Week 9 Fantasy Football Quarterback and Tight End Rankings: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1808)

Summary

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FantasyPros Week 9 QB & TE Rankings: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1808)

Date: October 30, 2025
Hosts: Chris Welsh, Andrew Erickson, Pat Fitzmaurice

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the FantasyPros team dives into their Week 9 quarterback and tight end rankings—discussing lock-and-load starters, risky plays, and under-the-radar options at two of fantasy football’s trickiest positions. The trio debates the top-12 options at each position, the best streamer targets, and profiles notable risers and fallers. They also break down injury news and roster management strategies to navigate tricky situations heading into the weekend.

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Key Discussion Points & Analysis

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Top 12 Quarterback Rankings Breakdown

(03:43–14:06)

Consensus Top 12 QBs:

• Patrick Mahomes (vs. Buffalo)
• Josh Allen (at KC)
• Lamar Jackson (vs. Miami)
• Justin Herbert (vs. MIN)
• Drake Maye (at ATL)
• Daniel Jones
• Dak Prescott
• Caleb Williams
• Kyler Murray
• Matthew Stafford
• Jackson Dart
• Jordan Love

Caleb Williams: Risk or Reward?

• Context: Trending as QB8 consensus, but Fitzy is notably lower at QB12; Erickson eyes him at QB8.
  • Pat (05:10): “Caleb has not played well this year while especially of late, it seems like he’s almost regressing a little bit… But if Trey Hendrickson can’t play because of his hip injury that is going to make the Bengals defense just a pushover and Caleb might be able to pick apart the Cincinnati defense… So I’m probably too low and have to change this.”
  • Erickson (06:31): “Bengals are allowing 20 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks… He adds an element of rushing. Ben Johnson wants to build your quarterback’s confidence—what better way than against this JV defense?”

Kyler Murray: Caution for Monday Night

• Kyler at QB9 (consensus), but Erickson much lower at QB13 due to injury/uncertainty.
  • Erickson (07:26): “There’s a legitimate concern he doesn’t play against Dallas on Monday night. Jonathan Gannon’s comments didn’t sound optimistic… If you’re relying on Kyler, you need a backup plan.”
  • Roster Strategy: Both advise possibly picking up Jacoby Brissett as insurance, as any QB starting vs. Dallas could have fantasy value.
  • Pat (09:42): “If Brissett starts, he’d be my QB10. No difference in ranking, doesn’t offer the same rushing upside but probably a better passer.”

Jackson Dart: Rushing Floor Concerns

• Dart ranked QB14 (Fitzy), QB13 (Erickson), ECR 11
  • Pat (11:02): “Dart is getting almost 40% of his fantasy points from rushing. I just don’t know if that is a sustainable business model, especially with weapons getting hurt.”
  • Erickson (11:47): “All Dart needs is one 40-yard rushing touchdown and boom, he’s a QB1… I haven’t been high enough on Dart and probably need to move him up.”

Bo Nix: “Do Not Start” Warning

• Comes in at QB15 consensus, lower by the hosts (Fitzy 16–17, Erickson 20)
  • Erickson (13:22): “Bonix is not matchup proof… The Texans are the league’s number one defense. When QBs face the Texans, they see their fantasy points drop by 40%. Do not start Bo Nix this week.”
  • Pat (15:54): “This is a nightmare matchup… Those elite pass rushers like Will Anderson short-circuit drives. That’s what Will Anderson is going to do to Bo Nix this week.”

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Top 12 Tight End Rankings Breakdown

(16:35–26:11)

Consensus Top 12 TEs:

• Trey McBride (vs. DAL)
• Tyler Warren
• Tucker Kraft
• George Kittle
• Brock Bowers
• Jake Ferguson
• Orande Gadsden II
• Kyle Pitts
• Sam LaPorta
• Travis Kelce
• Dalton Kincaid
• Mark Andrews

Orande Gadsden II: Clear Tier-Breaker

• Firmly consensus TE7; massive ceiling, weekly starter status.
  • Pat (17:36): “I’m always going to put him below the tight ends who are pillars of their team’s offense… But then I’m putting him above the streaming class. Gadsden is always at the top of that heap.”
  • Erickson (19:23): “He’s shown weekly upside to win your week. If his floor is the same as these catch-and-fall-down tight ends, you’ve got to chase the ceiling.”

