As we soldier on to Week 9, we’ve effectively hit the midpoint of the fantasy football season, and while there’s little question that Todd Gurley has been the fantasy MVP, it isn’t exactly surprising to see him at the top of the leaderboards.

But if we’re talking strictly about how “valuable” a player has been based on how he was ranked entering the season, that honor arguably goes to James Conner, who was either drafted as a deep league flyer/handcuff or snatched up off waivers right before Week 1. Whether you were savvy (or lucky) enough to snag him, chances are you never dreamed he would still be winning you fantasy matchups eight weeks into the season. Yet here we are, as Conner ranks third in rushing yards (599) and second in rushing touchdowns (nine), and combined with a consistent role in the passing game, he’s the RB2 in standard leagues and RB4 in PPR formats.

Of course, Le’Veon Bell still looms, and chances are he will ultimately return this season and ruin the party, but if you have Conner, it’s honestly hard to complain given everything he’s done to this point. A top-five running back for even half the season still qualifies as a massive win for a draft stash/waiver wire pickup. As always, let’s take a look at the surprises, stats, and trends entering Week 9, and how they might affect your fantasy football teams moving forward.

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Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston have combined for more passing yards than any quarterback in the NFL, averaging 390 passing yards per game

Yes, it might be hard to believe, but if you merged Fitzpatrick and Winston into one quarterback, they’ve thrown for 2,731 yards, which would lead all quarterbacks including Patrick Mahomes (2,526), and Tampa Bay even already had their bye week. It sounds even more far-fetched when you consider that comes to 390 yards per game, but let’s not forget Fitzpatrick’s ridiculous three-game stretch of 400-yard outbursts to start the season, and last week the two quarterbacks combined for 470 yards against Cincinnati. In fact, Week 4’s debacle against the Bears was the only game this season where the duo failed to exceed 360 passing yards in a game (271). Their combined 19 passing touchdowns would rank third among quarterbacks as well.

All this is to say that if you snagged Fitzpatrick off waivers this week as the new (old?) starter for the Bucs, you’re effectively getting one of the league’s top fantasy quarterbacks. No one is confusing Fitzpatrick for an elite real-life quarterback, and much like Winston, interceptions will almost certainly remain part of the deal. But between the Bucs’ pass-heavy offense, inconsistent running game, and a defense that’s allowing the most points per game (33.3), Fitzpatrick will keep on airing it out as long as he’s starting.

And naturally, that’s the one caveat. If you’ve dabbled in Fitzpatrick and Winston this season, you may have been burned by Fitzpatrick’s mid-game benching in Week 4 or Winston’s last week. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that another switch doesn’t come around at some point, and in deep formats with larger benches, you might even consider the unusual move of handcuffing Fitzpatrick with Winston. But for the time being, it’s time to embrace FitzMagic again, who should provide plenty more fantasy magic for the foreseeable future.

Jarvis Landry has seen the second-most targets in the league (94)

Landry’s 94 targets and 11.8 targets per game rank behind only Adam Thielen this season, but the fantasy results haven’t exactly been Thielen-esque. Despite that elite volume, Landry continues to show somewhat underwhelming results, ranking just 12th in receptions (49) and 23rd in receiving yards (528), while only compiling two touchdowns.

But volume is the number one thing we want in fantasy football, and Cleveland’s struggling offense figures to only go up following the firings of both head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Running backs coach Freddie Kitchens will be the offensive coordinator moving forward, and having never served as a coordinator at any level, he’s a total wild card, but he was a part of Bruce Arians’ staff in Arizona prior to coming to Cleveland, so perhaps he picked up some things along the way.

Still, even if Kitchens proves to bring little improvement to this offense, we should continue to have faith in Landry’s fantasy outlook as long as he’s getting this many looks. A 31% target market share doesn’t come around often, and his 9.8-yard average depth of target continues to be a big improvement over his days in Miami. He’s also tied for the league’s third-most red zone targets (15), so more scores will presumably follow. Landry has been more of a floor play to this point, but the potential upside is there for so much more.

