Lance's 2021 Week 9 Recap and Week 10 Waiver Priorities

RECAP

-It looked like we were about to get a sequel to the Mike White story, but then he got hurt. Still didn’t stop the Jets from topping 400 passing yards for the second straight week. Even in the loss their offense looked like a legitimate threat. They’ve shown over the last two weeks what they can do when they're executing correctly.

-For the second time this year the Falcons have shown the ability to win a game at the end of regulation. That sounded sarcastic and I assure you that’s not how it was meant. I’m just appreciating the changes we’re already seeing thanks to the new coaching regime.

-I can’t believe what we saw between the Bills and Jags, and yet at the same time I can. Buffalo is showing us what we saw in 2019. Remember? The defense was a force, but the offense's inconsistencies cost them games. If they don’t get it figured out soon they’ll be knocked out of the playoffs early and watching another Super Bowl from their couches.

-Cleveland/Mayfield without OBJ > Cleveland/Mayfield with OBJ. That’s not a hot take, that’s not an obscure statement, that’s an obvious and statistical fact. Great job by that front office for seeing an issue and fixing it. In my opinion, they once again look like the team to beat, not just in the AFC North, but in the entire AFC.

-Teams have bad games and it’s always better to have them in the regular season. That’s about all I can figure when it comes to the question: What happened to Dallas?

-You pit a team that’s brought most of their games down to the wire and lost against a team that’s come back at the end to win in most of their games and what do you get? The Vikings vs the Ravens in a game that once again resulted in a late comeback victory for Baltimore and another heartbreaking loss for Minnesota. These two have consistently used the same line like a tightrope, the Ravens have just done a better job of landing on the right side.

-Either the Chargers are not as good as everyone thought they were going to be, or the Eagles are better than everyone is thinking they are. Personally, I’m going with the former, but there is an argument to be had in favor of Philly and their offense.

-I heard a lot of statements about Jordan Love and how bad he looked. And even some statements about how the fault lies on Love. I disagree. I don’t know how you can watch that game and not question what the coaching staff was doing. When you have a young, inexperienced signal caller you want to do two things: establish the run and get his confidence up with short passes to get him into a rhythm. Yet, Aaron Jones only saw 12 carries, A.J. Dillon got 8 and the team didn’t seem to figure out the short passes idea until the fourth quarter.

-Colt McCoy with another surprise win in a spot start (last year he pulled off that big upset while playing for the Giants and taking down the Seahawks). If the Niners weren’t panicking before, now is a good time to start.

-The Titans deserve more respect. They beat the Bills, Chiefs and Colts (twice) before taking down the Rams without Derrick Henry. We will need to see them do it more than once though. With the way their remaining schedule looks I don’t see them losing the AFC South race, but in order to know they are actual contenders we’ll need to see them take care of the Saints, Patriots and Steelers.

-Hello rookies! That Monday night game was basically a showcase for the rookies. Fields nearly (should have?) brought the Bears back for a 4th quarter come from behind win. And on the Steelers side, all three of their touchdowns came from rookies Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth. A fun little glimpse of the future? Bonus: two of the three Chicago touchdowns were scored by a second year pro, Darnell Mooney.

FANTASY WAIVER WIRE TARGETS

QB: Taylor Heinicke (Washington)

He’s been able to take advantage of team’s with poor secondary play this year, and a matchup with Tampa Bay offers that up again. He’s probably your best option available unless you want to go with consistency in Big Ben (he’s scored right around 15 points in 5 of his 8 games), or take a risk on a player like Trevor Lawrence who has struggled, but has a decent matchup.

RB: A.J. Dillon (Green Bay)

Dillon is only rostered in 61% of Yahoo leagues and I think that’s mostly due to a fear that he may stop seeing touches because, well, Aaron Jones. Given his recent usage and what he’s shown, I don’t see his role shrinking any time soon. He also gets three matchups in a row against bad (Seahawks) and average (Rams and Vikings) rush defenses.

WR: Elijah Moore (NY Jets)

Kind of a proceed with caution deal here. He’s played very well since Zach Wilson hit the injury list. The hope is that Wilson has learned from Mike White and Josh Johnson and can pick up where they left off once he’s back in the lineup, but you should be a little wary of the situation.

WR: Donovan Peoples-Jones (Cleveland)

In the two weeks before OBJ’s return he had 9 catches, 172 yards and 2 scores off 11 targets. Then he took a two week nap, and now, with OBJ gone once again, he posted 2 catches for 86 yards and a score on 3 targets. You want to see that target share go up, and I have a feeling it will.

TE: Dan Arnold (Jacksonville)

If you’re looking for a more permanent option then check my article from last week. If you need someone to fill in, Arnold is a good target for week 10. He’s seen 17 targets since the Jags returned from their week 7 bye, and Indy is top ten in fantasy points allowed to Tight Ends.

K: Chris Boswell (Pittsburgh)

Another good week to keep picking on Detroit. Boswell was the top Kicker in fantasy last week and he’s only rostered in 20% of Yahoo leagues.

D: Las Vegas Raiders

There really aren’t any good matchups for defenses who aren’t highly rostered in Yahoo, so why not a flier? The Raiders defense has scored 25 points over the last three weeks and Kansas City has scored 20 or less points in each of the last three weeks while allowing 7 sacks and turning the ball over 5 times.