The Sunday of Week 8 was supposed to be National Tight End Day, right? Travis Kelce had a throwback performance, Oronde Gadsden II continued his breakout campaign, and Tucker Kraft put up a 30-burger. But Week 9 had even more standout TE showcases, including the return of last year’s TE1, a standout game from a rookie, and some old reliables going back to their scoring ways.
And it wasn’t just TEs that captured the headlines. Several RBs got their crack at the lion’s share of the work for their respective teams. It worked out for some, and not so much for others (we will get to more on that later).
There is a ton of information to soak in from this past weekend of football, so let’s take a look back as we keep forging that road to a fantasy football championship.
Here is what we learned in Week 9 of the 2025 NFL season:
Bowers is Back
Holy Brock Bowers, Batman! The elite second-year TE returned to action after missing more than a month of football and did so in his usual dominant fashion. Bowers hauled in 12 catches for 127 yards and three TDs on Sunday with a 34% target share. His 37.3 fantasy points in half-PPR formats were the second-highest total for a TE in over a decade. We have known Bowers is an elite talent who could conceivably be the TE1 for the next 10 years, but what we learned after Sunday’s showing is that he really was injured to start the season. Those first four games don’t account for the type of week-winning player Bowers is; you just have to throw it out the window. Unfortunately, those managers who have already been cut from the Ballers chopped league due to the Bowers curse won’t get to reap the rewards now that the curse is broken.
Kittle Should be Back (Soon)
While one elite TE returned to prominence, another has been quiet since his return three weeks ago. Since George Kittle came back in Week 7, he’s had a 0-point game, a TE6 finish (12.3 points), and a dismal 4.9 point finish against the Giants on Sunday. He has been below a 20% target share in all four games he’s played (he got hurt in Week 1), a number he hit a total of five times all of last season. It’s a little nerve-racking if you are a Kittle manager, having waited so long for him to come back and then being disappointed in two of the three games he’s played in since his return. There is some hope on the horizon, however, as Brock Purdy is set to return in Week 10. The schedule also opens up for easier matchups for TEs.
Kraft’s Injury & Impact
Another week, another brutal injury to a player who truly captured our hearts this season. There was something about Tucker Kraft‘s ascension to being a top player at his position that just felt great to watch as a fan of the game. The current overall TE1 will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL on Sunday, and the ramifications for the Packers are enormous. For fantasy, it probably means even more targets for Romeo Doubs, which is what we’ve gotten used to seeing over the course of the season. Quietly, Doubs is the WR23 on the year, thanks largely to Week 4’s three-TD game. But he’s been a top-36 option at the position three out of the last four weeks, and is averaging a 26% target share over the last five games. That could go up with Kraft’s season-ending injury, not to mention Matthew Golden also left Sunday’s game with an injury. Doubs probably moves into the every-week starting category, especially in 3WR leagues, and Christian Watson will likely see his involvement go up and should be rostered.
Catston, who?
That’s COLESTON Loveland @jasonffl #DAWG
— Mike Wright (@FFHitman) November 2, 2025
Mike’s tweet says it all. The nickname Catston Loveland should probably go into early retirement and take Mr. Bigglesworth with you, too. Sundays 47-42 shootout between the Bears and Bengals brought with it a ton of fun and fantasy treasure, and one of the biggest beneficiaries was Colston Loveland. The rookie TE broke out with six catches for 118 yards and two TDs and made the game-winning play, bulldozing his way to the end zone for a 58-yard score. Loveland has seen snap percentages and target share go up, and Cole Kmet keeps going in and out of the lineup due to injury. Coming off a season-high target share on Sunday, Loveland has to be on the TE radar moving forward.
Is it TreVeyon’s Time to Shine?
