Week 9 Inactives: Drake London out; Daniel Jones returns

Fantasy Football Live’s Andy Behrens and Matt Harmon react to the latest injury news before Sunday’s Week 9 main slate kicks off

Video Transcript

ANDY BEHRENS: It is week nine. I’m Andy Behrens. He’s Matt Harmon. Everyone is managing around byes, and injuries, and other nonsense right now.

We’re going to take a look at a few of the key actives and inactives heading into Sunday’s slate in week nine. In the early window, no Drake London. He’s out with that groin issue.

Matthew Stafford, likely out, he’s got the thumb. Puka Nacua is going to be active, but again, it’s Brett Rypien at quarterback that doesn’t seem great.

Dameon Pierce is out for the Texans. He’s got an ankle injury. That should mean a whole lot of Devin Singletary. Once again, I have very little enthusiasm for the Rams.

Elite receivers this week without Stafford, they’ve been very difficult to rank. Brett Ripon has thrown– I don’t know. –twice as many interceptions as touchdown passes in his NFL career. It’s not ideal. Matt, how about with Heinicke at the controls, though, for Atlanta? Drake London out. This is maybe it’s setting up for a Kyle Pitts breakout week.

MATT HARMON: Maybe, right? That is always the sort of tepid enthusiasm we need to have with Kyle Pitts. I’ll say this, I’m really bummed that we’re not getting a Drake London, Taylor Heinicke full game experience together, because I do think Heinicke is screw it, I’m throwing it down the field somewhere vibes, which fit very well with Drake London. But maybe that helps out Kyle Pitts here in this section.

We’ve seen Kyle Pitts have some pretty big games before. He can be that vertical threat. Like those plays, those routes are still available for Kyle Pitts if the quarterback can deliver. 11.5 air yards per attempt for Taylor Heinicke against the Titans last week. He has been slightly better in terms of not taking sacks than Desmond Ridder, who was eighth highest in terms of sack rate so far this year.

I think Heinicke, look, he’s not a keep the train on the tracks guy. This is not we’re taking a volatile quarterback and going to a safe guy. Heinicke plays very aggressively. He tries to write checks that his arm cannot cash, but he will, at least, attempt those throws. And I think they’ll be downfield and available for Kyle Pitts. So I’ll be pretty optimistic in terms of Kyle Pitts’ path to a big game, and when’s the last time anybody’s ever regretted saying those words in fantasy football?

ANDY BEHRENS: There’s a reason they call Taylor Heinicke ODU’s finest. Let’s look at the late games. We’ve got Josh Downs expected to play, but he picked up he picked up a knee injury in the middle of the week, which is rarely a good thing, put in some limited practices.

Hopefully, he’s going to be OK to go. Daniel Jones returning this week for the Giants, but he’s not going to have Darren Waller, who’s been kind of the de facto number one receiver there. He’s been placed on IR with a hamstring injury, which makes him a plausible drop, I would say, in fantasy. That’s, at least, four games he’s going to be out. Also, Josh Palmer out this week with a knee injury. Matt, what is your level of enthusiasm for Daniel Jones at Vegas today?

MATT HARMON: Like a six out of 10.

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good.

MATT HARMON: Well, I mean, in the relative sense of week nine, a lot of quarterback injuries, a lot of bye weeks, right? We can’t be too picky. We can’t be too choosy, right? It’s Daniel Jones or Jaren Hall.

I don’t know. Maybe that is a little bit of a push. I’m not totally sure. Look, I’ll say this. I think their path to not having negative net passing yards this week as they did last week, I think, the path is slightly better with Daniel Jones back there.

I think the critical thing here, Andy, though, is that the offensive line is going to be healthier, you know? Andrew Thomas is a difference maker at that left tackle spot. He’s going to be back there for the Giants. That does make a difference for Daniel Jones, who when he has time can deliver the ball, when he has time can sort of play on script.

It’s just when he’s going to get any pressure at all, and he was under more pressure than almost any quarterback to start the year. Good things are never going to happen. So I do think that’s important with a match up coming against Max Crosby, who might be the only good player on the Raiders defense, but is a really, really good player.

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, well, there’s the ringing endorsement that Daniel Jones managers were looking for. Here’s hoping that you can navigate all those injuries, as well as the six rookie quarterbacks who are starting in week nine. Let’s go get a win, people.