The best fantasy QB options to stream for Week 9

We’ve reached the halfway point of the regular season, and three of the top five fantasy quarterbacks were drafted this summer as mere late-round backups, if even drafted at all. Chances are, if you picked up Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, or Alex Smith on the waiver wire, you’re in pretty good shape in your league standings. If not, opportunities abound each week to find a worthwhile streaming option on waivers, as we’ve proven in this space time and again.

Six more teams have a bye this week, with eight more scheduled over the following two weeks. Don’t forget to check your upcoming schedule in order to stay ahead of the waiver rush.

As always, before we get into this week’s top QB streaming options, let’s look at how things played out for last week’s recommendations.

Notes: Wentz missed a number of intermediate throws and was 0-for-5 under pressure, although he did help salvage his day with a long touchdown to Alshon Jeffery on a 50-50 ball… Philip Rivers graded out well on Sunday but it didn’t translate to fantasy success. Tyrell Williams also dropped a beautifully thrown deep crossing route… As expected, Andy Dalton rebounded from his rough outing against Pittsburgh to deliver a top-five fantasy performance on Sunday… The Bills rode their defense and ground game to a lopsided victory over Oakland, but Tyrod Taylor helped fantasy owners with his long overdue first rushing score of the season… Case Keenum posted a 133.3 passer rating under pressure against Cleveland and was 9-of-13 on passes that traveled 10-plus yards… Trevor Siemian is officially out of the streaming conversation, and may soon be out of his starting job for that matter.

Below are the most attractive options for QB streaming for Week 9 who are either widely available, on your bench, or priced cheap in daily formats. Each player is listed along with current ownership and start percentages from ESPN leagues as well as FanDuel salary rank.

Week 9

Shallow leagues

Matthew Stafford (DET @ GB) – 88.0% owned/31.6% started/No. 6 QB salary on FanDuel

Stafford was largely faded this past week against a Pittsburgh pass defense that had allowed the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing QBs on the season. Stafford was held without a touchdown, although he did finish with 423 passing yards on 45 attempts, good for PFF’s fourth-best QB grade on Sunday. Outside of a three-interception performance at New Orleans in Week 7, Stafford has been intercepted only once in his six other games this season. He’s also averaging 19 fantasy points over his last three outings.

The going gets easier in Week 9 against a Packers defense that owns our No. 29 pass coverage grade at the halfway point of the regular season. Over their previous three games before their Week 8 bye, the Packers allowed an average of 22 fantasy points per game and 0.56 points per dropback. Those are top-five fantasy QB numbers. What’s more, Stafford completed 5-of-10 deep passes in Week 8 and boasts a 116.5 passer rating on deep throws this season (20-plus air yards), which ranks third-best behind Alex Smith and Dak Prescott.

Kirk Cousins (WAS @ SEA) – 93.0%/65.4%/No. 15 salary

It feels like cheating to include Cousins as a streaming option, but the fact is there are 14 other quarterbacks priced higher on FanDuel this week, and Cousins was benched in nearly one-third of ESPN leagues against a generous Dallas pass defense in Week 8. Granted, weather was a factor on Sunday, and it did lead to his lowest fantasy output of the season. Still, Cousins entered Week 8 ranked fifth among QBs in fantasy points per game, after finishing fifth last year and 10th in 2015.

It might be playing with fire to go back to the well against Seattle – after all, the Seahawks had held four of their previous five opposing QBs below 10 fantasy points – but Cousins has proven to be one of the league’s most consistent, if underrated, signal-callers. And really, rookie Deshaun Watson put on an absolute clinic on Sunday night with 402 yards (13.4 YPA, 15.3-yard aDOT) and four TDs. Watson shredded the blitz (5-of-5 for 150 yards and two TDs) while also posting a 130.2 QB rating with no pressure. That’s notable because Cousins boasts the league’s third-best passer rating when kept clean (116.4) this season. Making matters worse for the Seahawks’ secondary, Earl Thomas pulled his hamstring on Sunday.

Standard leagues

Derek Carr (OAK @ MIA) – 85.3%/36.5%/No. 9 salary

Carr got off to a rather slow start this season, but over the last two games he’s racked up 730 yards and four TDs against Kansas City and Buffalo. Carr had the quickest average time to throw (2.21 seconds) at Buffalo this past week. Look for the Raiders to stick with the quick-hitting passing game this week against a Miami defense that owns one of the league’s top pass rushes.

Despite their relative success in terms of fantasy points allowed to opposing QBs, the Dolphins own PFF’s third-worst pass coverage grade this season. Joe Flacco and Ryan Mallett combined to average 0.61 fantasy points per dropback against the Dolphins in Week 8, tying Tyrod Taylor for the fifth-best mark on Sunday. And that was with a run-heavy game script as the Ravens led throughout. The Raiders have struggled in coverage, and Miami is set to welcome back DeVante Parker, all of which should translate to both teams being able to move the ball through the air in this one.

Tyrod Taylor (BUF @ NYJ) – 64.5%/37.7%/No. 14 salary

The caveat here is that Taylor is probably never going to single-handedly win your weekly matchup, or a GPP tournament for that matter. Thanks largely to his rushing prowess, though – Taylor has six or more carries in all but one game this season – he’s managed double-digit fantasy points in every game this season. And yet, his highest fantasy output was a 20-point showing against the Jets in the season opener, which was good for the fifth-best fantasy total among QBs that week.

Still, in Week 9 Taylor gets another matchup with those same Jets, who own the No. 25 PFF pass-coverage grade and the No. 29-graded pass rush. New York has also surrendered a league-high 17 touchdowns through the air this season. Taylor has gotten his deep ball working of late. Over the past two games, he’s sporting a 113.4 passer rating on 14 attempts of 20-plus air yards, while averaging 19 fantasy points in that span.

Two-QB and deep leagues

Jared Goff (LAR @ NYG) – 26.6% owned/No. 12 salary

The Rams are coming off their bye, and Goff takes aim at a Giants defense that has surrendered an average of 23 fantasy points to the last four quarterbacks they’ve faced. Goff has been sacked on only 12.5 percent of his dropbacks – the fifth-least-frequent rate out of 31 qualifiers – and the Giants have a bottom-five pass-rush grade on the season. When kept clean, Goff has a 100.5 QB rating.

Thanks to a resurgent Todd Gurley, Rams’ first-year coach Sean McVay has had success dialing up play fakes. In fact, Goff boasts the fifth-highest play-action rate (26.1 percent of dropbacks) and has a 102.2 passer rating on play-action throws, compared to an 86.3 rating on all other throws. It wouldn’t be surprising if McVay spent a portion of the bye week scheming up some designs to get Sammy Watkins behind the safeties. All told, Goff is averaging 16 fantasy points per game this season and also sits inside the top-12 on a per-dropback basis (0.47).

Jacoby Brissett (IND @ HOU) – 11.1%/3.2%/No. 23 salary

The Texans are allowing the fifth-most fantasy points per game after getting shredded by Russell Wilson on Sunday night. Given that Indianapolis opened as 14-point road underdogs this week at Houston, the Colts’ passing offense figures to be plenty busy, with a good chance at accruing some fantasy points in a favorable matchup.

As for Brissett, he’s been quite consistent as the season has progressed and he’s gotten more comfortable. As to be expected, he was bottled up in his first road start, at Seattle in Week 4, and he was also held in check against Jacksonville’s league-best defense in Week 7. Otherwise, Brissett has averaged 20 fantasy points over his four other starts since Week 2. He’s also tied for the league lead among quarterbacks with three rushing scores.