He may not have gotten the solo rushing TD for the Patriots on Sunday, but don’t fret TreVeyon Henderson truthers, his usage was actually encouraging. Henderson tied with two other players for a team-high six targets, and he ceded just 25% of the RB snaps to Terrell Jennings (who scored the rushing TD). He rushed for 55 yards on 14 carries, a respectable 3.9 yards-per-carry average, and caught four passes for 32 receiving yards. It wasn’t the breakout game people were hoping for, but it wasn’t actually a bad result, either. With a favorable schedule for RBs the rest of the year, now might be the right time to buy low on Henderson. He’s as good a bet as any to provide a spark for the Patriots and for fantasy teams down the stretch.
Rico Suave – We are so Back!
Rico Dowdle was installed back as the main RB in the Carolina backfield on Sunday and once again proved the naysayers wrong. In a surprise 16-13 Carolina upset victory over Green Bay, Dowdle rushed for 130 yards and two TDs, the first RB to rush for over 100 yards against the Packers this season. He dominated the carry share, but an even better sign was his out-targeting Chuba Hubbard three to one. He also ran three times the number of routes that Hubbard did. Dowdle has already demonstrated he is the better runner, but if he starts getting the majority of the work in the passing game too, it’s top-10 season for Dowdle the rest of the way.
Tracy’s Troubling Role
After the first couple of weeks of the season, it was already obvious that Cam Skattebo would take over the starting RB job in New York, but it happened so quickly that Tyrone Tracy hardly saw the field even after his return from a two-game absence. With Skattebo on IR, it was presumed that Tracy would retain the workhorse role, and I thought playing alongside Jaxson Dart instead of Russell Wilson would elevate Tracy’s game. If what we saw Sunday is any indication, Tracy didn’t see improvement playing with Dart, and he will not be the every-down back in NY, and might not even get the bulk of the work! Devin Singletary played seven more snaps than Tracy and got eight carries to Tracy’s five rushing attempts. Tracy saw more targets, but that is hardly a sigh of relief for managers who dumped all their FAAB on him and expected him to be an RB2 the rest of the season. For now, you have to hold, especially if you scooped Tracy off waivers, but Sunday was not an encouraging sign.
Hunt Moves to the Front
Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
The Chiefs head into the bye and expect Isiah Pacheco back in Week 11, but Kareem Hunt‘s stat line from Sunday can’t go ignored. The veteran RB dominated the workload for Kansas City against Buffalo, quadrupling Brashard Smith‘s total snaps and getting 11 carries to Smith’s three. He ran the ball three times within the 5-yard line, scoring from two yards out in the fourth quarter. Hunt is the current RB26, and Pacheco is the RB41. For whatever reason, Hunt’s production is seen as fluky and/or not sustainable, but there is a chance he could completely take over this job, even when Pacheco returns.
New QB Changes WR Outlook in NO
The Tyler Shough era didn’t get off to the best start on Sunday. The 26-year-old rookie struggled against the Rams’ defense, completing 15 of 24 pass attempts for 176 yards, one TD, and one INT. The Saints trailed 20-3 midway through the second quarter and pretty much abandoned the run from then on out. But it didn’t translate to fantasy production for Chris Olave, but rather for Rashid Shaheed. The WR10 through Week 8, Olave saw a season low 17% target share on Sunday, catching three of four targets for 57 yards. Shaheed, on the other hand, saw a season-high 38% target share and finished with five catches for 68 yards on nine targets. Anecdotally, there is something to be said about the backup QB taking over and targeting a WR they have a better rapport with, which might be the case here. It’s a bummer for Olave managers, but Shaheed might have a bigger role moving forward, barring he isn’t traded before the deadline.
Sutton’s Slide Continues
Courtland Sutton had just one catch on Sunday, the third time that’s happened this season. He saved his fantasy day because the catch was a 30-yard TD, but it hasn’t been pretty of late for Denver’s WR1. Sutton was the WR11 through the first five weeks but the WR31 through the last four weeks. Troy Franklin is seeing an uptick in targets (he has seven more targets than Sutton over the last four weeks), and Pat Bryant is starting to see more playing time. I wouldn’t abandon hope with Sutton. Even the best WRs have down weeks, and he has had a couple of egregious drops that would have led to bigger scoring outputs.
from Fantasy Footballers Podcast https://ift.tt/BiLs6If
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