Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets Fantasy Football Matchup Breakdown For Week 9
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Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets Fantasy Football Matchup Breakdown For Week 9

John Laghezza breaks down the AFC matchup between the Chiefs and the Jets for the Week 9 fantasy football slate.

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New York is playing their best offense of the year amidst a three-game skid, as Kansas City follows up an extremely strong 5-0 start with back-to-back losses. Both the Chiefs and Jets need to stop a multi-week losing streak, though a two-score spread likely tells us which one's for real …

Chiefs vs. Jets Matchup Breakdown For Week 9 Fantasy Football

*Fantasy Football Rankings listed are Fantasy Life's half-PPR consensus ranks at the time of writing.

NYJ_jets-logo.svgNew York Jets Fantasy Preview For Week 9

Get ready for the most Jets stats ever: New York’s tied with the Joe Burrow-led Bengals for most yards/play over the last two weeks (7.2) with nothing to show for it on the real-life side of things. Fantasy gamers, however, may be sensing the emergence of a new carnival team, as a degrading Jets’ D allowed +23 points in five of six. Who cares if the Jets win or not when they’re finally getting pushed toward +400-yard potential? Geno Smith’s as interesting a streamer as anyone. Despite an uninspiring 14.9 point/game total (QB21), the veteran already posted more top-5 finishes than Jordan Love, Dak Prescott, and Trevor Lawrence. Kansas City’s missing multiple starters in the secondary just as Geno begins ripping it downfield … could be a match made in fantasy heaven.

Heavenly’s not quite the word Omar Cooper managers used to describe last week's goose-egg as an encore to back-to-back +23 fantasy point outings. Perhaps hindsight’s 20/20, but Adonai Mitchell as the exploitable WR against Vegas’ single-high, man-heavy looks wasn’t so outlandish. With that, you never expect zero targets. The bottom line is when habitual target-earner Garrett Wilson’s running every route, there’s going to be valleys for all the peaks. Expect an uptick in Cooper’s usage against KC’s extremely zone-heavy, two-high safety approach.

Curious to see how New York responds if the run game that’s been so effective starts to sputter early on. Part of the reason Gang Green’s putting up so much offense without a million dropbacks lies with Braelon Allen, fantasy’s overall RB6 since Week 5. When you’re averaging 5.6 yards/carry for a month straight, it takes a lot of pressure off the pass game — except the Chiefs’ defense is stingy, and objectively a top-5 unit against the run (68.0% success, 3.5 yards/carry, 2.60 yards after contact/rush, 3.2% explosive rush rate). Feels like this game’s either going over 60 points or under 35 with no in-between …

  • Start: Braelon Allen (RB35), Garrett Mitchell (WR20), Omar Cooper Jr. (WR52)
  • Sit: Adonai Mitchell (WR55)
  • Sleeper: Geno Smith (QB25)

KC_chiefs-logo.svgKansas City Chiefs Fantasy Preview For Week 9

No one’s more ready to rinse the bad taste from two straight losses out of his mouth than Patrick Mahomes. The two-time MVP is outside the QB1 range for the first time in recent memory despite a solid (321-3-0) box score against a tough Broncos’ defense. Aside from a proper thrashing by Seattle’s front seven (52.8% pressure), Kansas City’s done an otherwise great job protecting Mahomes, who excels at sack avoidance in the first place. It’s worth mentioning that the Jets blitz at a top-5 clip (22.3%) but convert at a below-average sack-to-pressure rate (18.3%). Losing the extra man in coverage translated into an opposing top-5 QB finish for three weeks running (and a great chance at number four Sunday).

Returning safety blanket Rashee Rice (7-53-1; 29.6% target/route, 1.96 yards/route) into the fold brought a semblance of fluidity back to the Chiefs. The low 2.1-yard aDOT still leaves KC devoid of a prototypical field-stretcher, though the extra set of reliable hands makes them that much harder to defend from matriculating down the field for +10-play drives. The addition also helps draw some attention away from an aging Travis Kelce, who will continue projecting as a backend TE1 for volume and green zone opportunities alone. Last note: fifth-round rookie Cyrus Allen’s route participation rates climbed consistently for five straight weeks: 6.1%, 12.5%, 27.8%, 50.0%. Could be our last chance to scoop him up on down-low before hitting the mainstream.

Do you even need me to tell you how great Kenneth Walker’s been? The overall RB2’s scoring +0.50 fantasy points/snap on an 82% backfield opportunity share for the league’s second-best rushing attack in terms of EPA/attempt (+0.09). Mix in all the goal-line work with an outstanding 14.7% of the team’s target share

  • Start: Patrick Mahomes (QB8), Kenneth Walker (RB4), Rashee Rice (WR17), Travis Kelce (TE6)
  • Sit: Xavier Worthy (WR54)
  • Sleeper: Cyrus Allen (WR82)

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