Week 9 Fantasy Football Streamers at Every Position: Be a Bam Knight Rider
Who should you be streaming in Week 9? John Laghezza digs into the data and picks the top players at each position
Face it, most personnel decisions are out of our control at this point. For many of us, it comes down to properly juggling a few select all-hands-on-deck situations to make that final playoff push.
Benches stuffed to the brim with injuries or bye-week vacationers spawn desperation, but not necessarily certain doom. Proper preparation pays off. Coming from someone who just pulled a few fantasy wins out of my you-know-where by starting Joe Flacco, Samaje Perine, and Xavier Hutchison—trust me, it matters.
Incorporating my work through Comet A.I. (get it for free here, PLUS a free year of FL+) gave me some new capabilities to analyze a large swath of data at once, so I asked it, simply: "what defensive metric(s) correlate best to fantasy production by position?"
Mathematically speaking, the answer couldn’t be clearer. One stat ranked strongest in correlation regardless of position (QB, RB, WR): Defensive EPA/Play. Intuitively, it makes sense. Expected Points Per Play uses historical data plus a weighted mix of factors like down, distance, field position and time remaining to quantify a context-aware evaluation of team and player performance. Sounds pretty smart to me.
After seeing such high R scores, could it be as simple as targeting the top of this chart and working our way down… almost regardless of situation? Let’s put it to the test for Week 9 streamers…
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TOP 3 STREAMING QUARTERBACKS FOR WEEK 9
- Jacoby Brissett, ARI at DAL
- Tua Tagovailoa, MIA vs BAL
- Trevor Lawrence, JAX vs LV
Kyler Murray (foot) missed another game—not like anyone’s clamoring for his return. There’s more than enough “soft benching” jokes on the internet right now to add to the pile, but it’s more than a meme. Arizona’s backup, Jacoby Brissett, has outplayed K1 in terms of success rate, EPA, yards/attempt, and interception rate. Oh, and he knows to throw the ball to Trey McBride in the paint. If he indeed gets the nod, Brissett’s my clear A-1 stream versus Dallas.
Spreadsheet honks beware, sometimes numbers lie. Despite the atrocious -0.11 EPA/play, I’m borderline terrified to face this iteration of the Ravens’ defense after returning impact players Kyle Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, and Roquan Smith to full-time roles. Baltimore’s coming off two of their three strongest games in EPA as the ship corrects course. At least Tua Tagovailoa’s coming off his best start of the season—maybe two functioning eyeballs isn’t that important to play QB in the NFL.
Starting Trevor Lawrence this season somehow feels like more than a desperation play. Two rushing TDs vaulted him to Week 5’s QB1—the only time this season T-Law cracked the top-10. The bull case is in the soft matchup off the bye. Facing Vegas is an instant chance at a strong streaming play but I’d be lying to say it didn’t worry me.
TOP 3 STREAMING RUNNING BACKS FOR WEEK 9
- Bam Knight, ARI at DAL
- Tyrone Tracy, NYG vs. SF
- Kyle Monangai, CHI at CIN
(taps microphone) Hold your nose and face the Cowboys. Will Bam Knight’s 3.5 yards/carry with zero explosive rushes inspire fantasy players to start him with confidence? No. Should every one of them do it anyway? Absolutely yes. Dallas allows over 400 yards/game to the opposition while boasting the league’s worst success rate against the run. Attack.
Tyrone Tracy’s one of this week’s most obvious waiver adds, going directly from the fantasy outhouse to the penthouse if you’re chasing EPA. Generally thought of as a good defense, San Francisco could only sustain so many injuries before falling apart, resembling a mere shell of itself without Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. Sadly, Cam Skattebo’s season’s over, which hands the baton back to Tracy, who commanded ~73% of the Giants’ backfield touch share after the injury—including the lone goal-to-go RB carry.
RELATED READ: Week 9's top waiver wire adds
D’Andre Swift is fantasy’s RB6 over the last 3 weeks by playing the most efficient ball of his career, yet that hasn’t stopped Bears’ handcuff Kyle Monangai from closing the opportunity gap. Chicago’s seventh-round rookie earned 42% of the team’s backfield touch share over the past two weeks—enough to give him a chance at outscoring Swift any given Sunday with a splash play or two.
TOP 3 STREAMING WIDE RECEIVERS FOR WEEK 9
- Olamide Zaccheaus, CHI at CIN
- Michael Wilson, ARI at DAL
- Malik Washington, MIA vs BAL
Yes, Chicago’s disappointing fantasy gamers left and right, but you can’t quit now. These same Bengals just allowed the New York Football Jets of all people to gain an astounding 502 yards on offense, the fourth-highest single-game output this season. With that, Luther Burden’s unfortunate concussion could and should open up short-term opportunities for Olamide Zaccheaus underneath, who I expect to serve as the Bears’ clear WR3 and slot-man. For what it’s worth, he’s earned +6 targets four times already this year.
At a glance, this crop of names is starting to seem crazy enough to work. Anyway, Dallas just transformed Denver’s WR2 into the overall WR1, so maybe one good turn deserves another. Michael Wilson’s earned +4 targets in each of the Cards’ last four contests, running more routes than Marvin Harrison Jr. in that span. Regardless of QB, I’m streaming Wilson in any desperate FLEX spots.
If, in fact, the Dolphins figured something out on offense with all these new 6-OL formations, then you definitely want a piece of Malik Washington. Miami’s sixth-round sophomore out of Virginia may not quite be an every-down player, but he’s still the only Dolphin WR besides Jaylen Waddle who matters. Since losing Tyreek Hill, Washington’s earned more than double the targets as counterparts Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Dee Eskridge combined.
TOP STREAMING TIGHT END FOR WEEK 9
- Colston Loveland, CHI at CIN
Notice I didn’t include tight ends correlating to EPA in the introduction. Fittingly weird, the most correlative factor to TE fantasy points per game is… (drum roll) catches allowed per game to the position. While Green Bay’s technically the worst in the category (7.9), Micah Parsons and the Pack face Carolina’s ambiguous TE room. No thanks—I’d rather face the second-worst in receptions but worst in yards and touchdowns, the reliably unreliable Cincinnati Bengals. If Colston Loveland fails here, it’s a wrap.
