NFL Week 9 Fantasy Notes

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Thursdays, 9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice.

Sunday, Nov. 4
Arizona at Tampa Bay 1:00 pm Notwithstanding the shaky (health) QB situation in ‘Zona and the many injuries in Tampa right now, this is an “all in” game for your fantasy starters this week. An entertaining shootout should materialize.
Carolina at Tennessee 1:00 pm The Carolina “Road Warriors” should have another great game away from their unfriendly home confines! But this is a rare “all out” game in which the defenses figure to statistically neutralize all marginal starters.
Cincinnati at Buffalo 1:00 pm Monitor the Watson/Johnson RB situation: if Rudi can play, both are worth starting because Watson won’t be abandoned altogether. Even without Edwards at the helm, Evans retains value this week against the woeful Bengal D.
Denver at Detroit 1:00 pm Marshall is an every-week start until Walker is healthy. Lions Jones and Johnson have been emerging lately and deserve to crack your lineup here.
Green Bay at Kansas City 1:00 pm Stay away from any Packer RBs until they can consistently prove themselves. Bowe is the only marginal player worth anything in this Super Bowl I rematch.
Jacksonville at New Orleans 1:00 pm Both Jag RBs should get a look in this game. We saw glimpses last week of how Patten can fit into the New Orleans offense and he is the best fantasy sleeper option anywhere this week.
San Diego at Minnesota 1:00 pm Chambers is already an every-week start in his new home. The horrific Viking QB situation continues to doom everyone not named “Peterson.”
San Francisco at Atlanta 1:00 pm QB Smith has been hurt and rusty, but should get well at least statistically here. As we’ve been saying all along, stay away from any Falcon not named Crumpler.
Washington at N.Y. Jets 1:00 pm Progression to the mean meets motivation against a former team: Moss has been very overdue and will break out against the outmanned Jets.
Seattle at Cleveland 4:05 pm Stay away from RB Lewis, who should play some but is not 100% healthy – and with the swift Wright and speedy Harrison proving to be very legitimate options for Cleveland behind a retooled offensive line, his value won’t spike up drastically even when/if he gets 100% healthy. If Branch plays as expected, he’ll prosper against an inexplicably poor Browns’ D.
Houston at Oakland 4:15 pm All Raiders should be sitting, but emerging WR Walter should be in your lineup.
New England at Indianapolis 4:15 pm All in -- hopefully, you didn’t need us to tell you that! Also, check out this article for some good general game analysis.
Dallas at Philadelphia 8:15 pm This is another all-in game, a shootout under the lights in which the balanced offenses for both teams will override the strengths of Ron Rivera & Jim Johnson’s schemes.

Monday, Nov. 5
Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 8:30 pm The one marginal player worth anything in this likely field goal slog is WR Mason, who has prospered through dump-off passes this year.

Bye: Chicago, Miami, N.Y. Giants, St. Louis