Titans Fantasy Football Outlook for Week 9: Should You Start Will Levis, Derrick Henry, Tyjae Spears, DeAndre Hopkins and More?
The fantasy football regular season is winding down, which makes putting forth your best starting lineups a necessity. Some fantasy matchups are determined as early as Thursday, so let’s make sure you got the right guys from that contest in your starting lineup.
We already took a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers, so now it’s time to dive into the Tennessee Titans top fantasy options for week 9.
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Will Levis Fantasy Outlook
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was ruled out for the contest with an ankle injury, so Will Levis will get his second straight start. It’s an otherwise pretty clean injury report for the team’s offense. Levis won’t have starting right tackle Chris Hubbard out there, and DeAndre Hopkins is questionable. Hopkins is expected to play, but that’ll be a situation to monitor as kickoff nears.
Levis played in his first NFL game last week and dazzled against the Atlanta Falcons. The rookie completed 19 of his 29 passes for 238 yards and four touchdowns. He wasn’t intercepted and took only two sacks. Levis added 11 rushing yards on seven attempts.
That’s the only bit of NFL experience we have to go on, but it was an impressive showing against a Falcons’ defense that now is allowing an average of 207 passing yards.
This week, Levis has a bit tougher matchup, as Pittsburgh is allowing just 15 fantasy points a contest. Quarterbacks are averaging 263 passing yards a contest, but have nearly as many interceptions (7) as touchdown passes (9). With the game being in primetime at Pittsburgh, this will be a tough test for Levis.
The rookie is ranked 19th in our weekly projections as of the time this story was published.
Running Back Fantasy Outlook
Many people expected the Titans to trade Derrick Henry away at the deadline, but the team decided to hold on to him and make a playoff push after their win on Sunday. Henry had one of his better games in week 8, going for 122 scrimmage yards on 26 touches.
For the season, Henry has rushed for 526 yards and three touchdowns on 120 carries. He’s played 243 offensive snaps and gotten 13 of the team’s 16 red zone carries. Henry has added 138 receiving yards on 15 receptions and 17 targets.
Tyjae Spears has been the more efficient runner, averaging 5.8 yards a carry. That’s put him on the field a bunch, as he’s played 212 offensive snaps.
Spears has rushed for 198 yards and a touchdown on 34 attempts. He’s caught 18 of the 24 passes thrown his way for an additional 120 yards.
Both backs should be heavily involved, especially seeing that Pittsburgh’s defense allows backs to average 115 rushing yards and 29 receiving yards a contest. Adding in two total touchdowns sees the Steelers allowing 23 fantasy points to RBs a contest.
The favorable matchup after a big performance has Henry as the third-ranked back in our weekly projections. Spears sits in 39th.
Wide Receiver Fantasy Outlook
The outcome of the game could drastically shift if Hopkins cannot play for Tennessee.
D-Hop leads the Titans in targets (53), catches (31) and yards (504). He’s tied for the team lead in touchdowns (3) and has caught three of his team-leading 10 red zone targets.
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine is the only other real decent fantasy option at receiver, and that’s mostly because he’s scored three times. Otherwise, Westbrook-Ikhine has made 17 catches on 25 targets for 201 yards. He’s caught three of his five red zone targets.
Treylon Burks, Chris Moore, Kyle Philips and Colton Dowell are also on the active roster. Burks has six grabs on 15 targets for 99 yards, Moore has five catches on nine targets for 140 yards, Philips has four receptions on six targets for 30 yards and Dowell has no catches on one target. In other words, D-hop better play, or Tennessee’s chances of winning will be severely hindered.
It’s a favorable matchup for the wideouts, as the Steelers’ defense allows 40 fantasy points a contest. Wideouts average 195 yards and a touchdown on just under 14 catches.
Hopkins is ranked 21st in our week 9 projections, while Burks is 55th.
Tight End Fantasy Outlook
Tight ends Chigoziem Okonkwo and Trevon Wesco have both played a lot of snaps for the Titans, but neither have been real great fantasy options.
With Levis starting last week, Okonkwo tied Hopkins with six targets, which was the team lead.
If there was any hope of starting a Tennessee tight end, it’s probably wiped out when you see the Steelers’ defense allows only nine fantasy points a game to the position. TEs average 40 yards and have scored only once.
Okonkwo is our 18th-ranked tight end in the weekly rankings.
Kicker and Defense Outlook
Nick Folk does the kicking for the Titans. He’s been perfect this season.
Folk has made all 16 field goals, including three over 50 yards. He’s made all 12 of his extra point tries.
Tennessee’s defense is below average when it comes to total yards allowed but closer to average in terms of rushing and receiving yards allowed. The Titans are in the top half of the league when it comes to points allowed per week. Tennessee has just six takeaways and 21 sacks.
Pittsburgh’s offense has been bad so far, ranking near the bottom of the league in total yards, passing yards and rushing yards. They only score 16.1 points a contest, the fourth-worst mark in the league. The Steelers have only turned the ball over eight times, which is one of the better marks in the league.
Folk is the 15th-ranked kicker this week, while the Titans’ defense is ranked 12th.
Who to Start in Week 9
As I said in my Steelers’ writeup, I like the hosts to prevail in a 3-point game, and for the teams to score a bit more than they are currently projected.
Levis was fantastic last week, but going up against a solid Pittsburgh defense on the road in primetime definitely worries me. You might be forced to start him given the down play at the position, bye weeks and injuries, but I’d try to stay away from him.
For Tennessee to stay in the contest, I think they’ll need to run the ball well. I like Henry to have another strong showing, and finish as a top-five back by the end of the week. I also think Spears should get some consideration, but would feel much more comfortable starting him in deeper leagues than I would a standard one.
Hopkins should be Levis’ favorite wide receiver target, and coming off D-Hop’s huge week 8 showing, I’m confident in starting him again this week, even if he’s not 100%.
I’m not a fan of starting any other Tennessee receivers unless it’s a deeper league. I’d give the slight edge to Burks over Westbrook-Ikhine, even though the latter was the better fantasy player last week. In terms of the other wideouts, I’d rank them as follows: Moore, Philips, Dowell.
I’d consider Okonkwo after he was targeted six times last week, but the matchup isn’t great, so I’d avoid him in standard leagues. He’s a decent starting option in deeper leagues though.
I like both Folk more than the Titans’ defense this week. This feels like a game where more field goals will be kicked than touchdowns scored, and with Folk being perfect on the season, that’s a guy I wouldn’t mind starting. The Titans’ defense hasn’t been great this season, so even though Pittsburgh has struggled offensively, I don’t know if they make enough big plays to finish in the top half of the league by the time the week ends.
