The Stars are falling in Dallas 🌠

Saquon Barkley had one of the prettiest looking plays on the season while wearing one of the best looking uniforms in the league. It’s only fitting that he graces the cover of our Week 9 scoring leaders post:

Make sure to stay tuned for our full takeaways post over on our Instagram, as well as the full breakdown on today’s episode of the Upper Hand Fantasy Podcast dropping later today!

• Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, WR Ceedee Lamb suffer hamstring, shoulder injuries respectively – Lamb returns, Dak does not

  • The Cowboys have had their share of struggles on offense this season even with Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb largely not being on the same page, but things are about to really get ugly in Dallas if Dak Prescott and/or Ceedee Lamb would be forced to miss any time moving forward. Prescott exited the game in the second half after an injury to his hand and hamstring, forcing backup QB Cooper Rush to take all of the snaps in the fourth quarter. During that time, Rush was serviceable operating in garbage time and was able to find open players with relative ease since it was, after all, garbage time. Lamb exited briefly at the end of the game with an apparent shoulder injury but was able to return to tack on a two point conversion to another average fantasy outing. Without Prescott in the lineup, Lamb’s fantasy stock would take a significant dip – and it appears that Prescott’s injury could be one that holds him out for a few weeks. Jones has called it a high hamstring injury, and if that’s the case, fantasy managers may want to temper expectations moving forward for Lamb and the rest of the Cowboys offense – especially with a tough matchup against the Eagles coming up in Week 10. Lamb will look more the part of a fantasy WR2 in Dak’s absence should he miss time.

• Saints WR Chris Olave exits game in first quarter with concussion after taking gnarly open-field hit, carted off

  • Carr looked Olave’s way early and often in the very limited action that the third-year WR saw against the Panthers before he got him stretchered off the field. Michael Thomas was all of us yesterday afternoon after Carr hung Olave out to dry on an absolute hospital pass across the middle, which resulted in his ultimate removal from the game. It’s being called yet another concussion for Olave, who has now suffered two over the course of just four weeks. He’s thankfully been released from the hospital with no major issues, though he’ll have to clear the league’s concussion protocol once again before we get to see him back on the field. In all likelihood, there’s a good chance he' misses next week matchup against the Falcons with a more realistic return target for Week 11 against the Browns. In his absence, the Saints passing offense was anemic and relied on timely contributions from the tight end room and a strong dose of Alvin Kamara to keep things moving on that side of the ball. Things will likely continue that way next week assuming Olave is out, and his fantasy managers will once again have to bite the bullet and wait out the storm until Olave returns. Mason Tipton would be the receiver to add, but his upside remains low on a Saints offense that’s banged up and struggling.

• Eagles WR A.J. Brown exits game early with knee injury, doesn’t return to Week 9 matchup vs Jaguars

  • Like many other big name receivers on the day, A.J. Brown was quiet in his limited action before leaving the game due to a knee injury late in the first half. That led to Devonta Smith being the Eagles’ top pass catcher once again as he was earlier this season without Brown in the lineup. Of course, the story of the day wasn’t the Eagles’ passing attack against Jacksonville’s hot-knife-through-butter defense, but rather Saquon Barkley’s reverse-somersaulting, 199-yard performance that saw him notch a pair of touchdowns to lead Philadelphia to victory. That’s the nature of the Eagles’ offense, though – Hurts had a score of his own on the ground and Philly can win with any of their playmakers on any given day. Regardless, Devonta Smith would receive a significant upgrade if Brown would miss any time, while Saquon Barkley could end up being relied on even more often in the event that Brown is sidelined. Seeing as it’s a knee injury, the range of outcomes for a potential timeline of recovery is wide – this could be something he plays through, and it could also be a sprain that holds him out multiple weeks. Stay tuned to injury reports later this week, especially with a very favorable matchup against the division rival Cowboys on tap in Week 10.