Amari Cooper returns from a bye week as the undisputed target hog on the Browns. He has topped 100 Air Yards in three of his past four games including a 126 Air Yards showing in Week 8 in which he finished as the WR7. Look for Cooper to continue his fantasy dominance against an exploitable Dolphins secondary this week.
Marcus Mariota’s middle name must be ‘miracle’ because not many predicted he’d be the Falcons starting quarterback this long. Despite 30 (No. 12) Deep Ball Attempts, he throws one of the worst deep balls in the league. He missed Kyle Pitts for a walk-in long ball by a mile on Sunday. He’s the poster child for an inefficient backup, yet he produces 0.64 (No. 5) Fantasy Points per Dropback. While the Falcons run near a league-low in pass attempts, it’s worth noting that Mariota has thrown for over 300 air yards in two straight close Game Scripts, including a game vs Carolina. It might be ugly, and there will be low points, but Mariota is a QB2 with a big-play upside and a rushing role. I expect a QB2 performance in what should be a slower grudge match on a slow week.
The Dolphins were No. 9 in fantasy points allowed to receivers entering Week 9, where they allowed seven receptions and a touchdown to Darnell Mooney. Miami has allowed at least 24 points in six games this season, with teams passing often in shootouts against the Dolphins’ fast offense. If Cleveland finds itself in a shootout, Cooper will be utilized exponentially more.
The Packers have not allowed over 220 passing yards since Week 3, snagging four interceptions over their last three games. Green Bay’s secondary has shown an ability to contain opposing receiving corps well this season. They do have some injuries on the defense, but Jaire Alexander and company have the secondary locked down. Expect the Cowboys to instead attack the Packers’ suspect run defense. Prescott has a tough fantasy matchup this week.
Vegas has the total points line of this game set at 49.5. The total is tied for the highest on the Week 9 Sunday slate. This means the books expect offense. It is no surprise that since the departure of Davante Adams, the No. 1 option in this Packers attack has been Aaron Jones. What’s been slightly difficult to project is how much of his involvement is split between rushing and receiving. While he has cleared this rushing number only three times this season, everything points to the value in the over in Week 9.
The Cardinals’ weakness on defense is yards after catch (they allow the most in the NFL). Meanwhile, Lockett is No. 55 in Yards After Catch with 83 and averaging 1.4 per target.
Marshall’s snaps, routes run, and targets have gone up each week, culminating in a 9-target Week 8 performance where he finished with 12.7 (No. 29) fantasy points. In Week 7, Carter had a 94-percent Snap Share, saw 7 targets, and finished with over 70 Air Yards.
The Week 9 TNF Showdown features the Eagles at the Texans. I’ll be guiding you through the important aspects to watch in each Thursday night matchup. Without further ado, let’s see what Philadelphia and Houston have in store for us as the Eagles look to continue their reign of perfection.
D.J. Moore has graduated to the paying up section after two consecutive face melting performances as the Panthers primary offensive weapon. He has seen double digit targets in back-to-back weeks and saw 250 Air Yards last week which included this dope pass from P.J. Walker. Look for D.J. Moore to continue on this trend against Eli Apple and the Bengals in week nine. This is likely the last time he is priced below $6,000, get him in your cash lineup while you can, although he may be too chalky for tournaments.
For the second consecutive week Darnell Moony is the top Air Yards Value play. He finished last week with 12 fantasy points securing five receptions for 70 yards. Mooney posted these numbers despite seeing a season low 28 Air Yards, a figure that will likely increase to his season average of 70.9 this week. He remains an intriguing play in all formats heading into a potential barnburner against the Dolphins.
Entering Week 8, the Raiders were the No. 4 best matchup for QBs in both passing and rushing points allowed. Las Vegas’ defense has allowed 10 passing touchdowns and gotten just one interception over its last four games. This is a juicy enough matchup to where you must consider Lawrence in a week where six teams are on bye. Comfortably fire up Lawrence this week.
Despite back-to-back poor showings, the Arizona secondary has been surprisingly solid against opposing WRs. They have allowed just two WR touchdowns in their last six games, both coming in the last two weeks to back-up WRs. Metcalf will face Byron Murphy, a top-20 CB in PlayerProfiler’s Cornerback Rankings. Metcalf was held to two receptions on seven targets last time against Arizona and Murphy.
Injuries suck and fantasy football owners paid the price heavily in Week 7 by losing highly-relevant offensive names like Breece Hall, D.K. Metcalf, David Njoku, and Matt Ryan. Luckily, there exists a ton of value in player props, so we get a new shot every week thanks to playing DFS. Welcome back to the article series where we spot values in player prop over/unders. In these articles, I review selections from the previous week, then give out my favorite player prop pick ‘ems for the upcoming weekend on the DFS pages of Underdog Fantasy and Sleeper.
In this article, I’ll outline how to approach pick ‘ems, particularly in the NFL, so that you can construct winning pick ‘em entries like we do in the Underdog Pick Generator and in my article series containing my favorite pick ‘em plays of each week. If you find this article useful, and are drawn to playing player pick ‘ems, you can either play your own favorites or tail ours on Underdog Fantasy’s pick ‘em menu. Upon entry, use promo code UNDERWORLD for a 100-percent deposit match up to $100.
