Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 9 Quarterbacks

Week 9 of the fantasy football season is here, and we’re back with another crop of start/sit options. We have a nice set of data about each team through six weeks, and can make informed decisions on good plays and traps. With that in mind, we’ll pick quarterbacks who should exceed expectations in Week 9, along with three you should probably sit.

I actually liked Prescott a lot more when Ezekiel Elliott wasn’t going to play, but having his bell cow back on the field doesn’t change the outlook that dramatically here. The Chiefs are allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks and the fourth-most rushing yards to quarterbacks. The Cowboys’ offense will obviously be more balanced than we thought it would be before Friday’s ruling, but that doesn’t mean Prescott is going to pull a Mitch Trubisky and only throw seven passes.

The Giants are such a mess on offense with the season-ending injuries to Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall. But let’s not discount the soap opera in the secondary. Janoris Jenkins becomes the second cornerback to be suspended for a game for breaking team rules and it comes at a great time for Goff, who might be able to get Sammy Watkins jump-started with Jenkins not out there to blanket him. The Giants have been allowing bushels of points to opposing QBs lately, and that was with Jenkins on the field.

I did not plan on including Brissett here, but after DeShaun Watson’s injury, the entire outlook of this game has changed, and I think Brissett now has a chance for a huge day against the stunned Texans. Tom Savage might be a quarterback playing in the NFL on Sunday, but he is not an NFL quarterback and I suspect the Colts defense is going to be handed an enormous amount of three-and-outs and turnovers, allowing Brissett to work early and often on Houston’s side of the field. It should be target practice for Brissett against a wounded defense that has allowed 40 points twice in the past three games.

Neither Jordan Reed or Jamison Crowder are expected to play this Sunday because of injuries, leaving the likes of Ryan Grant, John Doctson and Vernon Davis to challenge the Legion of Boom in Seattle. Cousins has been his usual solid self for most of the season, but it’s hard to imagine a tougher task for a quarterback than the one he faces Sunday.

If there’s one defense that’s best not to challenge with a quarterback in fantasy, it’s the Jaguars. They have allowed the fewest fantasy points to QBs behind their lockdown secondary. Now they’ve added a quality defensive lineman in Marcell Dareus. When Dalton has been good this year, it’s been against bad pass defenses. This is the ultimate good pass defense. Stay away.

I shouldn’t have to list him here, but just in case anyone thinks that the Texans offense is somehow not going to miss a beat without Watson, consider that Savage still has not thrown an NFL TD after three starts, possesses none of the mobility that made Watson so dangerous, and has had one and a half days of practice to prepare for this game. The Texans also have had the same amount of practice time to completely rewrite their game plan to account for the dramatic change in quarterback skills. The Texans might get shut out.