5 Burning Questions for Week 9

Is there reason for concern in Titletown?

Recapping the Week 8 installment of Burning Questions:

NOTES: Evans had an inefficient Week 8 as he caught only 3-of-9 targets (two drops) for 48 yards. Still, he does lead all qualified WRs over the last two weeks in yards per route run (3.85), according to Pro Football Focus…Gore also proved me wrong in Week 8, although the Colts have now gone 48 straight games without a 100-yard rusher and Gore continues to cede carries to Ahmad Bradshaw…Stewart’s projection was right on the money as the No. 6 RB in standard leagues, and he also found the end zone for the third time in three games…Yeldon ranks third among qualified RBs in PFF’s elusive rating since Week 4 with 3.0 yards after contact per attempt and a missed tackle caused once in every 3.8 touches…On a bonus note, hopefully I made a strong enough case for you to add Tavon Austin prior to the Rams’ Week 6 bye.

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There’s a lot to dissect for Week 9, so let’s have at it:

1) Can Antonio Andrews hold off David Cobb?

Antonio Andrews, a former Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year at Western Kentucky, went undrafted in 2014 and spent the early part of his rookie year on the Titans’ practice squad. A bruiser at 5-foot-10 inches and a compact 225 pounds, Andrews has since worked his way up to the top of the depth chart. He has run for 121 yards on 26 carries (4.7 YPC) over the last two weeks (plus another 18 yards on three catches in Week 8) and has been told that he is the team’s starter moving forward.

Also at play here is a coaching change in Tennessee, with Mike Mularkey taking over as interim coach this week for the recently fired Ken Whisenhunt. Whereas Whisenhunt preferred a committee approach and seldom let one runner get into a flow – a common gripe for many Titans fans – Mularkey “has been preaching the run since day one and he takes it to heart to run the ball with a physical attitude,” according to guard Chance Warmack. Andrews would seem to fit that bill, and Mularkey went so far as to call the second-year player his “workhorse” back on Wednesday.

However, throwing a wrench into the spokes is fifth-round rookie David Cobb, who is slated to return from injured reserve/designated to return next week. Cobb, who broke Laurence Maroney’s school record for rushing yards in a season at Minnesota (1,626), looked like the team’s best back during the preseason until suffering a calf injury. Watching game tape of both backs, the eye test makes it pretty clear that Cobb is the better pure runner than Andrews, although the bottom line is Andrews has earned his spot. And according to Mularkey, Cobb is currently a bit on the “heavy” side, hence why he has not yet been activated despite being eligible.

WEEK 9 AND BEYOND

Frankly, we won’t truly know how Mularkey views both players until we see them both on the field under the new coach. On tap this week is a New Orleans defense that ranks 25^th in fantasy points to opposing RBs, making Andrews a solid flex or low-end RB2 play. Considering the more talented Cobb is waiting in the wings, it may be Andrews’ only real chance at getting all the work he can handle, so he’d better take advantage. A Titans backfield under Whisenhunt was one to avoid, but if you have the roster space to hold both players until a clear winner emerges, Andrews remains available in almost half of ESPN leagues while Cobb is still 85-percent unowned.

2) What’s going on with Seattle’s offense?

We’re halfway through the regular season, and it’s safe to say the Seahawks have been a disappointment across the board on offense. Against Dallas in Week 8, the offense managed only one touchdown on nine possessions and now ranks 28th in the NFL with 17.4 points per game.

Russell Wilson used his scrambling ability to lead all quarterbacks with 854 yards and six touchdowns rushing last season. But in 2015, he’s mostly been running for his life to try and dodge a continuous stream of pass rushers, and he has not yet scored a rushing TD.

Pro Football Focus has several tools to assess pass blocking beyond the traditional sack and hurry tallies. All you really need to know is that Seattle’s offensive line ranks dead-last in PFF’s pass block rating (-47.1) and pass blocking efficiency (71.5) metrics. Despite not taking a single sack this past week against Dallas, Wilson still leads the league in dropbacks under pressure (136) and sacks (31). In fact, he has been pressured on nearly half of his total dropbacks, a league-high 45.6 percent.

Having quantified the offensive line’s woes, is it really surprising then that Wilson sits outside the top-15 QBs in fantasy points per game or that Doug Baldwin, the team’s leading fantasy WR, is probably still available in your league? Jimmy Graham, albeit not quite the dominant force he was while in New Orleans, has been a top-10 fantasy tight end. But Graham is not a cure-all for the mountain of issues facing the Seahawks’ offense, which ranks 31st in the NFL with 1.5 offensive touchdowns per game. Perhaps most surprisingly, Marshawn Lynch is averaging a pedestrian 3.6 YPC with just one 100-yard rushing game and two touchdowns through six games (he missed two due to a hamstring injury).

