Over the past three weeks heading into Week 9 of the Fantasy Football season, there are only nine quarterbacks averaging 20 points or more, which is somehow worse than the already concerning season-long trends. And, that three-week span includes the likes of Jimmy Garoppolo and Marcus Mariota, who haven't exactly been high-priority streamers. Which means, as many as half the teams in your standard 12-team league have probably been stuck with scores from their quarterbacks in the high-tens lately – if you're lucky.
If you have Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert, high-teens would be a pretty good outcome at this point. Jackson did have 25.8 points in Week 8, but that was his first game since Week 3 with more than 18.1.
Jackson looked like he might walk to another MVP through the first three weeks of the season, but he's struggled since. He has five touchdowns to four interceptions over the past five weeks and has just one game with more than 210 yards – a mark he eclipsed in each of the first three. Things have been especially bad when Jackson tries to push the ball down the field – he had four touchdowns in the first three games on passes 15-plus yards down the field; he has none since.
And I'm not sure I have a ton of faith in him to turn things around in Week 9. To be clear, I'm still starting him – there aren't many quarterbacks I have much faith in at this point – but I think the lack of playmakers in the Ravens passing game has been exposed of late. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that Jackson's slip started when Rashod Bateman left Week 4 with a foot injury, and with Bateman likely to miss the rest of the season, it's going to be tough for Jackson to turn things around. Especially with Mark Andrews (shoulder) listed as doubtful for Monday's game.
The problem is this team just doesn't have enough receiving talent. Bateman isn't a superstar, but he's a bigger receiver who can make plays down the field or with the ball in his hands. Beyond Andrews (and maybe Isaiah Likely, if they opt to give him more snaps), they just don't have anyone with that same skill set – Devin Duvernay is lightning-quick, but not the kind of guy who can go up and get the ball on contested throws down the field. Bateman can be, and having to replace him with Demarcus Robinson or James Proche or whoever else just limits Jackson's margin for error.
Jackson can still be very good even in these less-than-ideal circumstances, as he showed in Week 8. And, his upside as a runner makes it hard to ever rank him lower than the top six at the position, especially in a week with six teams on bye and so few QBs playing well. But, with Bateman out and Andrews in question, Jackson looks a lot riskier than I thought he ever would this season. That's just making the QB position even more frustrating.
Here are the rest of my rankings for QB in Week 9.
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- Josh Allen @NYJ
- Patrick Mahomes vs. TEN
- Kyler Murray vs. SEA
- Lamar Jackson @NO
- Tua Tagovailoa @CHI
- Justin Herbert @ATL
- Joe Burrow vs. CAR
- Tom Brady vs. LAR
- Kirk Cousins @WAS
- Derek Carr @JAX
- Geno Smith @ARI
- Justin Fields vs. MIA
- Aaron Rodgers @DET
- Andy Dalton vs. BAL
- Matthew Stafford @TB
- Trevor Lawrence vs. LV
- Taylor Heinicke vs. MIN
- Jared Goff vs. GB
- Zach Wilson vs. BUF
- Marcus Mariota vs. LAC
- Sam Ehlinger @NE
- Ryan Tannehill @KC
- Mac Jones vs. IND
- P.J. Walker @CIN