Saints Fantasy Football Week 9 Preview vs. Titans

It will be hard for the Saints to ever match the offensive production from last week, but that does not mean they cannot come close.

The Tennessee Titans enter week 9 ranked second in passing defense, but that number is a bit misleading. They have given up only 1385 yards on a league low 198 attempts faced.

They may not give up a lot of passing yards, but that is mostly because their opponents always get ahead and shift their offensive focus to the run game.

Because of this, Drew Brees should still have a solid week against 1-6 Tennessee. If Brees does not qualify as hot after his 500 yard, seven touchdown performance, I don’t know who does.

Nov 1, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) against the New York Giants during the second half of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints defeated the Giants 52-49. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

The Giants secondary may have been atrocious, but Brees still looked like the elite quarterback we have come to know after all of these years.

His shoulder looks much better than it did over the last couple of weeks, an improvement that single-handedly rejuvenated the Saints season.

If you have been starting Mark Ingram on your fantasy team this season, things are going pretty well so far.

He has scored less than double digits only twice, and even in those weeks he averaged eight points. He is the second highest scoring running back in the entire NFL this season, only trailing the red hot Devonta Freeman.

His lack of massive single game stat lines can be misleading he is just so consistent. He scored exactly twenty points once against the Colts a couple of weeks ago, but other than that instance and the two under ten, he has been living in the teens.

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Week after week he is putting together solid yards per carry, carrying a 4.5 mark into week nine.

Even if his volume of running attempts is not always ideal, his emergence in the passing game has raised his performance floor even higher.

Among running backs, Ingram’s 274 receiving yards ranks seventh in the league. He hasn’t caught a touchdown pass yet, but just being able to piece together a couple more fantasy points per game still gets the job done.

He showed signs of this improvement last season, when he finished the season with a career high 145 yards, more than his first three years in the league combined.

At this rate he will almost surely reach double that total against Tennessee, and should continue to produce at a high level in all facets off the game for the entire second half of the season.

Aug 23, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram (22) escapes a tackle by Indianapolis Colts safety LaRon Landry (30) at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Ingram’s emergence in the passing game has put a damper on C.J. Spiller’s value as a fantasy asset. He was signed from Buffalo in the offseason to provide some explosiveness out of the backfield.

While his most explosive play arguably changed the entire season for New Orleans, he has not been able to keep the big plays coming. Ingram is no longer a one dimensional back and could start to steal more and more third down touches from him if he does not start making things happen.

While it will be tough for Brees to cater to all of his receivers like he did against the Giants, sustained reliable production should not be too much to ask of the Saints wideouts.

Willie Snead, Brandin Cooks, and Marques Colston all had north of seventy receiving yards for the first time this season.

Of their combined twenty two catches, an absurd five of them, almost twenty five percent, went for touchdowns.

That is especially encouraging for Colston, who had not scored all season, and Brandin Cooks, who had only scored in garbage time against the Eagles.

Finding the end zone has tossed both players back onto fantasy radars. If Brees can keep chucking passes like this, fantasy investments in these New Orleans receivers could go a long way.

Leading the way for all Saints pass catchers for the second time in two weeks was tight end Benjamin Watson.

Aug 23, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson (82) runs past Indianapolis Colts linebacker Kelvin Sheppard (55) at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

The veteran caught nine passes for 147 yards and a score, good for the best line of all tight ends throughout the league.