Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings: Bucky Irving Headlines Early Look

We've officially passed the halfway point in the 2026 fantasy football season, and for the first time in a handful of weeks, we have fewer than four teams on a bye (and a return to international play).

As always, every Tuesday I like to dive into Freedman's first run of rankings to highlight the biggest standouts. With that said, let's dive into an early look at the Week 9 fantasy football rankings.

Teams on bye: Titans, Steelers

Early Look At The Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings

Bucky Irving | Buccaneers | RB8

It's hard to find a player who has won back the love and trust of fantasy managers more than Bucky Irving this season. Week 8 marked the third time in the last four games that Irving eclipsed 20 carries and the fifth time this season as a top-15 fantasy RB (in 8 total games). The Kenneth Gainwell signing this summer isn't seeming to provide the knock in his receiving profile that many expected, as he's maintained an 11% target share on the season on 0.17 targets per route run (48% route rate).

What's ballooned his production over the last two weeks, specifically (RB2 & RB8 finishes), has been the Bucs' commitment to the run. They attempted only 3 passes last week and now have under 20 total pass attempts across Weeks 7 and 8 combined. While that level (or lack of) passing volume is unsustainable, it's fair to assume the Bucs will continue to ride Irving given how productive he's been. His Week 9 matchup against the Bears looks a lot more difficult with Jeffrey Simmons on the other side, but should be a high-scoring affair regardless and provide Irving with plenty of opportunities for production.

Jonah Coleman | Broncos | RB15

We saw Jonah Coleman overtake J.K. Dobbins as the primary base-down rusher in Week 7, and with RJ Harvey out in Week 8, we saw his role increase even more. He logged a 68% share of the snaps, 52% of the rush attempts, and saw a 16% target share on top of the base-down work, running a route on 56% of dropbacks.

As Dwain hit on in his Week 9 Fantasy Football Utilization Report (presented by Tenex.ai), Coleman has simply outperformed Dobbins across nearly every metric, besting him in yards per carry, yards after contact per carry, 10+-yard attempts, yards per route run, and targets per route run.

With Harvey on IR, Coleman should continue to serve as the most serviceable piece in this backfield and gets a juicy Week 9 matchup against the Panthers, a team allowing the 3rd-highest fantasy boost (+4.1) to opposing RBs.

Tee Higgins | Bengals | WR6

Is there a new WR1 in Cincinnati? No, but if you were just looking at box scores, you might think there is, and that's just how productive Tee Higgins has been operating as a 1B to Ja'Marr Chase's 1A this season.

He's tied with Chase for the team lead in target share (24%) and has now finished as the overall WR2 and WR1 in back-to-back weeks (23.8, 32.5) and has four top-8 positional finishes in his last five games. Chase is going to get his and likely get more than Higgins when it's all said and done, but this passing offense is so consolidated around these two star WRs that they both deserve legit WR1 treatment in fantasy land (nothing new here with Chase).

Against a Falcons defense that has been more of a pass funnel than a run funnel, we should continue to see Higgins rack up the counting stats as Joe Burrow continues to air it out in Week 9.

Caleb Douglas | Dolphins | WR29

Only two teams on a bye, and we have a Miami Dolphins WR inside the top 30 ... Is this a fever dream? Not quite; it just speaks to how lucrative the Lions secondary is for fantasy football. They're currently allowing the third-most fantasy points per game to the WR position (36.9) and the fifth-highest fantasy boost (+3.6).

The Dolphins can be a hard offense to trust given how they slow the game down and don't rip off many plays, but they may not have a choice but to air it out against Detroit. In that case, Caleb Douglas looks like a serviceable flex/WR3 play, having run at least 80% of the routes in all four of his games this season and fresh off of a season-high in routes (86%), targets per route run (0.19), and air yards (34%).

Dalton Kincaid | Bills | TE15

Week 9 marks the first time this season Dalton Kincaid ranks this low, and, interestingly, it comes right after a 4-86-1 line on 6 targets. His 63% route rate is nearly in line with his 66% rate for the season (still too low), and his 18% target share was on par with his rate for the full season, while his 88 Utilization Score was his second-highest of the entire season.

If you have Kincaid, you're likely starting him. The issue is the matchup. Brian Flores' defense has always been a gauntlet for tight ends, and this Vikings defense is no different, as they're allowing the least fantasy points per game (7.0) to tight ends with the third-lowest fantasy boost (-3.7). Given the Vikings' blitz-happy approach, it wouldn't surprise me to see Kincaid cede more snaps to Dawson Knox as an extra blocker.