The Demaryius Thomas trade vacates 20% of the targets on the Broncos

Although Thomas hasn’t had a particularly exciting fantasy season by his old standards, he was still a major cog in Denver’s offense, and his trade to Houston will remove his 56 targets from the equation (7.0 per game), or 20% of the team’s targets. While this further solidifies Emmanuel Sanders as the number-one option — who was already averaging 8.1 targets per game — the other big winner should be Courtland Sutton.

Sutton ranks third on the team in target market share at just under 13%, which has only amounted to 4.6 targets per game, but that mark should jump up considerably as the new number-two guy. While Sutton hasn’t submitted any standout fantasy performances to date, his upside as a deep threat is apparent by his solid 22% air yards market share, which isn’t far off of Sanders and Thomas (26% apiece) despite seeing far fewer targets. Combining that potential splash play ceiling with a solid target floor, the future is suddenly looking bright for Sutton, and hopefully you already had him on your roster or were able to snag him on waivers this week.

As for Thomas, his rest of season outlook could get a slight boost with Deshaun Watson as his quarterback, but his role should remain more or less the same, taking the injured Will Fuller‘s spot as the Robin to DeAndre Hopkins‘ Batman in the pecking order.

Tarik Cohen has another big fantasy day but only sees six touches in Week 8

Cohen continued his hot streak with yet another stellar performance in Week 8, racking up 110 total yards and a touchdown against the Jets, and while his fantasy output over the last four games has been a delight for fantasy owners, his volume suggests we shouldn’t expect him to keep this up every week.

Cohen’s six touches in that game were his lowest since Week 2, and most of his fantasy points came on a first-quarter screen pass he broke for a 70-yard touchdown. Without that one play, his day would’ve looked a whole lot different. Meanwhile, with the Bears leading for the rest of the game following that score, Jordan Howard racked up 22 carries in the positive game script. It’s a reminder that for all of Cohen’s big-play ability, Howard isn’t going anywhere, and figures to be the late-game hammer whenever the Bears have a second-half lead.

On the bright side, it’s precisely that big-play ability that gives Cohen a chance to break one on occasion, and despite the lack of touches, he still saw 58% of the snaps, a season high. But the volume will remain shaky from game to game in this timeshare with Howard, and he comes with a far lower floor than he’s shown of late. You aren’t benching Cohen against the lowly Bills, but with the Bears favored by 10 points, this sets up as more of a Howard game than a Cohen one this week.

Eric Ebron plays a season-low 22% of the snaps in Week 8

Life comes at you fast. Following Jack Doyle’s early-season injury, Ebron was a lifeline for many a team’s tight end slot from Weeks 3-7, averaging 10.0 targets, 5.2 receptions, 56 yards, and 0.8 touchdowns a game. Ebron was one of the league’s top fantasy tight ends over this span, and still leads all tight ends in red zone targets this season (15).

But anyone hoping Ebron would maintain a sizable portion of his role upon Doyle’s Week 8 return was met with a sobering dose of reality, as Ebron was relegated to just three targets to Doyle’s seven, and played only 22% of the snaps compared to 73% for Doyle. Ebron did score a touchdown, salvaging his fantasy day, but it’s pretty clear he’ll take a backseat to Doyle moving forward. At a dumpster fire position like tight end, unless there’s an obvious add on the waiver wire, it’s probably still worth holding onto Ebron through the bye week, but chances are his time as a reliable fantasy tight end are over, barring another injury to Doyle.

Tyler Lockett has scored a touchdown in six of seven games, but ranks just 43rd in receiving yards (394)

In terms of results, Lockett has been about as consistent as they come this season, scoring double-digit PPR fantasy points in every game. But how he’s gotten there is hardly the image of consistency and reliability, scoring a touchdown in six of his seven games despite only averaging 4.9 targets a game on an 18% target market share. He ranks just 43rd in receiving yards (394) and 77th in receptions (25).

It would be one thing if Lockett were some target hog in the red zone, but as you might expect from a 5’10” speedster, that’s hardly the case here. Lockett may technically lead the team in red zone targets with four, but that’s hardly a noteworthy mark (four other Seahawks have three red zone targets), and it’s a far cry from Kamara’s league-leading 18. Lockett’s touchdown parade is more likely to end than continue — particularly on a team with the lowest passing play percentage in the league.

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Kenyatta Storin is a featured writer with FantasyPros. For more from Kenyatta, check out his archive and follow him @kenyattastorin.