Fantasy Takeaways, Week 9: If you own Derek Carr, no need to carry a backup QB
1. Derek Carr is well inside the circle of fantasy trust.
At Derek Carr’s current pace, he’ll break the Raiders’ single-season franchise record for passing touchdowns (34) at some point in Week 16, when Oakland hosts the Chargers. Carr has a clear shot at reaching Rich Gannon’s single-season yardage record, too. Not bad for a second-year pro who was occasionally a punchline as a rookie.
Carr shredded the Steelers defense in a road loss on Sunday, passing for 301 yards, four scores and one pick. Just look at this throw, one of the day’s prettiest. Sunday’s effort was Carr’s sixth multi-touchdown game of the year and the fourth time he’s topped 300 yards. We’re edging past the halfway point in the season, and Carr has already passed for 19 TDs — same as Aaron Rodgers, and just three behind Tom Brady. Rookie receiver Amari Cooper has been as advertised, and Michael Crabtree has exceeded all reasonable expectations. Crabtree hauled in seven balls on a dozen targets in Week 9, finishing with 108 yards and two spikes (and at least two of his non-catches were near-highlights, too).
Oakland has only one stay-away match-up remaining on the schedule — at Denver in Week 14 — so there’s a clear path for Carr to close the season as a top-10 fantasy QB. If his binge at Pittsburgh didn’t win you over (or the similar binge against the Jets in Week 8), then it’s possible your standards are unreasonably high. He gets Detroit’s defense next week, a unit that ranks dead-last in the league completion percentage allowed (73.1) and yards per attempt (8.7). Pencil in another 300-plus.
2. Karlos Williams needs to be owned everywhere.
Understandably, Williams was mass-dropped a few weeks ago, while he was concussed and heading into a bye. But the time to re-add the Buffalo rookie is … well, it was yesterday. Williams has appeared in five NFL games and he’s found the end-zone six times. He broke the plane twice against the Dolphins in Week 9, rushing for 110 yards on just nine carries. We’ve profiled him a time or two around here, so you should all be familiar with his freakish combination of size (230 pounds) and home-run speed. LeSean McCoy remains the featured runner for the Bills, but the team clearly likes Williams as an inside-the-10 runner, a drive-finisher. McCoy also dinged his right shoulder on Sunday, which could very well lead to additional touches for Karlos in Week 10, when Buffalo faces the Jets. Williams remains unattached in two-thirds of Yahoo leagues; bid aggressively, everywhere.
3. Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams were spectacular on Sunday. And it might be time to trade ’em both.
Without question, Brown is a top-three NFL receiver. He also just delivered an all-time game, catching a ridiculous 17 passes on 23 targets for 284 yards. Williams was brilliant, too, gaining 225 scrimmage yards and scoring twice.
But here’s the (very) bad news…
Roethlisberger’s injury was ugly, in a Lisfranc-ish sort of way, but early reports suggest he avoided a worst-case scenario. Without Ben, the outlook for Pittsburgh’s offense clearly takes a massive hit. Brown was nothin’ special during the Vick/Jones weeks, and Williams isn’t quite a Le’Veon-level back, capable of overcoming a low-yield offense. Sure, you can roll out DeAngelo against Cleveland in Week 10, but the schedule takes a rough turn for the Steelers thereafter: at Seattle, vs. Indy, at Cincinnati, vs. Denver.
It was nice having the band back together in Pittsburgh, briefly. But if Ben sits for multiple weeks, the music stops.
