Week 9 Fantasy Football Recap For Bengals Players

Well, there were many more fantasy producers coming from the Bengals than I initially expected. The Bengals offense seemed to operate better in terms of spreading the ball around, and the defense picked off Peyton Manning twice - but does this translate into fantasy success? Let's take a look:

Who Delivered

Those who own A.J. Green in fantasy football know better than to bench Green even when matched up against Champ Bailey. They were certainly rewarded, as A.J. Green finished with 99 yards on 9 catches and a touchdown on Sunday afternoon. Green finished fifth in standard scoring on the week, and third in leagues that award points-per-reception. He's currently the top scoring wide receiver in standard scoring leagues for the season and only second behind Brandon Marshall in PPR leagues. He's pretty good, and so are you for drafting him, champ!

I recommended starting Jermaine Gresham heading into Week Nine, and those of you that took my advice were rewarded with a career high 108 yard performance. Gresham finished the week as the fifth highest scoring tight end in fantasy football for Week Nine.

Andy Dalton was decent surprise for those of you who opted to start him. While I initially projected Dalton to put up numbers like we saw against Pittsburgh in Week Eight, he ended up with around 16 points for fantasy owners. Even with a decent output, Dalton still ended up as the 15th highest scoring quarterback for Week Nine. Regardless, it wasn't a disappointment with all things considered.

While it wasn't explosive by any means, BenJarvus Green-Ellis actually turned in a good fantasy performance on Sunday. While the Law Firm only had 56 yards on the ground, he found the end zone for the first time since Week Three. If you were in a situation where you couldn't bench Green-Ellis for Week Nine, I recommended plugging him in and your flex and not expecting fireworks, and those that took the risk have to be a little pleased.

Of course, the one week I recommend benching Mike Nugent, he ends up being the fifth highest scoring kicker of the week. This is why I don't like projecting kickers! There is rarely much you can go off of when anticipating field goal opportunities. If you're anything like me, and you don't put too much weight into who's filling that kicker slot, you continued riding with Nugent and reaped the rewards.

Who Struggled

Cincinnati's defense was a "Must Sit" heading into the week as far as I was concerned. They ended up being the 19th best fantasy defense. Even with two interceptions, the Bengals simply allowed too many points on the scoreboard and couldn't generate any pressure on Peyton Manning. There were plenty of better options for Week Nine, and I hope you found one.

Andrew Hawkins finished the week with four catches for 32 yards. I'll continue recommending that you bench Hawkins, even in PPR leagues, until we see more targets for the underutilized wide receiver. It's such a disappointment that Hawkins started the first weeks extremely strong in fantasy, but is borderline droppable at this point.

Later this week, I'll be posting my Sit/Start advice for Bengals players for Week 10. In the meantime, feel free to discuss your fantasy football studs and duds in the comments section below.