💥 Wild Games & Absurd QB Performances

Arthur Smith is a menace to society…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by BetMGM:

Despite the low totals across the board, Week 9 proved to be an electric weekend of football.

We are going to spotlight all of the week’s top performers (hello C.J. Stroud) in the Weekly Wrap-Up below, but before we do let’s check in on two of the backup QBs who shocked everyone with impressive wins…

🤯 Joshua Dobbs & the Vikings (31-28 win)

The Vikings went into this game fully intending to rely on rookie QB Jaren Hall, but the football gods had other plans after Hall left the game early with a concussion.

That forced Minnesota to turn to Joshua Dobbs, who they had acquired from the Cardinals in a trade just five days ago. To say he was unprepared for game action would be an understatement:

Despite no prep, Dobbs completed 20 of 30 passes for 158 passing yards, chipped in 66 rushing yards, and combined for three total TDs, including the game-winning drive.

T.J. Hockenson (7-69) and Jordan Addison (5-52) were serviceable, which is all you can ask for after such a seismic shift with the offense. The Vikings deserve a ton of credit for being aggressive at the trade deadline (I’m looking at you Raiders and Jets) and keeping their playoff hopes alive.

🤯 Aidan O’Connell & the Raiders (30-6 win)

O’Connell didn’t light up the scoreboard (16-25 for 209 yards), but he didn’t make any mistakes and helped sustain long drives.

Do you think this team is happy to be done with Josh McDaniels???

Lmao, I’d say so.

Read on for all of the other top performers from yesterday’s action…

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Thanks to BetMGM, this Monday night can be even more epic! In fact, check out our best bet for tonight’s game (and our FREE bet tracker) below.

The Fantasy Life FREE Bet Tracker is already loaded with a handful of plays for Monday Night Football, and Geoff Ulrich is here to give you a peek behind the curtain with one of his best bets for the game…

Looking for more bets for the MNF showdown between the Chargers and Jets? Join our betting team LIVE before kick-off at 6:30 pm ET for last-minute bets, tips, and more!

Peter is here to share his six big takeaways from Week 9. Take it away, Pete...

💣️ C.J. Stroud goes nuclear

The Texans’ rookie QB was downright silly yesterday, throwing for 470 yards (NFL rookie record) and 5 TDs while leading the Texans to an insane come-from-behind win over the Bucs (and leading yours truly to some big wins as well!).

The entire offense got in on the fun:

• Tank Dell (WR1): 6-114-2

• Dalton Schultz (TE1): 10-130-1

• Noah Brown (WR3): 6-153-1

• Nico Collins (WR11): 3-54-1

It can’t be easy for the Panthers to watch what Stroud is doing in Houston. Or for the Steelers, either…

🔥 Philly wins the war, but Dallas wins the fantasy battle

The Eagles held on for a sweaty win over their division rival, but it was Dak Prescott (374 yards and 3 TDs) and CeeDee Lamb (11-191) who enjoyed massive fantasy days.

Lamb has been on a scorcher since the bye and there are only a couple of WRs I’d rather have than him going forward rest of season.

🤹 Rhamondre bounces back

The Patriots suffered a bad loss at home to the Commanders, but it’s worth highlighting Rhamondre Stevenson’s current resurgence back to fantasy relevance:

The above run is the longest of his career and he finished the day with 9-87-1 on the ground and 4-42 in the air. If this usage continues, he can claw back into the RB1 conversation…

🧨 Two big Bucs performances

One other byproduct from the Stroud explosion was the Tampa Bay Bucs playing catchup all day.

What’s interesting, though, is the beneficiaries weren’t who you’d expect (Mike Evans and Chris Godwin), but rather the two second-year guys:

• Rachaad White (RB1): 20-73-2

• Cade Otton (TE3): 6-70-2

A few times a year there is a “had to have it game” and yesterday’s Texans/Bucs bonanza certainly fit that bill.

🎉 Arthur Smith is the worst Yay, Jonnu Smith!

Under normal circumstances, we could simply enjoy the fact that Jonnu Smith, who went 5-100-1 vs. the Vikings, has revitalized his career in Atlanta.

Instead, we’ll have to use his fantasy day as yet another referendum on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Arthur Smith tenure in Atlanta.

Bijan Robinson, the Falcons first-round pick in the 2023 draft, had 13 touches for 59 yards. This was a real sequence that happened at one point during the game:

You can try to defend Arthur Smith (you shouldn’t, but you can try), but there is zero excuse for drafting a generational RB talent only to prioritize a journeyman TE at the goal line.

