Kayshon Boutte start or sit: Week 9 fantasy football advice

The 6-2 New England Patriots host the 3-4 Atlanta Falcons as 4.5-point home favorites on Sunday. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has been playing at an MVP level through his first eight games of the year. His extreme deep ball accuracy has made things tough in fantasy, as it doesn’t take much work for a receiver to put up good numbers on paltry targets. Yes, I’m talking about Kayshon Boutte.

Boutte is my nemesis this season, as I continue to see how difficult it will be to put up good numbers on 3.8targets per game, but he does it anyway. He has seen a slight bump in targets with 5, 2, and 5 over his last three weeks. He had eight in Week 1, but since then, five has been his high. He’s turned these last 12 targets into 10 receptions for 223 yards and three touchdowns. If he could average just five targets per game it would be that much easier to recommend him as a weekly start!

Can he keep up these touchdown numbers? No, not unless he sees more work. Maye’s deep ball efficiency is currently off the charts and will not continue for nine more games. But, Boutte could start to see more work and he could still find the end zone at a rate higher than expected. Maye and Boutte have proven they have a real connection and it will likely continue to pop up for some big games on a handful of targets.

Below, we’ll go over Kayshon Boutte’s outlook in fantasy football for Week 9.

At this point I’m much more willing to squeeze Boutte into a WR3/4 slot than I was before this three week explosion. With his now more consistent upside, it still makes him boom or bust due to his deep passing targets, but we know the boom is much more likely than it had been.

The problem this week is that the Falcons have been one of the best pass defenses at stopping 20+ yard receptions. They lead the league in completion percentage there and teams would rather run against their weak run defense. We know Maye and Boutte only need the one connection to put up a decent fantasy day, but the Falcons have allowed a league low five completions of over 20 air yards.

If you need the upside in your WR4/flex spot, go for it, but I’m going to say sit once again.

Sit.

Sit.