WEEK 9 AND BEYOND

Seattle’s Week 9 bye could hardly have come at a better time. I wouldn’t expect a week off to automatically fix the offensive line, but I would expect coach Pete Carroll and his staff to tinker with some things. As ESPN Seahawks beat reporter Sheil Kapadia noted, Wilson was effective throwing out of 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) against Dallas, and that’s a personnel grouping that can help keep Wilson upright. Bottom line: the Seahawks need to find a way to start punching it into the end zone in the season’s second half.

3) Which wagon to hitch among Cardinals’ WRs?

Let’s start with the obvious: Larry Fitzgerald is a robot. Or something like that. At age 32, despite not posting a 1,000-yard season since 2011, Fitzgerald is on pace for 110 catches, 1,400 yards and 14 TDs. He’s quieted the doubters – myself included – and found a new comfort zone lining up in the slot, where nearly half of his 70 targets have come and 62 percent of his overall routes, according to PFF. He’ll remain a WR1 as long as Carson Palmer is taking the snaps.

The real question, then, is can the Cardinals’ offense support three fantasy receivers? Considering Palmer’s production to date and the fact that Arizona regularly deploys three-receiver sets, the answer is yes.

John Brown was active in Week 8 but did not see the field as the team (wisely) chose to let the speedster rest up his bothersome hamstrings heading into this week’s bye. When he has played, the second-year pro has been a handful for opposing defenses – his average of 3.80 yards per route run over the previous three weeks ranked fourth among 72 qualifiers. A top-20 WR in fantasy points this season in all formats, Brown is averaging more than seven targets and has managed at least 45 receiving yards in every game. He’s on a season pace for 80-1,200-6.

Michael Floyd has provided a conundrum for fantasy owners upon his return from a gruesome hand injury. Floyd is right at his career average with 16.0 yards per catch but has come on strong of late with a touchdown in three straight games, including a 60-yarder last week against Browns’ cornerback Joe Haden. He has been targeted 36 times (4.5/gm) this season and has hauled in all 20 of the targets that PFF deemed “catchable.” He is still available in 40 percent of leagues.

WEEK 9 AND BEYOND

Put simply, in no way is Brown about to get squeezed out of Arizona’s passing game, despite some confusing remarks from Arians this week about who has what job. Brown’s big-play ability has been apparent from day one, but this year he has demonstrated the consistency to be a weekly WR2. Floyd is more of a touchdown-dependent WR3, as his career-best 2013 season (65-1,041-5) has thus far been the outlier.

4) Is there any cause for concern with Green Bay’s offense?

The Packers are 6-1 and Aaron Rodgers is having another QB1 season. All’s well in Titletown, right?

Not quite. Green Bay ranks only 28th in total offense (332.1 YPG) and, surprisingly, just 27th in passing (210.1). Rodgers has just one game this season with more than 255 yards through the air, and he is coming off a 77-yard, zero-touchdown showing at Denver coming out of the bye week. Eddie Lacy, on pace for less than 700 rushing yards, is outside the top-40 fantasy RBs and in a timeshare with James Starks. Only the St. Louis Rams have run fewer scrimmage plays than Green Bay’s 407.

“You have a number of things you’d really like to run on Sunday,” head coach Mike McCarthy said after the Packers ran just 47 plays against Denver. “History will tell you that if you’re low on total plays, you have a lot of things that you won’t get to.”

But the Packers were only 24th in that department last season, when they led the league in scoring (30.4). And they’re still 10th in scoring this season (24.9 PPG) despite struggling to move the chains consistently.

All told, things aren’t so doom and gloom, but these aren’t the Packers we’re used to seeing. Without Jordy Nelson, receivers have struggled to get open consistently. The team is hopeful Davante Adams can provide a lift coming off his ankle injury and that James Jones can continue his WR2 pace after being signed off the street two months ago. Curiously, Randall Cobb is 30th in scoring among receivers even though he has run the same exact percentage of routes from the slot as last year (87 percent), per PFF.

WEEK 9 AND BEYOND

This week’s opponent, Carolina, is the third-stingiest defense against opposing fantasy QBs on the season thanks to standouts like Luke Kuechly and Josh Norman. Hard to believe it, but outside of Rodgers, I’m in let’s-see-it mode before I can truly trust anyone on the Packers’ offense again for fantasy points.

5) Which Week 9 storyline am I looking forward to most?

a)    Peyton Manning returns to Indianapolis
b)    DeMarco Murray returns to Dallas
c)    Todd Gurley goes head to head with Adrian Peterson
d)    Carolina hosts Green Bay for NFC supremacy
e)    Kirk Cousins duels Tom Brady

Just making sure you’re paying attention with that last one…Personally, while I’m tempted to say Gurley, I grew up soaking in the hatred of the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry. Here’s hoping Murray gets turned loose in Jerry World on Sunday night.

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Mike Castiglione is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, you can view his archive or follow him @RickDancin.