NFL Week 9 Fantasy Football Recap: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Houston Texans

The usual suspects' score: Miles Sanders, A.J. Brown and Dallas Goedert all scored touchdowns for the Eagles, leading Philadelphia to victory.
Dameon Pierce remains a must-start: The Texans running back set a career-high in rushing yards (139) and was Houston's only bright spot on offense.
The Texans hurt at wide receiver: Houston didn’t have its top two wide receivers, which impacted its strategy and ability to keep up with the Eagles offense when it needed to pass.

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Philadelphia Eagles @ Houston Texans

Miles Sanders: 17 carries, 93 yards, 1 touchdown
Dallas Goedert: 8 receptions, 100 yards, 1 touchdown

Texans dig into their wide receiver depth chart: The Texans didn’t have their top two wide receivers and were already thin at the position.

Second-year receiver Nico Collins missed his second-straight game due to a groin injury while Brandin Cooks didn’t play after not practicing earlier in the week in anticipation of being traded.
Veteran receivers Chris Moore and Phillip Dorsett were splitting time as the team’s third wide receiver previously but started Thursday night.
Tyron Johnson started the season on the Raiders. He was waived, spent a few weeks on their practice squad and was picked up by the Texans before Week 8. He was the team's third receiver in three-receiver sets Thursday night. This is his third stint in Houston.
Jalen Camp has spent most of the last two years on the Texans' practice squad. He was elevated before the game and largely served as a run-blocking wide receiver in the Texans' three-tight end set.
Moore and Dorsett put together highlight-worthy plays, but neither has been consistent enough to be considered in fantasy football. The Texans have better matchups for wide receivers over the next three weeks, but either one could have a good game while the other is invisible.

Texans evolving tight end room: The Texans' tight end room was already complicated, and it just went from three-deep to four-deep.

Fifth-round rookie Teagan Quitoriano was activated off injured reserve after missing some of training camp and the first half of the season due to a knee injury.
He wasted no time, catching his first NFL touchdown within six minutes of the game.
This move ended up hurting all three tight ends’ playing time.
Quitoriano took nearly all of O.J. Howard’s snaps in 21 and 22 personnel while also taking significant snaps from Brevin Jordan in 12 personnel.
Jordan received more snaps than usual in 11 personnel at Jordan Akins‘ expense.
This all just means fantasy managers shouldn’t have a single Texans tight end on their fantasy roster. It’s very difficult for a tight end to be fantasy relevant in a two-man rotation, and this is a four-man rotation. It might take three injuries for someone to possibly be a consistent fantasy starter.

Keep an eye on Kenneth Gainwell: The second-year running back scored his first touchdown in over a month and hauled in his most receptions in a game since January.

The Eagles were using a lot of hurry-up offense, which meant Gainwell was on the field on third down at times, and since they didn’t make any substitutions, Gainwell got to play on first down, too.
This strategy worked for Philadelphia, which helped Gainwell score.
Ideally, Gainwell would play more after impressing on a small sample tonight.
The Eagles' schedule remains relatively easy, which should give them time to experiment in an effort to keep Miles Sanders fresh for the playoffs.
It’s probably too little too late for Gainwell to become fantasy relevant in 2022, but he could still earn a larger role in 2023.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.