Football is a violent, unpredictable sport where anything can happen. Injuries can derail a player’s season and dash any hopes you had for your fantasy football squad. The best way to protect yourself is always to have a plan B. That can be through acquiring your rostered players’ “handcuff” or having deep stashes on your bench in an emergency.

The byes are back for Week 9, and now is the time to load up on handcuffs and sleepers to keep pushing toward the fantasy football playoffs. Below are three players who can help you do just that.

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Week 9 WR & TE Handcuffs

Geoff Swaim (TE – ARI)

What was supposed to be a bleak fantasy situation in Arizona has been a little brighter than expected, especially recently. Second-year TE Trey McBride has emerged as a must-have player in all formats after a 14-target breakout last week against the Baltimore Ravens. With veteran bookend Zach Ertz on injured reserve for the foreseeable future, that leaves McBride and veteran Geoff Swaim as the top two TEs in Arizona.

Admittedly, despite the Cardinals’ offense targeting TEs on 32% of passing attempts, Swaim has little stand-alone value in fantasy football. He has only drawn four targets on the season, only one of which has come since the Ertz injury. However, should McBride get dinged up, Swaim is a reliable veteran who has been effective in a fill-in role. In 2021, he logged 30 catches for 210 yards and three touchdowns in a split role with the Titans TE Anthony Firsker.

Swaim has indeed seen almost no relevant volume in 2023. However, if McBride goes down, Swaim will enter the TE1 role and be a reliable target for Clayton Tune or Kyler Murray. While he won’t see the volume given to McBride, Swaim has a career 81.6% catch rate and can expect enough opportunity to be fantasy-relevant in a pinch.

Brock Wright (TE – DET)

I wrote earlier in the season about Brock Wright being a high-end handcuff TE behind rookie Sam LaPorta, and it’s only become more true. Eight weeks into the NFL season, Laporta has blown away expectations and is currently the overall PPR TE3. He sits fourth in targets, fifth in receiving yards, and tied for third in targets amongst all TEs. Furthermore, he is second on the team in targets with 59 and has accounted for 22% of the team’s total targets this season.

The volume LaPorta has earned shows how much this team and QB Jared Goff want to utilize the TE position. With all that opportunity for LaPorta, Wright has seen minimal work, with seven targets this season. However, in Week 8, Wright saw a season-high 46 offensive snaps with one catch for five yards.

While he is unlikely to assume the full share of LaPorta’s opportunity because we all know that never happens, Wright is a sufficient fill-in should the star rookie miss a game or two. You can expect five to seven targets with the chance of a touchdown to put him in the TE1-tier conversation in any given week.

Hunter Renfrow (WR – LV)

The curious case of the disappearing Hunter Renfrow might find its solution heading into Week 9. Embattled head coach Josh McDaniels was shown the proverbial door this week after an embarrassing loss on Monday Night Football. Next man up is linebackers coach Antonio Pierce, who is a former player himself. With McDaniels, who buried Renfrow this season for seemingly no reason, out of the way, he could be in for a resurgence.

Pierce is already making waves, benching veteran QB Jimmy Garoppolo for rookie Aidan O’Connell. The move seems to have the locker room excited, and Pierce is smart enough to know that involving a versatile receiver like Renfrow can only help him succeed. The season before McDaniels got his hands on this team in 2022, Renfrow averaged 45 offensive snaps per game, including 29.7 out of the slot. In McDaniels’ first season, he saw that number drop to 37.7. This season, Renfrow is averaging an anemic 23.5 snaps per game.

In 2021, Renfrow finished the season as the PPR WR11. Granted, that was before the arrival of Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, but he still has value in this offense. Pierce has an unimaginable task of turning a 3-5 team around with a rookie QB, and if he wants it to work, Renfrow will need to become one of O’Connell’s’ safety nets. Should either Adams or Meyers go down with an injury, Renfrow could have a fantastic finish to his 2023 campaign.

Nate Polvogt is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Nate, check out his archive and follow him @NatePolvogt.