NFL Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings

The non-mobile Tom Brady is the QB1 in fantasy football, three Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receivers rank top-13 in fantasy points per game, and Adrian Peterson has entered the fantasy football chat room — just like we all predicted.

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All jokes aside, the first half of the NFL season has already been a wild ride. The constant change has made it critical to continually adjust fantasy football player rankings based on new information and trends. Realizing Stefon Diggs’ 23% target share is down significantly from last season (29%) cannot be overlooked when projecting his fantasy ceiling. 

With plenty of PFF premium stats available to adjust rankings based on a player’s high-value opportunities, expected fantasy point output and routes run participation, it will be easy to highlight the best waiver wire pickups, optimal starts/sits and under-the-radar trade targets/DFS plays.

Those key data points — along with PFF player grades, implied team totals, PFF fantasy projections and strength of schedule — are all factored to mold my position-by-position Week 9 fantasy football rankings.

Related content for you: Fantasy Football Week 9: 5 to Waiver Wire Add, 5 to Drop, 5 to Buy Low, 5 to Sell High via Nathan Jahnke

2021 WEEK 9 QB FANTASY FOOTBALL RANKINGS

KYLER MURRAY, ARIZONA CARDINALS

A non-mobile Murray is a problem for fantasy football. The human-highlight reel saw his fantasy points per game drop off substantially in the second half of last season (30 versus 17.7) when he was battling through a shoulder injury.

And over the last four weeks, Murray has zero games with over 21 rushing yards and zero top-five fantasy finishes. 

The Cardinals quarterback is dealing with an ankle sprain, which will surely inhibit his ability to take off as a rusher and limit any top-five fantasy potential. Then consider his tough Week 9 matchup versus the San Francisco 49ers, who held Murray to fewer than 12 fantasy points and one rushing yard on seven carries.

Keep him on the bench this week and look to the waiver wire for a streamer instead. There is no guarantee Murray even suits up at all. Jordan Love is a solid pivot because he also plays at 4:25 pm ET. 

JUSTIN HERBERT, LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Herbert has endured back-to-back subpar performances, and the latest came against the New England Patriots. As I wrote in the Week 8 DFS Cheat Sheet, there were concerns about how the Chargers quarterback would stack up versus New England’s Cover 1 defense. And those concerns were realized, as Hebert ent just 3-for-8 for 20 yards and two interceptions when the Patriots aligned in Cover 1.

However, Week 9 presents a more favorable matchup for Herbert, as the Philadelphia Eagles play Cover 1 at the second-lowest rate in the league. Instead, they rely heavily on zone coverage, specifically Cover 3 and Cover 6.

Versus those coverages this season, Herbert is PFF’s 11th highest-graded quarterback (77.9). 

BEN ROETHLISBERGER, PITTSBURGH STEELERS

It never feels great to rely on Big Ben in any sort of capacity as PFF’s 33rd-graded quarterback this season. However, with four teams on bye weeks, quarterback streamers will be be needed, and there’s no denying that Roethlisberger has a great matchup this week versus the Chicago Bears.

Chicago's defense has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks over the last four weeks, which includes allowing over 27 fantasy points to Jimmy Garoppolo one week ago.