Jahnke: Fantasy football reactions from the Patriots’ MNF win over the Jets

Week 9's iteration of Monday Night Football featured two division rivals and two quarterbacks with Super Bowl experience. But as intriguing as that sounds, the two were a combined 2-13 coming into tonight. Despite these underwhelming records, tonight's game was an exciting, close game with big plays from both offenses, and two of the week's best wide receiver waiver wire targets were on display.

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As always, this collection of fantasy reactions will include snap counts for skill players on each team, along with notes on players who saw their fantasy stocks rise or fall during the action.

New England Patriots at New York Jets

Winner: WR Breshad Perriman, New York Jets

The Jets fielded all three of their starting wide receivers for the first time of the season. Perriman was the best of the group, though, catching five passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Of course, he took the field with Jets backup quarterback Joe Flacco, and the two had more success tonight than they ever had together when they were in Baltimore. This was by far Perriman’s best game of the season and looked like the Perriman we saw last year in Tampa Bay. With New York close to full strength on offense, Perriman is an attractive waiver wire option this week.

Loser: RB La’Mical Perine, New York Jets

Perine looked like he had control over the Jets backfield coming into this week. He was seeing the majority of snaps as he split carries with Frank Gore. However, Gore had a slight lead in snaps tonight while finishing with double the number of carries. Gore was also more effective out of the backfield, gaining 46 yards on 12 carries compared to 19 on six for Perine. The Jets' schedule looks great for running backs for the rest of the season, but with this kind of split, it’s hard to trust either of them.

Waiver Wire Target: WR Jakobi Meyers, New England Patriots

Meyers has been a bright spot for the Patriots offense in recent weeks, and tonight he had a career game, catching 12 passes for 169 yards. What made that even more impressive is that the rest of the Patriots offense combined for 105 receiving yards on 15 catches.

Meyers saw just one target over the first six weeks of the season, but he’s among the top five wide receivers in receiving yards over the last three weeks. At this point, he should probably only be started in the right matchups, but the fact that there are opportunities where he should start means he needs to be on rosters.

Player To Cut: RB James White, New England Patriots

White barely had a role in the Patriots offense for the second time in three weeks. The veteran back had played 80% of third-down snaps before tonight, but that was down to 60% tonight. He ran the ball twice for no yards and caught four passes for 24 yards, with most of his production coming in the last minute of the game.

Receiving backs don’t particularly have a lot of fantasy value, but White had been an exception to the rule because of how often saw targets and how often he scored touchdowns. A lot of that had to do with the now-departed Tom Brady, rendering White as someone who should never be in starting fantasy lineups. Even if Patriots running backs get hurt, White’s role probably wouldn’t significantly increase. He doesn’t need to remain on rosters.

Injury: RB Damien Harris, New England Patriots

Harris left the game in the fourth quarter with a chest injury and didn’t return, though he achieved a respectable 71 yards on 14 carries before his departure. Sony Michel has been on injured reserve and was designated to return but wasn’t able to go before this game. If Harris misses time, Michel would jump right back into the role of the primary ball carrier. Even if Harris doesn’t miss time with the injury, his playing time could decrease with a healthy Michel.