Mark Andrews: Touchdown-or-Bust

• Consensus TE12, but faded by both hosts (Erickson TE14, Pat TE16)
  • Erickson (20:58): “He’s splitting snaps 50/50 with Isaiah Likely… The route participation is terrible… He’s approaching catch-and-fall-down territory. Unless he falls into the end zone, he’s not going to get there.”
  • Pat (22:22): “It’s total touchdown dependence for Mark Andrews… Isaiah Likely’s usage totally masks the fact he’s running as many routes. Andrews’ ceiling is undermined.”

Zach Ertz & Other Streamers: Only If Desperate

• Ertz is TE12 ECR, but both are well below consensus (Pat TE22, Erickson TE19).
  • Pat (24:29): “I’ll move Ertz one spot ahead of Andrews if Jaden Daniels plays, but rarely are hamstrings one-week injuries, so I’m projecting Mariota to play.”
  • Erickson (24:45): “I don’t want to start Ertz ever… He had six targets last week, he had 16 yards.”
  • Colson Loveland as preferred streamer: “This is like a Loveland breakout game, I’d much rather start him than these older veteran tight ends.” (Erickson, 25:25)

Other Deep Streamers

• Theo Johnson — potential boost due to injuries in offense (Pat, 26:02)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Oronde Gadsden II's status among TEs:
  • “Gadsden is like, he’s this guy you’ve got to play, but he’s his own beast… It feels like there’s such a big difference between him and Kyle Pitts, or him and Sam Laporta…” – Chris Welsh (18:49)
• On Mark Andrews’ fading role:
  • “He’s approaching catch-and-fall-down territory.” – Andrew Erickson (21:05)
• On QB streamer strategy:
  • “You can protect yourself by having Brissett and then whoever the starter is against the Dallas Cowboys, can’t they be a QB1?” – Chris Welsh (08:23)

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Helpful Timestamps for Key Segments

| Section | Timestamps | |-----------------------------------------------|------------------| | Intro & context-setting | 00:35–03:43 | | QB rankings rundown & in-depth talk | 03:43–15:54 | | Analysis on Kyler, Caleb, Dart, Bo Nix | 05:10–14:06 | | Tight end rankings rundown & Gadsden talk | 16:35–20:26 | | Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, Zach Ertz debate | 20:58–24:45 | | Featured streamers & deep cuts | 25:25–26:11 |

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Summary Takeaways & Advice

• Caleb Williams and Kyler Murray are high-risk, high-reward due to injury/matchup uncertainty; check actives before kickoff.
• Bo Nix is a hard sit in Week 9 against Houston—don’t chase last week's points.
• Orande Gadsden II is a must-start at TE; his floor matches streaming types and he offers week-winning upside.
• Mark Andrews is trending out of starter territory unless you’re desperate; avoid Ertz barring a miracle return from Jaden Daniels.
• Colson Loveland is a top streamer with upside due to surrounding injuries.
• Be proactive and stash fallback QBs if relying on a Monday night game-time decision.

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For more rankings, injury updates, and start/sit advice, visit fantasypros.com/rankings.

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This summary omits advertisements and non-content material, focusing on actionable fantasy football analysis and the natural, conversational tone of the FantasyPros podcast.

Transcript

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[Chris Welsh]

What's up, friends? And welcome in to the Week 9 quarterback and tight end ranks episode. I am Chris Welsh. We have got Andrew Erickson and Pat Fitzmaurice to guide you through the muddy waters of quarterbacks and tight ends. Are they that muddy though? Not really. Not the starters but you know, things toward the end like usual get a little bit crazy. Maybe some of us like Dak Prescott over Bo Nixon last week. We won't talk about that. Aranda Gadsden, is he in a goated territory? Potentially. Erickson, Aranda Gadsden, goat or not goat.

[Andrew Erickson]

If he, I mean, he's Antonio Gates 2.0, right?

[Chris Welsh]

He really is. He really is. He looked amazing. Fitzy, you've turned the corner. Are we going to be pro Bo Nix and pro Oronda Gadson? By the way, we can pick on Fitzy because he finished two in the ranks overall this past week. His literal only two bad things were these takes.

