Fantasy Football: Week 9 Sunday Sleeper Squad
The Sunday Sleeper Squad is a team made up of players that might be hanging around on waivers or offer a contrarian approach and can offer you a helping hand this week if you’re a team in need. Or maybe you have rostered one of these guys and now is the time to unleash them. And at this point of the season, you are probably in need of some kind of fantasy help. These factors could be matchup, injuries, both, or something totally off the wall leading us to our conclusion as to why these players could pay off. Of course, these are the ultimate boom-or-bust plays so may the odds be in your favor if you’re playing someone on this list. Let’s take a look at who made my Week 9 Sunday Sleeper Squad.
QB/ Derek Carr/ Las Vegas Raiders: Last week is a game that gets thrown out the window for fantasy purposes because of the abhorrent weather. Carr has scored 19+ points in 4 of his last 6 outings. He gets a Chargers defense that has allowed the 3rd most fantasy points per game to QBs. Prior to last week, Carr had multiple TD passes in 5 straight games. Each of the last 4 QBs to take on the Chargers have turned in at least 22 Fantasy points.
WR/ Antonio Brown/ Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Featured as our Friday FLEX of the Week, Brown has a lot going in his favor. It can be argued he has the best chemistry with Tom Brady as Mike Evans has disappeared at times this season and Chris Godwin has been in and out of the lineup. Marshon Lattimore should be on Mike Evans leaving a plus matchup for AB. I expect Tom Brady to lean on AB like he did last season when New England played Miami. In that game, Brown has 4 catches for 56 yards and 1 TD. Something similar isn’t a wild expectation.
WR/ Sterling Shepard/ NY Giants: In Shepard’s 2 games since returning from an injury, he has been the Giants leading receiver with 14 catches for 133 yards and 1 TD on 18 targets. Golden Tate is not going to play and is being benched as a disciplinary measure. I don’t know what that means for Tate but for Shepard, it means an uptick in targets. Shephard has caught 22 of 28 passes Daniel Jones has thrown to him all season.
WR/ Cole Beasley/ Buffalo Bills: So far in PPR leagues, Beasley checks in 35th in per-game average and 25th in total points so far in 2020. He owns an 18.7% target share with a 17.1% target share in the red zone. Beasley has run the 7th most slot snaps with an 84.9% snap rate from that position. Last week was his first true dud of the season and gets an excellent redemption matchup with Seattle.
RB/ Chase Edmonds/ Arizona Cardinals: Edmonds averaging 8.8 touches in the past 4 games, but he has 15-plus fantasy points in three of his past four. Also, Kenyan Drake is out this week. In 4 career games with 10+ touches, Edmonds averages 20.1 fantasy points per game. The Dolphins are allowing 121.6 rushing yards per game and 5.5 yards per carry to running backs over the last 4 weeks.
RB/ Zack Moss/ Buffalo Bills: It seems like Zack Moss is the preferred RB over Devin Singletary in fantasy football. He overtook Singletary in playing time last week, 53% of the snaps to Singletary’s 49%, including kneel-downs. Moss had 8 red-zone snaps with 6 touches while Singletary had 3 red-zone snaps and none came inside the 10. Moss has only 1 less touch than Devin Singletary in the past 2 games.
TE/ Logan Thomas/ Washington Football Team: Thomas has 40+ yards and 1 TD in each of his past 2 games and actually ranks 3rd among all tight ends in routes per game this season. With Kyle Allen as QB over the past 3 weeks, he has managed 2 top-10 fantasy performances.
FLEX/ Damien Harris/ RB/ New England Patriots: Damien Harris has looked good and the argument can be made that he is the identity of the offense. He has looked good when given opportunities against Kansas City and last week against Buffalo. This week the Patriots take on the Jets and should lean heavily on the run. The Jets just traded Avery Williamson, softening the defense even more. He’s been getting at least 55% of the Patriots RB touch share the past 2 weeks. He has put up over 70 yards in 3 of 4 games this season and has seen at least 11 touches in those 3 games.
FLEX/ Jerry Jeudy/ WR/ Denver Broncos: Denver is taking on Atlanta this week and the Atlanta defense should surrender yards and points as usual. Jerry Jeudy is coming off a 10 target game. The Falcons struggle and have allowed the 5th most fantasy points per game to opposing WRs this season. Jeudy has only been under 55 yards in a game twice this season.
