DeMario Douglas
16.5 per game
Averaging 16.5 points over the last four weeks and sitting on your bench the whole time. Start him.
No games since Monday night, so this is a forward-looking report. Week 9 opens tonight and you have three decisions to make before it closes: one lineup swap you should make now, one injury you cannot resolve until Saturday, and one running back spot that has been quietly costing you games.
LordHaveMRSA
0.00
honeybadgerr1
0.00
Week 9 has not kicked off. Both 3-5. First ball is Jacksonville Jaguars at Baltimore Ravens tonight, 8:15 PM ET - neither of you has a player in it.
DJ Moore
Questionable
Hyperextended his knee in Week 8 and plays Monday night. You will not know until Saturday at 4 PM ET.
Samaje Perine
2.9 pts
Four carries for ten yards in Week 8. He is a backup being started as a starter, and it shows.
1. Where the matchup stands
Nothing has been played. You are 3-5 and ninth of twelve, one game behind the sixth and final playoff spot, which Injury bug and vargy both hold at 4-4. Your 819.22 points scored against 853.38 allowed says you have been close but on the wrong side of it.
Your Week 9 opponent is honeybadgerr1, also 3-5, but with 865.60 points scored - the highest-scoring 3-5 team in the league, so do not read the record as a soft week. He starts Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys) at quarterback, Braelon Allen (New York Jets) and D'Andre Swift (Chicago Bears) at running back, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Seattle Seahawks) and Drake London (Atlanta Falcons) at receiver, Kyle Pitts Sr. (Atlanta Falcons) at tight end, and Luther Burden III (Chicago Bears) in the flex. Jaxon Smith-Njigba leads the entire NFL with 867 receiving yards. That is a top-heavy lineup with two Atlanta Falcons in a game against Cincinnati that should score, and two Chicago Bears on Sunday night.
2. Your recommended Week 9 lineup
| Slot | Player | Call |
|---|---|---|
| QB | Drake Maye (New England Patriots) | Start. 22.46 last week, full participant in practice despite a right shoulder on the report. |
| RB | Kyren Williams (Los Angeles Rams) | Start. 16 carries in each of the last two weeks, a touchdown in both. |
| RB | Samaje Perine (Cincinnati Bengals) | Start by default, and it is ugly. See section 4. |
| WR | Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) | Start. 11 catches on 12 targets last week. Your best player. |
| WR | DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots) | PROMOTE from bench. 16.5 per game over four weeks. |
| TE | Trey McBride (Arizona Cardinals) | Start. 8+ targets in all four of the last four weeks. |
| FLEX | Tre Tucker (Las Vegas Raiders) | Start, holding your nose. See the volatility note below. |
| BENCH | DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) | DEMOTE. Hurt knee, Monday night, and a worse projection than the two men above him. |
The one swap: DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots) in, DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) out
DeMario Douglas has scored 22.5, 21.6, 5.3 and 16.6 points over the last four weeks - an average of 16.5 with a floor of 5.3. He caught all three of his targets for 76 yards and a touchdown in Week 8. DJ Moore's consensus projection for Week 9 is roughly 10 points, and that assumes a hyperextended knee holds up. You have been starting the worse player for a month. New England hosts the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at 4:25 PM ET.
Tre Tucker (Las Vegas Raiders) is a coin flip you still have to call heads
Tucker went 5 catches on 7 targets for 97 yards and two touchdowns in Week 6, then 5 on 12 for 103 yards and a touchdown in Week 7, then one target and a clean zero in Week 8. The zero was a shutout, not a demotion - Las Vegas won 38-33 behind 25 carries from Mike Washington Jr., so game script (whether a team is ahead or behind, which drives how much it runs versus passes) took the ball out of the air. But one target is one target. Start him at Las Vegas Raiders at San Francisco 49ers, Sunday 4:25 PM ET, and if he draws fewer than four targets again, treat the role as genuinely gone.
A warning about the Monday-night structure
If you leave DJ Moore in the lineup instead, understand what you are buying. His game is Buffalo Bills at Minnesota Vikings, Monday 8:15 PM ET. Every other player you own will have finished by then. If Buffalo rules him out, the only replacement still eligible to play is Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills), who has 1 catch for 4 yards in his last outing. That is not a hedge, that is a trap. Bench Moore now and you remove the question entirely.
3. Injuries and practice news on your roster
DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) - knee, Questionable
He was hit from behind in the fourth quarter of Buffalo's 36-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens, limped to the medical tent, and returned. He told reporters it was a hyperextension and that he would be fine, though he was still limping leaving the field. Note this is a different injury from the AC joint sprain in his shoulder that cost him games in Weeks 2 through 4. Buffalo's official game status is due by 4 PM ET Saturday; his game is Monday, so you have time, but see the trap above.