[Andrew Erickson]

That was what prevented from being number one. If he had just done over Dak, it would have in number one.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I bonix over Dak and I was two spots below consensus certain or Ronda Gadsden. So you should probably just kick me off the quarterbacks and tight end show and just do this as a two man operation.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, no, you got this. You're, you're our, you're our leader here, Fitzy. We can't do this without you. So we're going to jump in. We got the top 12 quarterbacks. We got the top 12 tight ends. Usually like a name outside if you guys want to follow along, you go to fantasy pros.com rankings. There's plenty more. Obviously in like Super Flex, the quarterback rankings are going to be bigger. We don't go that far in it into it in this episode. But you can check out all the [e-mail] rankings before we do get to the big board on quarterbacks. It's giveaway time if you want a chance to Win the ultimate last place punishment. Well, the fantasy football loser toilet seat is for you, Courtesy of our friends over at Trophy Smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware. The loser toilet seat. This is your moment. This isn't your average toilet seat. I hope not. It's a wearable badge of humiliation designed to be shamefully worn around your neck. It's the perfect way to immortalize your league's biggest loser. To enter, all you've got to do is subscribe to Fantasy Pro's YouTube channel right now and drop a comment below on any of our videos and that is it. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel, so make sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss a chance to claim this prize or crown your league's ultimate loser in style. And also, you know, don't make the biggest loser in your league. Go spend 24 hours at a Waffle House or get a tattoo or something that's going to permanently scar them. Just have them wear a toilet. It's a much easier way to punish your friends. I think we should get Erickson. We should get the toilet seat. If we ever go, like, we have like an 05 day on the prop show on betting pros, like one of us should have to wear the toilet seat for the whole show. Luckily, we've never had that. But I think that would be like, we should have a belt for five and. Oh, and a toilet seat for The O and 5.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes. Now that would be insanely great content.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, but I don't want to use my own toilet seat. That's. We're not going to do that.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I love how in our YouTube comments we have a lot of people saying how badly they would want that for their league, but then they're quick to add that they would not be wearing it.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is probably one of the best loser ways to do it, but the usage is it's not going to go obviously against a real toilet seat. But I love it. I love the idea of it. You guys can get it for your league. It's not just about winners. Sometimes it's about losers. But let's talk about some winners here. Let's go to quarterbacks for this week and let's look at the top 12. Number one, Patrick Mahomes. This week up against Buffalo, we got Josh Allen at two. So that game's got your one and twos. Lamar Jackson. Will he be active? We thought last week, but hopefully this week against Miami, Justin Herbert at 4. Drake May of course, Drake May top 5. That's always in cue. Daniel Jones at 6. Do I see Dak Prescott at 7? Yes, I do. Caleb Williams, Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, Jackson Dart and Jordan Love. Let's start with Caleb Williams. Looking at matchup based stuff again, I think you're very chalky at the top. I don't think you need to ask questions about Drake May if Lamar Jackson doesn't play. That's, you know, it is what it is with a lot of these guys. Even after Dak Prescott's bad performance, maybe you could have questions. I don't think you need to. Caleb does create questions. We shied a little bit away from it last week in Bo Nicks. We're like, oh, I don't know against Dallas. Well, Caleb has got Cincinnati this week. It's a solid matchup and it's QB8. Erickson's got him at 8. But Fitzy, is this your week's Bo Nicks? You are fading Caleb a little bit. You've got him at 12. He is 8 in consensus. So is this going to be the difference between you finishing one and two next week?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, I might have to move him up. I mean Caleb has not played well this year while especially of late it, it seems like he's almost regressing a little bit after we were seeing some positive signs from him early in the year and man, we talked about, you talked about Drake May being a no brainer. Walsh even in kind of a tough matchup against Atlanta and I mean Drake May is a no brainer and the guy drafted ahead of him, not so much. And I know some fans, Bears fans here in Chicago are sort of grumbling about Ryan poles in that decision. But look, I'm going to have to move Caleb up if Trey Henriksen can't play because of his hip injury because that is going to make the Bengals defense just a pushover and Caleb might be able to pick apart the Cincinnati defense and the Bears absolutely decimated themselves at the cornerback position. So Bengals are probably going to have success throwing the ball and maybe that could turn this into a track meet where if Caleb's Caleb is in a shootout, he maybe could finish as a top five quarterback this week. So I'm probably too low and have to change this.

[Chris Welsh]

Erickson, you're kind of riding the matchup here similar to the Bonix thing last week. Cincinnati, solid matchup. You've got him at consensus. What do you want to add?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, Bengals are allowing 20 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. That's Going to put Caleb Williams in the top 12 discussion and he adds an element of rushing. And I think that Ben Johnson, you want to build your quarterback's confidence. What better way to do that than against his JV defense, just layups. Colson Loveland's going to be wide open because he's facing the Bengals. He's going to catch two touchdowns. So I think Caleb Williams and a lot of these Bears are just going to have a field day against a defense that if not for Dallas, we would all agree is the worst in the NFL.

