Fantasy Football Week 9 Quarterback Preview: Joe Flacco can continue to be an elite Fantasy option

In the first run of this week's projections, Joe Flacco projects at QB20. I don't know how that sounds to you, but based on what he's done the past two years, it's flat-out disrespectful. 

Flacco has played at least 80% of the offensive snaps in eight games over the past two seasons. In those eight games, he's thrown for 2,332 yards and 20 touchdowns. To put that into context, his 17-game pace if for 4,956 yards and 42 touchdowns. Elite. He's averaged 24.3 FPPG in CBS scoring. Also elite. So why is he projected so low?

It's kind of the reverse of what we talked about last week. Nix was boosted in the projections by a high implied total and an awesome matchup. Flacco's Colts have an implied total of 20.5 this week and they're facing a Vikings defense that has only allowed one QB to top 20 Fantasy points in their building. Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, Aaron Rodgers, and Jared Goff averaged 16.75 Fantasy points in Minnesota this season. They had the same number of interceptions as touchdowns (6). 

There's also the fact that a lot of those big numbers from Flacco came in Cleveland last year. He's only averaging 238 passing yards per game for the Colts and just 6.6 yards per pass attempt. He's a must-add in Superflex leagues and I don't mind rostering him in a one-QB league, but there are better options this week. You'll find them in the waivers section below. 

Let's get to the rest of the preview:

Week 9 QB Preview

• 2 -- Joe Flacco has thrown at least two touchdown passes in each of the last eight games that he played at least 80% of the snaps.
• 27.3 -- Derek Carr scored 27.3 Fantasy points in Week 1 against the Panthers. He's a start if he's active.
• 6.0% -- Six percent of Anthony Richardson's passes have been graded as turnover-worthy. Only Will Levis has a higher rate this season.
• 29% -- Nearly a third of Tua Tagovailoa's passes have gone to running backs, which is evident in the production of both De'Von Achane and Jaylen Waddle.
• 5.4% -- Jameis Winston has only been sacked on 5.4% of his dropbacks. Deshaun Watson's sack rate was a league-high 13%.
• 12 -- Bo Nix has 12 red zone rush attempts. Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, and Justin Fields are the only quarterbacks with more.
• 42.6 -- Geno Smith leads the NFL with 42.6 dropbacks per game. This may be the week the lid blows off his Fantasy production.

My full set of Week 9 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You'll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 9. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.