A few solid fantasy contributors were traded this week. Will any make a big impact in their first week with their new team?

There are a whopping six teams on bye this week. The Bengals, Colts, Giants, Eagles, Cardinals and Jaguars are all on vacation.

You could be in need of replacements for fantasy studs like QB Carson Wentz, WR A.J. Green, RB Saquon Barkley and QB Andrew Luck.

Here is our Fantasy Football Sit/Start for Week 9 of the 2018 NFL season…and enjoy our awesome MS Paint masterpiece of Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton

I want to explain what I mean by “sit” and “start.” Of course you are going to start some of the guys i say to bench this week, because you probably used high draft picks or a lot of money in an auction for them. My ‘sit’ players are guys I am just not completely sold that they will have good weeks. If you have a guy that you are on the fence about, maybe this will help you pick between the players.

START’EM

• QB Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers) – Newton hasn’t been a notable fantasy quarterback this season. He is having an average Cam Newton year. He faces the Tampa Bay Bucs this weekend, and they have made some very average quarterbacks look very, very good this year. The Panthers should put a good amount of points on the board this weekend.
• WR Marvin Jones (Detroit Lions) – Detroit traded WR Golden Tate to Philadelphia for a draft pick. It was a smart long-team decision for the Lions, but it further handicaps QB Matthew Stafford against the Vikings. Jones will get more targets and will be the de facto possession receiver. He could be a nice PPR fantasy receiver going forward.
• RB Lamar Miller (Houston Texans) – Miller has put together back-to-back 100-yard games and found the end zone in both. He faces the Broncos this weekend and it is another favorable match-up. I know QB Deshaun Watson passed for five touchdown passes, but a lot of that was due to WR Will Fuller getting wide open. Watson is still hurting from his chest injury. He only passed the ball 20 times against the Dolphins. The Texans will once again rely heavily on Miller and backup RB Alfred Blue.
• QB Jared Goff (Los Angeles Rams) – The Rams face the Saints on Sunday. New Orleans have allowed a passer rating of 107.7 to opposing quarterbacks this season. Even though the Rams are 8-0 with wide receiver playmakers, Goff has mostly been a streaming quarterback this season. The Rams feed star RB Todd Gurley and Goff has a few poor fantasy outputs this season (just because he hasn’t needed to throw much). He’s worth a start this weekend, especially since there are six teams on bye this week.
• RB Dion Lewis (Tennessee Titans) – It appears that RB Derrick Henry is officially the backup in Tennessee. Lewis got a large percentage of the work against the Chargers in Week 7. The Titans are coming off a bye and face the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Dallas has a good defense, but they did allow rookie RB Saquon Barkley to catch 14 balls back in Week 2. Lewis has better hands than Barkley and could see a lot of targets.
• Washington Redskins Defense & Special Teams – The Falcons have trouble scoring on the road. They are averaging half the amount of points on the road than they do at home. Also, Washington has a very underrated defense. They haven’t given up more than 19 points in a game all year.
• WR Courtland Sutton (Denver Broncos) – This is a bit of a deeper league recommendation. Now that WR Demaryius Thomas is in Houston, the Broncos need a wide receiver to step up. WR Emmanuel Sanders will get most of the targets, but I believe Sutton could see a considerable bump in targets as well. He’s a deep threat and the rookie could break one against the Texans secondary.
• TE O.J. Howard (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) – Howard has won the playing time battle over teammate TE Cameron Brate. Howard is a better blocker and is a more well-rounded tight end. Howard’s fantasy production jumped when QB Jameis Winston came back, but I think his fantasy stock should still be high with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick back as the starter. Carolina hasn’t been able to stop good tight ends this season. 
• TE Chris Herndon (New York Jets) – The rookie tight end has scored a touchdown in three-straight games. He’s a talented receiver and the Jets desperately need some healthy bodies to catch passes from rookie QB Sam Darnold. He should get plenty of targets versus the Dolphins.
• Miami Dolphins Defense & Special Teams – As I just mentioned, the Jets have all kinds of injuries on offense. They have numerous wide receiver injuries and RB Bilal Powell may have suffered a career-ending neck injury. I’m not sure how many points the banged-up Jets offense can put up. The Dolphins defense isn’t great, but the Jets just have too many injuries.
• RB Matt Breida (San Francisco 49ers) – He’s been limited at practice this week, but he should be ready to go on Thursday against the Raiders. San Francisco hopes they can score more this week than they did against the Cardinals last week. The Raiders defense has packed it in for the season and they made the Colts offense look like they did when they had Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James.
• WR John Brown (Baltimore Ravens) – The Steelers secondary have given up way more points than I thought they would this season. They have allowed opposing team’s #2 and #3 receivers to get first downs. Brown was able to do that earlier this season when he had 116 receiving yards and a touchdown in Week 4.
• RB Latavius Murray (Minnesota Vikings) – Murray is on a roll and the Vikings have been a much better team with a consistent running game. The Lions have allowed 5.5 yards per rush against opposing running backs. Murray should do some damage against a poor run defense.
• WR Tim Patrick (Denver Broncos) [DEEP LEAGUES] – I mentioned Courtland Sutton earlier, but Patrick needs acknowledged as well. He found the end zone last week and he should see some action in three-receiver sets for the Broncos. Deep leagues will be hurting this week with so many teams on bye, so Patrick could be a nice high-upside ‘shot in the dark’ option on a thin waiver wire.