[Chris Welsh]

Caleb Williams, my friends, Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray is quarterback nine. Fitz, you've got him at nine. Erickson, you got him at 13. We've talked about ad nauseam. The Dallas matchup is always something we want to be invested in. Erickson is the 13 rank relative to his uncertainty in here. If he's fully active, are you going to keep. He is not a quarterback one against the Dallas Cowboys.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, because I have guys like Jayn Daniels ahead of him and I don't know if Jane Daniels is going to play either. So that's another concern because I think there's a legitimate concern that he doesn't play against Dallas on Monday night. Jonathan Gannon, this is from the Coach Speak Index, was basically talking about how when they asked him about Kyler Murray and his foot, if he's going to play on Monday, that's a hypothetical to me. I don't know. Off a bye week, he doesn't know if his starting quarterback is going to play on Monday Night Football. That. That seems like pessimism to me and not that, oh, we're fired up to have Kyler Murray back. He's going to rip apart this Dallas Cowboys defense. Giddy up. No, that was not Jonathan Gannon's response. So I just want fantasy managers to be to have a backup plan because, yeah, I got Kyler. I'm locked and loaded. Well, Monday night comes, oh, he's not going to play. And then you maybe missed a chance to play somebody else on that Sunday slate. So that's kind of why I'm ranking him a little bit lower. Obviously, if we get more news, he will move up because the matchup is salivating.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, then let me ask you this then the thing that the caveat that you could do is pick up Jacoby Brissette because this matchup is so bad and you guys have kind of discussed that the offensive pieces might be better with Jacoby Brissette. Do you think the play would be to pick up Jacoby Brissette and that either one of these guys could be a quarterback one. I mean your rank doesn't dictate it, but I'm just working this through. Maybe you hadn't done done that because like you can protect yourself by having Brissette and then like whoever the starter is against the Dallas Cowboys, can't they be a QB one?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I definitely think so. I think that Jacoby Brissette, if we got announcement that he was going to be the starter on Wednesday or Thursday, he would be in my top 12 and I wouldn't think twice about it. So I would say that from a roster management perspective, it does kind of hinder you because now you have to have two Arizona Cardinals running or quarterbacks on your team. So roster wise, maybe you don't want to do that, especially if you don't have an IR spot. But it's just worth like paying attention to as it. Murray's like limited in practices, you know. Make sure you're addressing the quarterback position early on in the week if you can.

[Chris Welsh]

Fitz, you seem to. Your rank seems to kind of dictate. You're like this is just him starting. You're just dedicated to it. You've got him at QB9, which is his consensus. So obviously you can hit on that. And then what do you think about the Jacoby Brissette side? If Jacoby Brissette were starting, would it be higher or lower than where you have Murray?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I underranked Bonix against the Dallas defense last week and I'm not making that mistake again. Although I might put Caleb Williams one spot. I think I'm going to do that. I'm going to assume that Trey Hendrickson doesn't play this week because not only did he re injure his hip last week, but he might be a trade possibility for the Bengals on November 4. So I am thinking that he probably doesn't play this week and that's worth moving up Caleb Williams. So Kyler would slide back to 10. I just want to play him against Alex Dallas if he's the guy. But if he does not play, Jacoby Brissette is going to be my quarterback. 10, no difference in the ranking, doesn't offer the same rushing upside, but probably a better passer.

[Chris Welsh]

What do you guys think about Jackson dart? The 49ers defense we've talked about in a couple of these rank episodes has not been great. He's ECR 11, but both of you guys have him outside of a top 12 quarterback. I think the rushing upside just kind of keeps him in that general spot. This is a four star matchup rating which he's only one of. I guess three players at least or four players have a four or higher. So the matchup is really in favor. Obviously they don't have some of the big weapons, but you guys are lower. Fitzy you're at 14. Erickson you're at 13. Fits. What doesn't have you excited about Jackson Dart and his rushing upside which would kind of create that floor against the 49ers.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Oh man, he's been really entertaining this season and I do think we're going to be drafting Jackson Dart as a top 10 quarterback next year. But this poor kid has the deck so stacked against him now. Like first he lost Malik Neighbors for the season, now he's lost his bounty. Cam Scatter Boo Dart is getting almost 40% of his fantasy points from rushing. I just don't know if that is a sustainable business model and I just worry that we might get some floor games from Dart now that Scatter Boo isn't around to give the Giants a running threat and help keep the chains moving.