It’s enough already.

🆕 Keaton Mitchell has arrived

We saved the best for last because the Ravens rookie RB is going to headline Week 10 waiver wire columns this week after he turned his 9 touches into 138 yards and 1 TD.

The Ravens have been desperate for speed and play-making ability in this backfield ever since they lost J.K. Dobbins for the year and they finally appear to have found it…

Empty the clip on him this week.

🚑️ Key Week 9 injuries to watch. Another rough day. It looks especially bad for Daniel Jones.

🎨 Art, but make it sports. Josh Allen or Renaissance painting?

🤯 Still trying to wrap your head around all of yesterday’s action? Ian and Dwain have you covered.

🥶 The Texans lost their kicker... Enter: Dare Ogunbowale.

⌚️ Name a more iconic duo. I’ll wait.

⚡️A dangerous offense collides with a dangerous defense. Everything you need for MNF betting and the DFS showdown slate.

👀 There’s a new lead back in Carolina. The flippening has occurred.

📏 Football is a game of inches. Just ask the Cowboys.

😆 Fandom is all about what have you done for me lately. Gotta be prepared.

🤯 Better to be lucky than good? Check out Amari’s TD catch.

🙌 Taysom Hill is a trailblazer. Pretty incredible tbh.

We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to the Seahawks and Texans in Week 9…

The Atlanta Falcons dropped a game to Josh Dobbs who literally just walked off the plane. C.J. Stroud could be a top quarterback in the league and the Arizona Cardinals desperately need Kyler Murray back on the field.

WHAT A SUNDAY!

I know we are almost a week removed from Halloween, but Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has to be perceived as one of the biggest villains in fantasy football land right now. Not only did he manage to lose to Dobbs after starting quarterback Jaren Hall left the game with a concussion, but he also managed to feature Jonnu Smith and Tyler Allegier more.

At least this time he didn’t get away with a win?

Taylor Heinicke got his first start of the season and finished  21-of-38 for 268 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Bijan Robinson finished with 5.90 fantasy points — sigh.

Speaking of disappointing… Sorry Seahawks, this was the easiest transition I could think of.

⌛️ The Seahawks (& Geno) need to prove they can contend

Well, that was ugly. I wanted to believe coming into Week 9 that the Seahawks could potentially cover the spread (+6) against a very very good Ravens team.

That did NOT happen.

Baltimore dominated in every aspect of the matchup — Gus Edwards put up two touchdowns and quarterback Lamar Jackson rushed for 60 yards and went 21-of-26 passing for 187 yards.

As much as the Ravens are legit contenders, the Seahawks (to a lower extent) are too, but they need to prove they can contend, or at least put up a fight, even in the toughest matchups.

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith looked awful, and the turnovers are now entering the ‘problem zone’. He went 13-of-28 for 157 yards and had one interception and one fumble while being sacked four times. This was also the second time this season that he’s gone without throwing a touchdown — Smith has six interceptions in the last four weeks and this was by far the worst game of his career in Seattle.

This team simply cannot win games with only 152 yards of offense, especially when 82 of them came on two receptions alone. I know I am a Seahawks fan, but putting my bias aside this team told the league they were contenders at the trade deadline when they traded for Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams.

At 5-3, Smith needs to get better and this team’s play needs to reflect the talent they have on the roster. It certainly doesn’t get easier with the 49ers, Cowboys and Eagles waiting in the wings.

🚀 Houston, we have a franchise quarterback

C.J. Stroud was simply electric on Sunday! I mean, come on — not only did he secure a Texans win with a go-ahead touchdown to Tank Dell, but he finished the day with 470 yards and five (!) touchdown passes. He set the NFL single-game rookie passing yardage record with that performance.

Seriously, congratulations not only to the organization, but to the fans as well.

If Stroud wasn’t on your radar before, welcome to the show. We always discuss how rookies will have highs and lows in their first seasons, especially quarterbacks, but Stroud has been dealing. There will still be games where lessons are learned and maybe he drops back to earth a little bit, but you can’t help but be excited for what’s on the horizon for this team.

According to The Athletic, Stroud yielded the fourth-best single-game passer rating and eighth-best EPA per dropback rate (0.58) of any quarterback this season.

He’s a top quarterback in the league right now and he is just scratching the surface of what his potential could be.