Cam Skattebo (New York Giants) - hamstring, Questionable
Did not practice Wednesday. Head coach called him day-to-day. He tweaked it late in the Week 7 overtime win and the New York Giants were on bye in Week 8, so he has had two weeks and is still not practicing. Devin Singletary is next up in New York and is already owned in this league. If Skattebo is cleared he immediately beats Samaje Perine for your second running back spot - watch Thursday and Friday practice reports.
Zonovan Knight (Arizona Cardinals) - Questionable, and buried
0.8 points in Week 8. Tyler Allgeier took 11 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown plus 44 receiving yards and another score for Arizona that week. Knight is behind him and behind the return of Bam Knight from concussion protocol. He is your drop candidate.
Dameon Pierce (Philadelphia Eagles) - injured reserve
Listed as Week 13 eligible. He is occupying a roster spot and will not help you before the trade deadline. Cut him the moment you need the space for anything real.
Drake Maye (New England Patriots) - right shoulder, full participant
On the injury report, practiced fully. No action needed. Start him.
Byes: none of yours
Only the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans are off in Week 9. You do not own a player on either. Every man on your roster has a game.
4. The running back problem you keep not solving
Samaje Perine (Cincinnati Bengals) has handled 14, 0, 4 and 4 carries over the last four weeks. In Week 8 he turned four carries into ten yards and caught one pass for nine - 2.9 points - while Chase Brown took 12 carries for 55 yards as Cincinnati's actual lead back. Perine is a committee backup you are starting in a mandatory running back slot, and across eight weeks that slot has been the single biggest reason a 3-5 team scored 819 points instead of 880.
There is no clean fix on waivers. The two running backs every analyst is pounding the table for this week, Mike Washington Jr. (Las Vegas Raiders) and Tyler Allgeier (Arizona Cardinals), are both already owned - and both by markc1281, who beat you to them. What is actually left is marginal. That makes Cam Skattebo's hamstring the most consequential thing on your roster: he is the only path to a real upgrade that does not cost you FAAB, which is the 100-dollar season-long budget you bid with on waiver pickups. You have 34 dollars of it left.
5. Waiver targets, with bids
| Player | Why | Bid |
|---|---|---|
| Treylon Burks (Washington Commanders) | Terry McLaurin is out for the season. Burks ran a route on 78.8% of Washington's dropbacks in Week 8 and led the team with 81 yards on 3 catches. Listed Questionable, so confirm before Sunday. Highest upside available. | $6 of $34 |
| Sione Vaki (Detroit Lions) | Took 11 carries for 65 yards in Week 8, his first real workload, and Detroit plays at the Miami Dolphins. Not a solution, but a higher floor than four Samaje Perine carries. | $4 of $34 |
| Courtland Sutton (Denver Broncos) | 4 catches on 4 targets for 53 yards in Week 8, 9.3 points. Dull, dependable, and free. Denver visits the Carolina Panthers. Pure depth. | $2 of $34 |
| Greg Dulcich (Miami Dolphins) | The most-recommended streaming tight end of the week against a Detroit defense that gives it up. You do not need him - Trey McBride is a top-three tight end. Listed only so you know not to spend here. | Pass |
| Brian Thomas Jr. (Jacksonville Jaguars) | Yes, he is genuinely unowned, and no, that is not a market inefficiency. He has 1 catch for 12 yards on 7 targets across his last three games. A one-dollar lottery ticket at most, and he plays tonight. | $1 or pass |
Drop Zonovan Knight (Arizona Cardinals) to make room. Your bench is full and he is the least useful man on it.
6. Around the league
Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens) is done, possibly for the year
A right thumb injury that needs surgery; his coach said it could be season-ending and he is headed to injured reserve. Joe Fagnano starts tonight against the Jacksonville Jaguars. You own no Baltimore Ravens, so this costs you nothing directly - but it quietly tanks the value of every Baltimore pass-catcher in this league, and it is worth remembering before you accept a trade built around one. The trade deadline is Week 13.
Mike Washington Jr. (Las Vegas Raiders) was the monster game, and you missed him
25 carries for 83 yards in the Week 8 win over the New York Jets while Ashton Jeanty managed 9 yards on two carries. Every waiver column in the country has him as the top add of the week at a 25 to 40 dollar bid. He was claimed in this league before this report ran. The lesson is cheap and worth taking: markc1281 is sitting on zero FAAB now, and he got both of the week's best running backs. Yours is the kind of roster that needs to be first in line, not ninth.
Do these three things
One: move DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots) into your starting lineup and bench DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills). Do it now, before Sunday's 4:25 PM ET window.
Two: check the New York Giants practice report Thursday and Friday for Cam Skattebo (New York Giants). If he practices in full, he starts over Samaje Perine (Cincinnati Bengals) on Sunday at 1 PM ET.
Three: put in a 6-dollar claim on Treylon Burks (Washington Commanders), dropping Zonovan Knight (Arizona Cardinals), and confirm Burks's Questionable tag clears before Sunday.