[Chris Welsh]

I mean it was a sustainable model for a guy like Justin Fields until it wasn't. So I suppose that's a positive and a negative. Erickson, what do you think about Jackson Dart?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I mean I can move him up just depending on what we get from Daniels and Kyler Murray. Like those are the only guys I have in front of him right now that would move him up to where I have him or where the ECR is. So I definitely don't like being lower on super mobile quarterbacks versus ECR because that's usually a bad bet to make just because all Dart does need is one 40 yard rushing touchdown and boom, he's a QB one. So yeah, I get the Dak is the DAC. The deck is stacked against him, but hasn't that been that like all year long and all he does is continue to perform. So I definitely haven't been high enough on Dart in a lot of my weekly rankings and I think that I've been pushing people in the wrong direction because of that. So I'm probably going to end up moving him. It's going to be what's going to be frustrating. He's trying to rank Dart versus Kyler Murray where Murray has been terrible all season. Like he hasn't had any good games but he's facing Dallas and that's just, I mean that's Christmas when it comes to the gift that keeps on giving is the Dallas defense So I'll have to take a hard look at my rankings between Kyler Murray if we get news that he's going to start versus a guy like Dart where I think maybe I'll just lean over Murray but I could definitely see him moving ahead of Daniels. He's got a tough match.

[Chris Welsh]

I think that'll be a lot of questions we get this weekend. It'll be like Dart versus Murray and stuff like that. I just wanted to mention this one last guy and we'll go to you Erickson on it because you're the absolute lowest. But we talked all this positive about Bo nicks. Bo nicks four touches. He's amazing this week. Done. He's QB15 and you guys rank him even worse. Fitz you got him at 16 but Erickson you got him at 20. So Dallas made him a top five quarterback this week. He is not startable for you Erickson.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, because Bonix is not matchup proof right. The last couple weeks he's been a smash because he faced the Giants and he faced the Dallas Cowboys. He's going from again they're not really Dallas and Houston not that far away from each other. Couldn't be farther difference in terms of what their defenses are. Okay, so the Texans are the league's number one defense. Bonix is playing on the road this season again. I talked about how great the matchup is for running backs against the Bengals. 35% increase in terms of production. When quarterbacks face the Texans they see their median baseline projection of fantasy points dropped by 40%. The Texans are allowing 11.5 points per game to opposing quarterbacks. Do not start Bo Nicks this week.

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[Chris Welsh]

Fitzy, are you in agreement you got him at 16? Is that something that you're like, maybe I could make some type of alteration for or is it. Yeah, this defense is so bad we're not doing the bonix thing.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

No, I tweaked that a bit. I've got to make QB17 now and I. Yeah, you. You don't want to play him. Erickson said it. This is a nightmare matchup. Going from one of the best possible, well, probably the best possible matchup for a quarterback to the worst possible matchup. And just. Yeah, teams. Teams get on average about 10 offensive possessions a game. And when you go against these elite pass rushers, the Garrett Miles, Garrett's, the Micah Parsons and now Will Anderson, I think kind of belongs in that class. Those guys like personally short circuit like two drives a game for an offense and I feel like that's what Will Anderson is going to do to Bo Nix this week.

[Chris Welsh]

Mac Jones is able to still put up two passing touchdowns and Franklin's going nuts. I don't know, you know, it's a tough matchup but we're destroying him. But you know, if you have Jackson dart, I'm starting Dart over him. I'm just not sure he is like the biggest avoid of all. Let's go to tight ends, tight ends on the big board. Our top 12 starts with Trey McBride this week against the Dallas Cowboys. Yes. Tyler Warren at 2, Tucker Craft at 3. How we've got him at 3. George Kittle, Brock Bowers being re ranked again because it looks like he's good to go. Jake Ferguson, that's your top six. Orande Gadsden, the second is at seven. Kyle Pitts, Sam laporta, Travis Kelsey, Dalton Kincaid and Mark Andrews.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Boy, that.

