No-doubt fantasy football pickups for Week 9 in the NFL

It’s hard to believe that the fantasy football season is already entering Week 9, which kicks off with a Thursday Night Football game on Halloween. There’s no time like the present to keep your roster formidable to make a playoff push, or to add talent, even if your fantasy season hasn’t gone all that well. We’ve got all the additions to prioritize this week. All statistics are sourced from Football Reference.

It feels like there’s a few players every season who come out of nowhere to swing the tide of fantasy campaigns. It’s starting to seem like Tillman will be one of those players in 2024. For two straight weeks, Tillman has emerged to lead Cleveland in receiving, and he caught the game-winning touchdown pass on Sunday.

It was understandable to wonder whether or not Tillman’s Week 7 breakout was fool’s gold or not, but he proved in no uncertain terms in Week 8 that he’s a player to take seriously. Tillman is a talented pass catcher, but he also greatly benefits from new quarterback Jameis Winston’s aggressive approach to push the ball downfield.

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Houston has done a great job of rebuilding their defense with blue chip talent. In Week 8, the Texans recorded five sacks, one interception and one fumble recovery against the Indianapolis Colts. A To Z Sports wrote that Houston made Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson one of the worst quarterbacks in a half since 1991.

Houston has an appealing matchup, albeit on a short week, this Thursday night against the New York Jets. The Jets actually are in the middle of the pack in sacks given up this season, but 40-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers is not going to evade pass rushers at this stage of his career. This makes Houston a good bet to disrupt the flow of the Jets' inconsistent offense.

Theilen hasn’t suited up since Week 3, but when he was last on the field, things started to turn around for him. He injured his hamstring after catching a touchdown pass from Andy Dalton in a game against the Raiders. In many fantasy circles, Theilen has been discarded, as many teams have dropped him in favor of more immediately valuable players.

With that said, if Theilen is floating around on your waiver wire, he’s worthy of an add, especially if your league has one or more injured reserve slots. BVM Sports believes that Theilen is a candidate to be traded. Whether he’s moved or not, Theilen figures to re-enter a better situation, either with Andy Dalton throwing him passes in Carolina, or a more adept quarterback looking for him on another team.

Fantasy football managers are well aware of the dire wide receiver situation in Tampa Bay right now. Chris Godwin is slated to miss the rest of the NFL season, and it appears like Mike Evans is not going to return to the lineup until after the Buccaneers’ bye. This has opened up a lot of targets in the passing game, and Otton gobbled them up in Week 8.

Otton posted a robust nine-catch, 81 yard receiving line on Sunday, to go along with two touchdowns. Baker Mayfield looked his way early and often, as this was the second consecutive week that Otton received exactly 10 targets. The big-bodied tight end stands to be an important player in Tampa Bay for the next few weeks, and his rest of season outlook is also looking rosy.

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Gesicki has bounced around the NFL, playing for three teams in seven seasons. There’s been no questions about his athletic ability, and it was on full display in Week 8 for Cincinnati. Gesicki logged seven catches for 73 yards, which made him one of Joe Burrow’s favorite targets on the day.

We’ve seen Gesicki do this before, and he’s been a bit hard to trust as a season long option at tight end. He tends to be most deployable when wide receiver Tee Higgins has been out of the lineup. Higgins is in a contract year and is motivated not to return until he’s completely healthy, which might give Gesicki another week of fantasy relevance.

ESPN’s Courtney Cronin called for Johnson to get more of an opportunity to handle meaningful carries, after the Bears struggle to score touchdowns on Sunday. She believed that he would have been the best option on a few plays that Chicago decided to go elsewhere on.

D’Andre Swift is the more explosive option in Chicago’s backfield, but Johnson’s power make him an ideal choice for goal-line work. Johnson has four rushing touchdowns in the Bears’ last four games, so it’s possible the coaching staff is coming to the same conclusion Cronin has. This makes him worth owning in fantasy football.

This gallery usually isn’t the place to come for fantasy football kicker advice, but there appears to be an opportunity to steal Sanders off of the wire while he’s a relatively low-priority commodity. Like most Dolphins offensive weapons, Sanders was not in the running to be in lineups while Tua Tagovailoa was injured, but the situation has changed now that the latter is back under center.

Sanders made two field goals on Sunday, which is nothing to write home about in and of itself. However, with more chances to boot field goals looming if Tagovailoa can stay on the field, Sanders is worth an add as a kicker with a strong leg.

At the time, it seemed like Allen scored a game-winning touchdown for the Jets in Week 8, as he plowed through the Patriots’ defensive line in a goal-line situation. New York has not been afraid to deploy Allen in high leverage situations all season, despite him being the youngest player in the NFL, according to USA Today.

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Breece Hall was one of the most coveted fantasy assets in the NFL heading into the year, but he’s had to cede a non-insignificant amount of work to Allen. On Sunday, Hall posted 16 carries, while Allen had 12 to his name. It might be hard to start Allen with any confidence against the Texans on Thursday night, but his upside is massive if anything were to happen to Hall.