Week 9 Stock Watch
Stock Up
QB Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
QB Drew Brees, New Orleans SaintsThe ageless and apparently rust-less Brees came back to the field for the first time since Week 2 and tore up the Cardinals secondary. Brees threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns and showed zero signs of being bothered by his thumb injury that kept him out for six weeks. Now that we saw Brees play well before the team’s bye, there’s no reason to hesitate putting him back as your starting QB once Week 10 rolls around in a great matchup against the Falcons.
RB Kareem Hunt, Cleveland Browns
Finally, the former NFL leading rusher is back on the fantasy radar. Hunt has one more game to serve to fulfill his eight-game suspension. His first taste of action in a Browns uniform will come in Week 10 against the Bills. Now’s the time to add Hunt if you haven’t already.
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WR Stefon Diggs, Minnesota Vikings
After starting the year with just six catches in three games, Diggs has ramped up his production in a significant way. In the last three weeks, he’s caught seven passes in each game and finished with a minimum of 142 yards in each outing. It’s quite the turnaround! With 26 targets since Week 6, it’s clear Kirk Cousins is making it a point to feed Diggs the ball. Of course, Dalvin Cook opening up the play-action is a big help too.
TE Noah Fant, Denver Broncos
The first game without Emmanuel Sanders and the rookie tight end saw eight targets. That’s a season-high. So were his five catches against the Colts. Fant has a middle-of-the-road schedule for the next few weeks.
Stock Down
QB Mitch Trubisky, Chicago Bears
With just two touchdowns in the last three games, head coach Matt Nagy is getting a lot more questions about his quarterback than he cares to answer. Trubisky has struggled all season, and his fantasy stats are suffering because he hasn’t run as much compared to 2018. He can be dropped in all 10- and 12-team, one quarterback leagues. Imagine if the Bears took Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes instead of grabbing Trubisky with the second overall pick in the 2017 draft.
RB Todd Gurley, Los Angeles Rams
Gurley is heading into his bye week, but when he returns, he’ll see nothing but red matchups in four of the next five games. He was out-touched by rookie Darrell Henderson in Week 8, and even though Gurley scored a touchdown, he rushed for less than 55 yards for the fifth straight week. Not only is Gurley’s usage declining, but his offensive linemen are dropping like flies. That’s a cause for concern considering they started the same five linemen in every game last season.
WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals
Eight targets in both Weeks 5 and 6 turned into just seven targets total in Weeks 7 and 8. With only three catches and 20 yards in the last two games, plus two matchups against the 49ers stout defense in the next two weeks and it looks like Fitz is going to be riding a lot of benches the next month.
TE Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles
A whopping two catches in Week 7 and 8 and just one touchdown on the season, and it’s clear why fantasy managers that invested a 3rd or even worse a 2nd round pick in Ertz are very frustrated. Meanwhile, Dallas Goedert has scored in each of the team’s last two games. Ertz needs to start finding the end-zone if he wants to continue the trend of scoring eight touchdowns as he has in each of the past two seasons.