SIT’EM

• WR Allen Robinson (Chicago Bears) – Robinson’s fantasy stock hasn’t seen a bump from QB Mitchell Trubisky’s recent offensive surge. It didn’t help that he missed last week’s game against the Jets. He’s still dealing with the injury and he’s not a shoo-in to start against the Bills. Also, Chicago could get an early lead and just eat up the clock with the running game in the second-half.
• RB Alex Collins (Baltimore Ravens) – Collins doesn’t have a favorable match-up this weekend. The Steelers have been stout against the run. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ravens opted to play newly-acquired RB Ty Montgomery a bit in this game. They can use a short passing game in lieu of a traditional running game. I feel that would be more effective against the Steelers.
• QB Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions) – Stafford’s season started off horrible in his worst game of his career in Week 1 versus the Jets. Things have improved, but he isn’t the dependable fantasy quarterback this year. The Lions also traded away his best possession receiver (Golden Tate). Also, the Vikings are a tough match-up for him.
• RB Royce Freeman (Denver Broncos) – This one is pretty simple. Freeman is now getting only a small percentage of the playing time he shared with RB Philip Lindsay in Week 1. Lindsay is performing well and Freeman just isn’t doing much with the little amount of touches he receives.
• WR Mohamed Sanu (Atlanta Falcons) – Sanu has been a possession receiver for Atlanta this season. He isn’t getting enough red zone targets to really be worth a flex spot this week. Hell, he hasn’t even been much of a possession receiver the last two weeks (four receptions total). Washington has an underrated defense and it could be a tough week for Sanu.
• RB Derrick Henry (Tennessee Titans) – Henry was used as the change-of-pace back against the Chargers. He did have success in that role, but I don’t see that spot being nearly as effective against the Cowboys. Dion Lewis is the Titans running back you’d want this week.
• TE Jordan Thomas (Houston Texans) – Thomas is coming off the best game of his career, but I wouldn’t get too excited about the young tight end. He was really just at the right place at the right time. There are a lot of good tight ends on bye, but you’d be better off with Chris Herndon or David Njoku.
• Cleveland Browns Defense & Special Teams – The Browns defense have been a pretty darn good fantasy defense this year…but this is the week to sit them. The Chiefs offense is just too good. QB Patrick Mahomes is on his way to being the league MVP if he keeps throwing touchdowns at his current pace.
• QB Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys) – Prescott is a trendy pick to start in fantasy this week. He got a brand new toy (WR Amari Cooper) and he had a bye week to get some chemistry with him. The Titans defense is underrated and has only allowed ten total touchdowns this year.
• WR Marquise Goodwin (San Francisco 49ers) – Goodwin has the speed and hands to be a very good fantasy wide receiver, but he doesn’t have the quarterback. Goodwin really became a good fantasy player when the Niners acquired QB Jimmy Garoppolo last year. QB C.J. Beathard has a go-to receiver, and he’s a tight end. Goodwin has a favorable match-up against the Raiders on Thursday, but there are better options out there.
• RB Jamaal Williams (Green Bay Packers) – Williams isn’t the running back you want in Green Bay. He doesn’t do enough with the touches he receives. Also, the Patriots isn’t a good match-up for the running back. RB Aaron Jones is just more productive for the Packers and will gain even more touches with RB Ty Montgomery off the team.

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About the Author…

Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.