[Chris Welsh]

That is a group. That all sounds about right. And it sounds right because Gadson has absolutely proven himself to be on that top end. You guys are both in agreement. He has tied in seven fits. You said, I'm going to be higher this week. You're doing the same thing. You're like, I had Bo Nick slower. I'm going to fix Caleb this week. On the matchup, you're doing the same thing. You've got him at six. Erickson, you've got him at seven. What do you think? I Gadsden Fitzy, Totally legit.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I thought that maybe the Chargers elevated pass volume in week six and seven sort of contributed to Gadsden's big numbers those weeks, because Justin Herbert had thrown a combined 93 passes in those two games. But Herbert only threw 25 passes last week in an easy win over the Vikings. And Gadsden still smashed like it was all Gadsden early on in that game against the Vikings. So Chargers do have three good receivers. So there might be games where Gadsden's target counts aren't great. And Gadsden is a move tight end. He's kind of a lighter guy. So I do worry that there might be a matchup where maybe Greg Roman feels like he can run on an opponent successfully and Gadsden loses some snaps to some of the other tight ends on the Chargers who are better blockers. But for the most part, I think I've sort of figured out how I'm going to rank Gadsden the rest of the season. Like, I'm. I'm always going to put him below the tight ends who are pillars of their team's offenses. Guys like Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, George Kittle, Tucker Kraft, Tyler Warren. But then I'm putting him ahead of basically everyone else, all of all of the streaming class. Like, Gadsden is always going to be at the top of that heap.

[Chris Welsh]

It's so funny you said it like that, because what I was going to say in the transition to Ericsson was that it feels like you're your core guys and Gadsden might be his own tier. And then it's to the streaming guys. You said it exactly how I felt about it, that Gadsden is like, he's this guy you've got to play, but he's his own beast. He's not going to be Bowers. We're never going to put him over Bowers or Kittle or Kraft or anything like that, that. But it seems like there's such a big difference between him and Kyle Pitts or him and Sam Laporte or something like that. So, Erickson, you got him at consensus. Are you, you know, full agreement, full send on Ronde Gadsden.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yep. Because he has the. He's shown the weekly upside to win your week. And that was the biggest mistake I made last week where I was favoring some of these catch and fall down tight ends. And I felt better about their floor projection in terms of targets, guys like Kate Otten or Dalton Schultz. When I remember looking at my rankings and thinking, dude, none of these guys can win you your week. And Gadson just coming off this monster game where he showed an extremely high ceiling. Yeah, I think that Fitz is right. There's going to be a week or two where, okay, like the other receivers eat in the Chargers offense, Johnston bounces back and Gadsden doesn't have a big game. But even in those bad games, okay, three for 40. That's like what most tight ends put up anyway. So if his floor is the same as a lot of these other tight ends, just normal projection on a week to week basis, then yeah, you got to chase the ceiling. And that was a big mistake I made not being high enough on Gadsden. So I apologize for that. And I was actually funny. Someone on Instagram messaged me about, should I start Kate on or Gadsden? I told him to start on and then I said, I'm so sorry. He's like, don't worry, I started Gadsden instead.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I was like, you know what? I don't care.

[Andrew Erickson]

Good job.

[Chris Welsh]

Good on you. Good on you. Mark Andrews is tight end 12. Last year he started slow and then he just found himself again. That's not the case this year. Also, not having Lamar Jackson doesn't help with it. He's tight end 12 and you guys are still in full. Like, we're not doing this range. Erickson, you got him at 14. Fitz, you've got him at 16. Let's just do some quick hits on him. Erickson, what do you think? You've definitely tried to find the positives in Mark Andrews where you can. It just hasn't happened this year and you've been pretty committed to like, there are no positives to be had.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah. And that was when Isaiah likely wasn't even a factor in this offense. Right. Likely wasn't playing for the majority of the season, but since he's been back, he's splitting snaps 50, 50 with Mark Andrews. So the route participation is really terrible for both of these guys. It's not at an ideal rate where you can trust the tight end. Andrews is kind of approaching the catch and fall down type of territory where he's not creating a lot of yards. Out to the catch and if he doesn't fall down in the end zone, well, he's not going to get there unless he's already in the end zone. So that's the concern again when you have Lamar Jackson, who's probably going to always throw for at least one or two or at least two passing touchdowns every single game that he plays. Yes, there's some upside with Andrews. He did have a game with two touchdowns this season, but outside of that it's a really scary floor where he can get bottom out. And that same upside I'm talking about, Isaiah likely has the same upside because their usage is basically identical in terms of just raw target volume. And who's the more talented player at this point who can generate more explosive plays? It's probably Isaiah likely. So yeah, Andrews is someone that I don't feel thrilled about starting this week, but I guess you're in a pinch. Attaching your guys to Lamar Jackson is not the worst bet to make and it's also a good matchup.

