I hope you haven’t blinked since the beginning of September, or you may have missed the first half of the NFL season. The first nine weeks have flown by. There have been many surprises and an overall lack of consistency, making this an intriguing article to write every week.
We’ve got you covered with the latest dynasty risers and fallers from Week 9.
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Dynasty Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers
Dynasty Fantasy Football Risers
With DK Metcalf sidelined for the second straight game, Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted the best stat line of his career, turning in seven grabs for 180 yards and two scores. His 37 fantasy points are the highest total of any player in Week 9. Smith-Njigba has caught 13 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns over the last two weeks while operating as the Seahawks’ top wideout. He is showing much of the promise many saw in him as a prospect. He’s had a few quiet weeks this season and it remains to be seen how he performs when Metcalf returns, but it’s a big step forward for the 2023 first-round pick.
Playing a workhorse-type role on Sunday, Chase Brown picked up a career-high 120 rushing yards on 27 carries while catching five passes for 37 yards and a touchdown. Zack Moss missed this one with a neck injury, allowing Brown to see an expanded role. Brown has outperformed Moss by a wide margin in recent weeks, though, and could maintain a larger role after this performance. Brown has posted double-digit PPR fantasy points in five out of nine games this season and has topped 20 points in two games.
As if Ezekiel Elliot needed to supply the coaching staff with any additional reasons to keep him off the field, he was held out of this week’s game due to missed meetings. Rico Dowdle took advantage with 12 carries for 75 yards, adding five grabs for 35 yards and a touchdown. The Cowboys may look to add a running back at the trade deadline. It also remains to be seen if Dowdle can carry the full workload, but he’s been far superior to Elliot this season and certainly belongs as a featured ball-carrier in the long term.
There’s not a ton of room for a player like De’Von Achane to rise, but he’s answered some questions in recent weeks and deserves a boost. He ran for 63 yards and a score on 12 carries while catching eight passes for 58 yards and another touchdown in Week 9, notching 32.1 fantasy points for his highest mark of the season. The Dolphins’ efforts to utilize Achane more in the passing game have been on display as his eight receptions were a career-best.
With the Dolphins sporting a fully healthy backfield the last three weeks, Achane has played over 50% of snaps in each of those games and reached 69% in this one compared to 23% for Raheem Mostert and 15% for Jaylen Wright. If his snap share remains this high moving forward, Achane will continue to be an elite option at running back.
Rookie tight end Theo Johnson has played enough snaps to have a meaningful role all season but was lacking the target volume to be fantasy-relevant. That may be changing as his target rate has continued to rise, reaching 27.3% on Sunday. He turned his six targets into three grabs for 51 yards and a score. It’s often a fool’s errand to expect fantasy production from a rookie tight end unless his name is Brock Bowers, but Johnson is making a case as a solid TE2 fantasy start sit play and has further future upside.
It’s a special set of circumstances for Jakobi Meyers following the trade of Davante Adams, but he’s currently the No. 1 WR for the Raiders and has long been undervalued. Meyers notched 105 yards on Sunday, catching eight of his 11 targets and posting 18.5 fantasy points. He’s now topped double digits in four of his seven games while finishing two others with 9.9 and 9.4 fantasy points. He’s up to WR25 on the season and will continue to be a steady Flex play for the foreseeable future.
Quentin Johnston made the risers list following Week 3 with some trepidation. Despite a few down weeks, he certainly deserves a boost after his career-best 118 receiving yards on four catches. He also found the end zone and delivered 22 fantasy points. Perhaps as important was the fact the Chargers’ receiving core was finally healthy (DJ Chark was a healthy scratch). Johnston was second behind Ladd McConkey in snaps, routes and targets. He may be a boom or bust option going forward, but at least we can say he is an option.
Dynasty Fantasy Football Fallers
With his name consistently floated in trade rumors, Mike Williams’ outlook may change a bit, but he has shown little to prove he can be an impact player elsewhere. Williams was still ramping up after his return from a torn ACL last season, but the arrival of Davante Adams has squashed any upside Williams had. After finding his way to six receiving yards on Thursday night, Williams has totaled 166 on the season. He will be a free agent after the season, but it’s hard to see him being a priority add for any offense in the offseason.
Rookie receiver Jermaine Burton, who was a trendy sleeper pick, was a top-three receiver option on the Bengals last week with Tee Higgins out. He caught one pass for 41 yards. Higgins missed his second straight game, but Burton was a healthy inactive this time around. He’s caught two passes this season and seems to be well out of favor with the coaching staff, making him a long way off from fantasy relevance.
Despite Tua Tagovailoa returning from his latest concussion, Jaylen Waddle has been unable to make an impact. On Sunday, he wasn’t targeted until late in the fourth quarter despite a high-scoring affair against Buffalo. He finished with two receptions for -4 yards, thanks to a last-second lateral play, and found the end zone to salvage his day to some extent. Still, Waddle hasn’t hit 50 yards since he notched 109 in Week 1. The quarterback situation has done him no favors, but Waddle was expected to be a borderline WR1/WR2, but he’s a long way from that right now.
Given a terrific matchup with Amari Cooper out, Dalton Kincaid drew 10 targets but was held to 32 yards on four grabs. He’s seen a healthy volume of targets all season, generating the fourth-highest target rate at tight end, but Kincaid has failed to surpass 52 yards in a game this season and he’s averaging just 36.8 yards per game. With two touchdowns on the year, he’s currently sitting as the TE15 in points per game, a major letdown based on his usage and preseason optimism.
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