Fantasy football 2024: One QB, RB, WR and TE primed for huge Week 9 performances

Week 8 of NFL action is now behind us, which means that it’s time to look ahead to Week 9.

Last week, I wrote about how excited I was for the possibility of a Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels battle, but at the time I wasn’t optimistic it would actually happen. Daniels was hurt and it looked like the Commanders would turn to Marcus Mariota under center.

But surprise! Daniels played and we got a classic. Maybe not in the way people expected, since the two rookie quarterbacks combined to throw just one touchdown pass, but the ending of the game won’t be forgotten as Daniels threw a game-winning, 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown to snatch the victory just 25 seconds after the Bears had taken the lead on a Roschon Johnson rushing score and a Williams to Cole Kmet two-point conversion.

Future Williams and Daniels matchups will probably feature more consistent scoring, but will a future matchup ever have this kind of memorable ending?

Anyway, let’s take a look at one player at each skill position who is set to have a strong 2024 Week 9 performance for fantasy football.

Quarterback: Sam Darnold - Minnesota Vikings

After dropping two games in a row, the Vikings have a great shot to bounce back in Week 9 when the team takes on the Indianapolis Colts.

The Indy defense is allowing 227.8 passing yards per game, ninth-most in the NFL, and that comes with the team facing Will Levis and the combo of Tyler Huntley and Tim Boyle lately, which has driven that number down a bit.

And while the Vikings have lost these past two contests, Darnold’s numbers have been solid. In the 30-20 loss to the Rams last week, he was 18-for-25 for 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s thrown for over 200 yards in three of the past four games.

I feel like I’m constantly on the fence with Darnold. His career features a few of these false starts, when he looked like he was figuring things out and then it fell apart as the year went along. But through seven games, Darnold is tied for fifth in the league in touchdown passes and is fourth in yards per attempt. I think this 2024 performance is the real thing,

Running Back: Chuba Hubbard - Carolina Panthers

While New Orleans is allowing the eighth-most fantasy points per game to running backs, that didn’t translate into big numbers for Chuba Hubbard in the first meeting. He finished as the RB66 in that game, his worst showing of the season. Hubbard had just six carries and wasn’t targeted.

But things have changed since then. In that Week 1 matchup, Hubbard played 54% of Carolina’s snaps, his lowest mark of the season. The Panthers have abandoned the whole “split the backfield between Hubbard and Miles Sanders” thing, with Sanders totaling just nine carries over the past four games.

Meanwhile, Hubbard has finished as a top-10 fantasy running back three times this season and has at least 15 carries in six consecutive contests. He hasn’t finished with under 50 rushing yards in a game since that first New Orleans meeting.

I’m willing to try this again. In the last four games, the Saints have given up over 200 rushing yards twice, with the Buccaneers and Broncos both running all over this defense. 

Wide Receiver: Courtland Sutton - Denver Broncos

The Broncos offense has really picked things up lately, and rookie quarterback Bo Nix has been a major part of that. Against the Panthers last week, Nix threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns.

None of those touchdowns went to Courtland Sutton, but 100 of the yards did, as Sutton hit right on the century mark on eight catches. He was targeted 11 times, while Lil’Jordan Humphrey was second on the team with six targets.

Sutton has one real stinker against the Saints where he wasn’t targeted a single time, but that game aside, Sutton has been really solid for the Broncos. He has 50 or more yards in four of the past six contests.

This week, he gets a juicy matchup with a Ravens pass defense that continues to struggle. Baltimore allows 291.4 passing yards per game, which is a LOT. Second in the league are the Jags at 271.1. Only four teams even allow more than 250 per contest.

With Nix on the rise right now, Denver has a shot to do some damage through the air this weekend. Sutton will be a big part of that and should be viewed as a WR2 with upside.

Tight End: Cade Otton - Tampa Bay Buccaneers

With both Chris Godwin and Mike Evans sidelined, the Buccaneers found a new No. 1 receiver in an unlikely place: a third-year tight end who was averaging 27.2 receiving yards per game over the first six games of the season.

But Otton now has 20 targets over the past two games. Against the Falcons on Sunday, he caught nine of his 10 targets for 81 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Notably, he led the team in first-read target rate at 30 percent. Baker Mayfield made a purposeful effort to get the ball to Otton and it paid off for Tampa.

Now, the Bucs are set for a Monday night meeting with the Chiefs. KC is allowing 13.3 fantasy points per game to the tight end position, second-most in the NFK behind only the Panthers. The team does get some credit for holding Brock Bowers in check last week, but it doesn’t change the fact that defending against tight ends has been a big weak spot for this defense.

Fire up Otton this week. In fact, fire him up every week at this point. He’s a top-10 tight end going forward.