mini-bye” after playing last Thursday.
• Priority: Low-to-mid priority, depending on your QB situation, matchup, and roster composition.
• FAAB: 3-5%

RB Pickups

These are the guys who public perception may be low on but have brighter days ahead…..as well as the guys who may be coming off a big game but have a tough schedule or potential role change in their future.

BUY LOW

Tank Dell, WR, HOU

• Dell has struggled a bit this season, and despite scoring a touchdown in Week 8, his overall performance has been far behind 2023. However, Stefon Diggs suffered a torn ACL and Nico Collins is about a week or two out from returning. Dell’s value may get a little bump with the Diggs news, but not as much as it should. He was a top-12 WR last year with Stroud and is getting healthier by the week after his 2023 broken leg. He has been very close to a couple of big days, and he will connect for a big one soon.

Drake London, WR, ATL

This article is intended to highlight some players who may have a positive or negative weekly outlook relative to their baseline value. 

“Starts” are players who might generally be on fantasy benches but might have a terrific perceived matchup or game script/environment, or the potential for an expanded role due to past performance or injuries to teammates or opponents. 

“Fades” are players who were likely drafted as fantasy starters or have performed as automatic starters lately but face a particularly tough week due to a poor matchup or a lack of short-term role clarity due to an injury, etc. 

Here are a few of my notable starts and fades for Week 9 of the 2024 NFL season, with some notes on my thought process included:

QB

Start: Dak Prescott, DAL (at ATL)

• Prescott and the rest of his Cowboys played the 49ers close for a half last week before being blown out in the third quarter. Dallas mounted a late comeback and actually had the ball, down six points, with three minutes left. Dak proceeded to throw four straight incompletions and the 49ers eventually won, 30-24.
• Dallas heads to Atlanta this week as 2.5-point underdogs in the game with the highest implied point total (52.0). Dallas is dead last in the league in rushing attempts, rushing yards, yards per carry, and rushing yards per game. They are tied for the least rushing TDs in the NFL (three). Their longest rush this season is somehow just 13 yards, less than half of the next-worst mark in the league.
• Dak hasn’t lived up to his draft status as a fantasy starter at QB so far, but if Dallas plays to anywhere near their implied team total this week, it seems extremely likely to come via their passing game. I like Dak as a back-end QB1 option in what projects to be a high-scoring game at ATL.

Fade:  Bo Nix, DEN (at BAL)

Some things in fantasy football are easy. We know we should start Ja’Marr Chase and Saquon Barkley. We know we should bench the backup running back who is only on our roster in case of injury. A lot of the decisions are made for us. However, there are a lot of things that are not so simple. All of the “in between” situations are what can make the difference between a few wins and losses, and therefore it can be the difference between a successful season or a failed season. Every Friday, we are here to help!!

I’ll take questions each week in our #fantasy-football channel in our Discord from people looking for Start/Sit advice and give my thoughts. This article on Fridays will feature a few of those questions and responses, so join our Discord to be a part of the conversation or ask questions of your own!!

Question 1:: Couple of questions here. 12 team, full PPR. 

Geno Smith or Caleb Williams?

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, DJ Moore, or Chase Brown? Need two. (Sef20)

Answer:: For question #1, I would go with Caleb Williams over Geno Smith this week. Both are in solid matchups, but my lean is slightly to Caleb in his matchup with the Cardinals. The Bears offense really struggled last week against the Commanders, but Arizona’s 29th ranked pass defense is a perfect spot for a bounce-back effort. Chicago has had some rough outings and some very good ones this season, but the quality of the Bears’ performances have been heavily driven by the quality of their opponents and the pressure rates that those defenses create. Arizona is 29th in QB pressure rate and PFF coverage grade – wheels up on Williams.

For question #2, I would go with Moore and Brown. The logic on Moore is the same as already discussed for Williams. For the second spot, I would go with Brown in a great matchup against the Raiders rather than the relatively low ceiling that JSN seems to provide. He does not generate explosive plays and is not much of a touchdown threat. He’s fine to start when your other options are not great, but Brown is in a great spot for his best game of the season.

Question 2:: Dontayvion Wicks or Elijah Moore? (DinoFontaine)

The weekend is here and it’s time to get our lineups set before Sunday’s full slate of games. Each week, the Saturday edition of the Daily Dose will feature my rankings for all players who have yet to play a game this week. Obviously this will not include the Thursday games, but feel free to hit me up in Discord if you have some tough decisions around guys who play on Thursday. 

Most of the leagues I play in are full-PPR, 12-team leagues and these rankings are designed for those settings – you may need to make some slight adjustments based on your own league settings.

QB:: 

1. Jalen Hurts
2. Josh Allen
3. Lamar Jackson
4. Jayden Daniels
5. Joe Burrow
6. Dak Prescott
7. Patrick Mahomes
8. Kirk Cousins
9. Kyler Murray
10. Sam Darnold
11. Jordan Love (if he plays)
12. Matthew Stafford
13. Caleb Williams
14. Jared Goff
15. Geno Smith
16. Tua Tagovailoa
17. Malik Willis (if Love sits)
18. Bo Nix
19. Baker Mayfield
20. Trevor Lawrence
21. Justin Herbert
22. Jameis Winston
23. Derek Carr
24. Gardner Minshew
25. Daniel Jones
26. Bryce Young

RB:: 

The theme of this article is, “Work smarter, not harder.” Every week we will give you the top Waiver Adds in our Tuesday article. However, you can make things a lot easier and less stressful by getting ahead of things with some players and situations. Doing so in a smart way can help you save FAAB or preserve high waiver priority in your league. 

Every Sunday I will give you a few players who stand out to me as great potential additions that can give you a leg up on your league mates. Look to add these players if you have players you are willing to drop, who get late-week injuries, or who are ruled out of their games and allow you to move them to an IR spot once they are officially inactive on Sunday morning.

Daniel Jones, QB, NYG

• The Giants play the Panthers in Germany next Sunday. Jones is only 11% owned in Yahoo leagues and has a developing offense around him with Malik Nabers and Tyrone Tracy Jr. turning into focal points and Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, and Theo Johnson thriving in complementary roles. The Panthers’ defense has been the worst in the league this year and Bo Nix just had by far his best game of the season against them. Jones is a similar skill-set player with better weapons and is the perfect streaming QB.

Isaac Guerendo, RB, SF