Fantasy Football Week 9 Start 'Em & Sit 'Em: Get Chase Brown in all lineups, plus DFS sleepers to fire up

Week 9 has the chance to be fun. I’m excited to see what happens in this scoring period.

Patrick Mahomes might actually be trustworthy with his matchup against the Buccaneers, who are No. 2 in most Fantasy points allowed to opposing quarterbacks. Joe Flacco is back as the starter for the Colts, which is great news for Josh Downs and Michael Pittman, especially in a juicy matchup at Minnesota. And Matthew Stafford has his guys back with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp finally healthy.

A lot of running backs have the chance to be awesome this week, including Alvin Kamara (at CAR), Saquon Barkley (vs. JAC) and De’Von Achane (at BUF). If you have these running backs — and several others with good matchups (check the rankings) — your Fantasy team should be in great shape.

The wide receiver position continues to suffer due to injuries, and we just lost Stefon Diggs (ACL) and Christian Kirk (collarbone) for the season in Week 8. But in Week 9, you should be able to trust guys like Jakobi Meyers (at CIN) and Courtland Sutton (at BAL), and maybe even Cedric Tillman will continue to surprise us, even in a tough matchup against the Chargers.

In Week 8, all the tight ends seemingly dominated on National Tight Ends Day. The position group had the most receptions (177), second-most receiving yards (1,965) and eighth-most receiving touchdowns (16) for tight ends in a single day of games in NFL history. Can we get that every week?

I’m excited to see what happens in Week 9. And you are as well. Let the games begin.

Brown has been the best running back for the Bengals this season, and he’s headed for a big game in Week 9 against the Raiders. He’s worth trusting as a No. 2 running back in all leagues.

Brown has scored at least 11.4 PPR points in four of his past five games, and he’s done well in some tough matchups against the Ravens in Week 5 and the Eagles in Week 8 because of touchdowns. But the matchup with Las Vegas is one of the easier opponents he’ll face all season.

The Raiders are No. 10 in most Fantasy points allowed to opposing running backs, and a running back has scored at least 13.3 PPR points against Las Vegas in every game this season. The Raiders have also allowed four rushing touchdowns in the past three games.

After this game, Brown will face Baltimore in Week 10 and the Chargers in Week 11, which are tough matchups. But in Week 9, Brown should have the chance for a dominant performance, and I’m expecting him to deliver a standout stat line.

Saints (at CAR)

The Saints DST was amazing against the Panthers in Week 1, and hopefully we get a repeat performance in Week 9. The Saints had four sacks, two interceptions and one fumble recovery in a 47-10 victory to open the season. Bryce Young is starting again for Carolina in Week 9, and Young was sacked twice and threw two interceptions at Denver in Week 8. The Saints DST should be considered a top-three Fantasy unit in Week 9.

• Commanders (at NYG)
• Bengals (vs. LV)
• Eagles (vs. JAC)

Broncos (at BAL)

The Broncos DST has been amazing of late, but this is a bad matchup in Week 9 at Baltimore. Denver comes into this game with eight sacks, two interceptions and two fumbles in the past two weeks against New Orleans and Carolina, with just 24 points allowed, but now the Broncos have to step up in weight class on the road against the Ravens. Baltimore has scored at least 30 points as a team in four of the past five games, and the Ravens only have two turnovers in the past three outings. I would avoid the Broncos DST in all leagues.