Cincinnati Bengals Start-Sit: Week 9 Fantasy Advice for Joe Flacco, Chase Brown, Tee Higgins, Noah Fant, and Others
The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Cincinnati Bengals players heading into their matchup with the Chicago Bears to help you craft a winning lineup.
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Joe Flacco, QB
Joe Flacco has accounted for three touchdowns in both of his starts with the Bengals (five passing and one rushing) and is essentially playing like a restrained, old version of Jameis Winston.
Over half of his passes have been directed at (arguably) the best receiver in the game, and when that’s taken away, he doesn’t hesitate to put Tee Higgins in position to flip the field.
The Bears haven’t exactly played much QB competence this season, but when they have, they’ve struggled (Goff and Daniels both cleared 21 fantasy points against them).
Flacco is my QB14 this week. That may feel a bit low, but with no rushing upside (sorry if I’m not counting on the QB sneak from last week) and some players in this general range in plus spots (Caleb Williams on the other side of this matchup and Jordan Love facing the Panthers), I don’t have the grizzled vet as a starter in most standard-sized leagues unless you’re dealing with injury/bye issues.
I do think he’ll be a popular DFS piece because of the lineup he can build around. Is a chalky Flacco the way to spend this Sunday afternoon?
I don’t think I’ll get there. If you do, I’d advise prioritizing some unique combinations elsewhere.
Chase Brown, RB
It’s hard to say that we are all the way back on a running back after a week in which he didn’t lead his team in rushing and posted a modest 9.1% target share. But given where Chase Brown managers were B.F. (Before Flacco, for those not in the know), last week was a monumental step forward in the loss to the Jets.
- 12 carries
- 73 yards
- 1 rushing TD
- 3 catches
- 32 yards
- 1 receiving TD
He looked good from the jump. His first tote went for seven yards, and the third for 22. I’m going to stop shy of saying that he was playing at the level that we saw a year ago. But the high-IQ play of the day (a well-defended flea flicker that he opted not to blindly toss back to Flacco and instead turned a disaster into an 11-yard gain) was a reminder of the type of RB we were excited about back in August.
His performance on Sunday was better than his previous two best games combined this season, and there’s no denying that the change under center is raising all boats.
- With Flacco: 23 carries for 181 yards
- Without Flacco: 74 carries for 202 yards
Running backs with a versatile skill set have given the Bears issues this season (Jones, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Ashton Jeanty all cleared 15 PPR points against them), and I think we see more of the same in this suddenly wide-open attack.
Brown is a top-15 option for me at the position, and I think you’re set to be rewarded the rest of the way for not pivoting when times were tough.
Ja’Marr Chase, WR
Once we got word that Sauce Gardner would be inactive for the Jets, I immediately texted my football group chat a simple prop:
That’s where we are at these days. Flacco funneled another 19 targets the way of his WR1 (for those wondering, the majority of the chat answered correctly, as Fields’ 21 completions proved to be the winning side), giving him 42 since the veteran took over.
That’s almost hard to understand. Chase has accounted for 53.8% of Flacco’s completions as a Bengal and has been targeted on 51.9% of his throws.
Less than a month ago, we were wondering where the line was. Who was the lowest receiver that you’d play over Chase in a broken Cincy offense?
Now, he’s back where it all started, sitting atop my ranks at the position against a defense that has twice allowed a high-volume receiver to clear 26 PPR points (Amon-Ra St. Brown and Chris Olave).
Tee Higgins, WR
Tee Higgins wasn’t involved in the first few drives last week, but it can flip in a hurry: 44-yard touchdown as Joe Flacco identified single coverage and went for it.
That’s what was missing from this offense after the Joe Burrow injury: the willingness to take a chance and trust the elite talent.
READ MORE: Soppe’s Week 9 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em: Analysis for Every Player in Every Game
Was it concerning that Higgins finished the 39-38 loss with just that one catch (two targets on 29 routes)? A little bit, but it’s clear that he is in the Flacco circle of trust and that the veteran QB isn’t going to swerve off that path.
I still think 6-8 targets is the most likely outcome for him against the third-worst YPA defense in the league, and that is a profile I’m buying as my WR2 without a second thought.
Noah Fant, TE
The Bengals are a remarkably concentrated offense, and that’s great if the player you’re rostering is a part of it. If not, you’re drawing dead.
With Noah Fant, you’re drawing dead.
Flacco is pretty clearly passing the logic test in Cincinnati: feed the difference makers, and feed them as often as humanly possible.
Fant ran a route on 15 of 27 offensive snaps, while Tanner Hudson did so on 10 of 11. The opportunity pie is small if you’re not one of the star receivers on this team, and the fact that it’s split two ways makes it of zero interest to me, even in situations where I’m looking to the wire weekly.