[Chris Welsh]

But Fitz, there just hasn't been anything like to me, Andrews is at that spot where you just go, listen, if he has the week where he breaks out, awesome, it just won't be in a starting lineup. Like if there's any, if there's almost any choices, you just got to move away from Andrews at this point.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

That's it. It's total touchdown dependence for Mark Andrews and he could score two touchdowns this week and make Erickson and I look silly for fading him. But Erickson nailed it with the Isaiah likely usage. The bad surface stats for Isaiah likely the last couple of weeks sort of mask the fact that he has been running as many routes and playing as many snaps as Andrews. So yeah, I think that sort of undermines the potential value of Andrews. And I'm also just expecting a big dose of Derrick Henry this week with the Ravens, maybe trying to protect Lamar Jackson a little bit in his first game back. I don't know if you've you guys have looked at NFL.com's playoff probabilities. Care to guess what they're estimating the 2 and 5 Ravens at as far as their chances to make the playoffs.

[Chris Welsh]

I feel I don't know which way this is going to go. It's going to be some ridiculously low number or it's going to be a ridiculously high number.

[Andrew Erickson]

High. I'm going to say like 70%.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm going to say 45%.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I think it's 56%. And so yeah, I mean that's I don't think you have to feel like if you're the Ravens with this, you know, soft division there. And I think we saw that the Steelers are kind of a paper tiger, like they don't have to put the pedal to the metal every game. And I think maybe they protect him a little bit and run the ball a lot this week against the Dolphins, who have been a great matchup for teams in the running game except for the Falcons last week with Bijan, who just laid a complete egg, which was the most shocking thing in the world.

[Chris Welsh]

All right, last one. This is a tight end that's outside the top 12 and we're going to do a quick hitter on this because I think it's simple. Zachary is tight end 12. You guys are burying him. But is this completely tied to Jaden Daniels? Because my question is because you guys got him at like Fitz 22. Erickson, you got him at 19. If Jaden Daniels is active, is Ertz a better play than Mark Andrews? Are you guys just completely out fits? We'll start with you.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I will move Ertz one spot ahead of Andrews if Jaden Daniels plays. But again, rarely are hamstrings one week injuries. So I'm projecting Mariota to play Erickson.

[Chris Welsh]

Same thing. Is this just tied to when Ertz doesn't have Daniels. He's not worthwhile starting.

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't want to start Ertz like ever. But like we're talking about catch and fall down tight ends like he is the king and he's been like this for his entire NFL career. Not to say obviously he's had a lot of monster seasons. But I mean guys, he had six targets last week. He had 16 yards.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I know that's he's. The yards per target are down this year. Like he's, it's. I liked him as like a deep dive if you really punted tight end this year because he and he and Daniels did click down the stretch last year. But just you know, in hindsight the analysis of, of like recommending a 34 year old tight end who by the way is about to turn 35 in early November, probably not a great call on my part.

[Andrew Erickson]

I think for me it's you want to play Colson Loveland over these guys, right? Loveland is like set to smash this week. So if he's available on waivers, like that's even ECR has Loveland ahead of these guys at 13. Loveland's gonna. I mean there's receiver injuries on the Bears. Burden's banged up. Zacchaeus is banged up, Kokomet's still out with the back injury and this is the smash of all Smash matchups against the Bengals. And Loveland usage was really good last week even though he didn't pop in the box score. So I think this is like a Loveland breakout game and I would much rather start him over any of these other older veteran tight ends.

[Chris Welsh]

Also like a Theo Johnson bonus would be a Johnson for me.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, his his usage profile is elevated for sure with you know, the Scatter Boo injury. No neighbors. Totally agree.

[Chris Welsh]

There you go. Tight ends, quarterbacks, those are the ranks that we're covering. If you guys want more, go to fantasypros.com rankings. You can see the whole list of all of all the way up until kickoff is the adjustments are going to happen throughout the week. Make sure you're dialed into everything that we got going on over here at Fantasy Pros because if you got questions, we've got answered and we got you covered. For Erickson and Fitzy, I'm Welsh. Good luck in week nine and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

[Mario Lopez]

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail] review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros foreign deserve.

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[Andrew Erickson]

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[Pat Fitzmaurice]

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[Pat Fitzmaurice]

This is an iHeart podcast.