The Dirty Dozen, Week 9 Newsletter
2024 Fantasy Football Season
Weekly Observations
I forgot to write an intro for this week last night, so after 1.5 hours standing in line to vote this morning I’m writing this and I have to say the thing I look forward to most in Week 10 is that there will not be any political ads as we try to enjoy football Sunday.
My 3 takeaways from Week 9:
The Detroit Lions are the best team in the NFC, but their success hasn’t translated into fantasy football success. The Lions have the second-best record in the NFL, yet they only have one position player that is top 5 in fantasy points per game that being Jahmyr Gibbs (14.1 points) who is RB5 through Week 9. The other offensive players for the Lions all further down the rankings with Jared Goff (11.6 points) at QB12, David Montgomery (11.1 points) at RB12, Amon-Ra St. Brown (15.1 points) at WR10, and Sam LaPorta (3.8 points) down at TE18.
The entire league is chasing after the Kansas City Chiefs’ crown, yet the Chiefs still were able to pull off the most impactful trade getting DeAndre Hopkins (24.6 points) from the Titans. Hopkins was only averaging 5.1 fantasy points this season before being traded to the Chiefs and finished as WR29 in the 2023 season. But this pairing with Patrick Mahomes (30.54 points) seems like a win for the Chiefs and for fantasy managers as Hopkins finished as WR4 after putting up 8 catches on 9 targets for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Somehow Mahomes and Hopkins have the chemistry of yearlong teammates while the rest of the league tries to figure out how to beat the Chiefs.
The Arizona Cardinals beat the Chicago Bears by 20 points even though Kyler Murray only scored 4.76 fantasy points and their entire WR group scored 2.4 fantasy points, all from Marvin Harrison Jr. In the lack of WR output, Trey McBride (11.2 points) again was the lead receiver for the Cardinals and is TE3 through Week 9 averaging 10.4 fantasy points. The Cardinals also became the second team to have 3 RBs score 10+ fantasy points in a game with Emari Demercado (15.0 points), James Conner (13.4 points), and Trey Benson (12.0 points) all going over 10 fantasy points. The first team to have 3 RBs with 10+ fantasy points was the Commandeers in Week 5 (Robinson, Ekeler, McNichols).
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Best & Worst
Looking at the players that scored the most points above their projection by position in Week 8:
QB Joe Burrow, Forsaken Ones: 39.14 points; 17.34 points above projection
RB Saquon Barkley, Williams you be my Nabers?: 31.4 points; 12.9 points above projection
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, You Got a Purdy Mouth: 33.5 points; 22.6 points above projection
TE Mike Gesicki, Waivers: 24.5 points; 17.9 points above projection
The disappointments of the week, guys who missed their projection by position the most in Week 8:
QB Kyler Murray, Show Me The Penix: 4.76 points; 17.94 points below projection
RB Kyren Williams, Show Me The Penix: 10.0 points; 9.4 points below projection
WR Puka Nacua, Forsaken Ones: 1.6 points; 12.0 points below projection
TE Kyle Pitts, You Got a Purdy Mouth: 1.6 points; 8.1 points below projection
Injuries
The big injury news this week is that Christian McCaffrey was designated to return from injured reserve on Monday and, assuming all things go well at practice this week, is expected to play next Monday night against the Buccaneers.
Another week of seemingly fewer injuries, but still a few injuries to star players:
QB Dak Prescott - Left the game in the 3rd quarter with a hamstring injury, MRI test on Monday show that injury is worse than feared and Dak is expected to miss multiple weeks. Cooper Rush (13.0 points) filled in for Dak in the loss to Atlanta.
WR Drake London - Left the game with a hip pointer on Sunday but is not considered a long-term injury.
WR CeeDee Lamb - Suffered an injury to his shoulder on Sunday, to get an MRI to determine the extent of the injury to see if Lamb will miss the Week 10 game against the Eagles.
WR AJ Brown - Left the game with a knee injury, but injury is not expected to be too serious.
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Week 9 Power Rankings
After Week 9 there is a lot of movement in the middle of the power rankings, as spots 4 - 8 are separated by only 5 points in the power score. The shuffling continues as both Meg & Hose Alt move up 2 spots after wins while NoPair and Tick fall two spots after close losses.
Week 9 Highlights
It’s disrespectful to be hurdled, but to be hurdled when the runner is coming at you ass first is a whole different level of disrespect. Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia makes you ask…what in the hell have the Giants been doing for the last 5 years.
Week 10 Preview
Matchup of the Week
Looking at the early projections for Week 10, there are a lot of blowouts expected. Most are due to key players being on bye but there is a matchup between Tick and NoPair that is a battle for playoff and power rank positioning. Both teams are coming off of tough losses as they look to keep pace in their divisions.
