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

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

But surprise! Daniels played and we got a classic. Maybe not in the way people expected, as the two rookie quarterbacks combined for just one touchdown pass, but the end of the game will be remembered as Daniels threw a touchdown pass to Noah Brown to grab the game-winning 52-yard Hail Mary. The victory came just 25 seconds after the Bears took the lead on a quick score by Roschon Johnson and a two-point conversion from Williams to Cole Kmet.

Future Williams vs. Daniels matchups will likely feature more consistent scoring, but will a future matchup have this kind of memorable ending?

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

Having lost two straight games, the Vikings have a great chance to bounce back when they face the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9.

Indy’s defense is allowing 227.8 passing yards per game, which is ninth-most in the NFL, and that comes with the team’s recent exposure to Will Levis and the combination of Tyler Huntley and Tim Boyle, which has lowered that number a bit.

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

I feel like I’m in constant conflict with Darnold. There are several such false starts in his career; It seemed like he was figuring things out and as the year went by it all fell apart. But through seven games, Darnold ranks fifth in the league in touchdown passes and fourth in yards per attempt. I to think This 2024 performance is real,

While New Orleans allowed the eighth-most fantasy points per game to rushers, that didn’t translate into big numbers for Chuba Hubbard in the first matchup. He finished this game as RB66, his worst performance of the season. Hubbard had only six moves and was not 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 completely abandoned the “splitting the backfield between Hubbard and Miles Sanders” thing, with Sanders having just nine carries over the last four games.

Hubbard, meanwhile, has three top-10 running backs this season and has at least 15 carries in six consecutive contests. He hasn’t finished a game with under 50 yards since the first meeting in New Orleans.

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

The Broncos’ offense has really picked up as of late, and rookie quarterback Bo Nix has been a big part of that. Last week against the Panthers, Nix threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns.

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

Sutton was in bad form against the Saints as he wasn’t targeted even once, but that game aside, Sutton was a really solid player for the Broncos. He has 50 or more yards in four of the last six contests.

He has an interesting matchup this week with a Ravens pass defense that continues to struggle. Baltimore allows 291.4 passes per game, which is a lot. The Jags are in second place in the league with 271.1 points. Only four teams allow more than 250 points per contest.

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

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 averaged 27.2 receiving yards per game through the first six games of the season.

However, Otton has 20 goals in the last two matches. On Sunday against the Falcons, he caught nine of his 10 targets for 81 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Especially that Led the team in first read target rate at 30 percent. Baker Mayfield made a conscious effort to get the ball to Otton, and it paid off for Tampa.

Now the Bucs are preparing for a Monday night meeting with the Chiefs. KC allows 13.3 fantasy points per game at the tight end position, which ranks second in the NFK behind the Panthers. The team got some praise for keeping Brock Bowers in check last week, but that doesn’t change the fact that defending against tight ends is a major weak spot for this defense.

Fire Otton up this week. In fact, fire him every week at this point. He’s in the top 10 going forward.