Browns vs. Chargers Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 9

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 9 matchup between the Browns and Chargers.

Find a breakdown of every Week 9 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Justin Herbert: Herbert had his first QB1 scoring week of the season on Sunday, closing as QB7 (24.1 points).

Herbert has thrown for 8.9 and 8.7 yards per pass attempt the past two weeks, his two highest rates of the season.

More importantly, the Chargers have been forced to put more on Herbert’s plate as the season has progressed and their run game has struggled.

After the Chargers were 10% below pass rate expectations over their opening four games, they have been 2%, 4% and 5% over expectations the past three games. 

They have been 2% over expectations on first downs after 11% below expectations prior.

While those rates are not massively over expectations, there is a noticeable shift in approach.

As a byproduct, Herbert has 34, 39, and 32 passes in these past three games after throwing the ball 26, 20, 18, and 27 times to start the season.

That gives Herbert a better range of outcomes for spike weeks.

I would still prefer to use him as a QB2 here.

His two efficient games in the past two weeks have come against struggling pass defenses in Arizona and New Orleans. 

Cleveland has allowed some big plays, but its success rate against passing plays (60.5%) is 8th in the league.

The Browns lead the NFL in pressure rate (42.7%).

Herbert has completed 49.1% of his passes (19th) for 5.7 Y/A (21st) when pressured.

The Browns are playing man coverage at the 3rd-highest rate (38.7%).

Against man coverage, Herbert has completed 44.9% of his passes (30th) compared to a 73.1% rate against zone coverage (11th).

The Browns have allowed a 59.3% completion rate (2nd), but when passes have been completed, they have allowed 12.4 yards per completion (30th).

Jameis Winston: Winston delivered what Deshaun Watson could not in his first start with the Browns.

Not only did Cleveland win for the first time since Week 2, but Winston threw for 334 yards, more yards in a single game than Watson threw over 19 starts in Cleveland.

I did not expect a Joe Flacco redux outcome, but we got it.

Cleveland looked functional again without Watson, and Winston allowed them to do things they were not doing with Watson in the game.

The Browns were under center for a season-high 37.9% of the snaps and 25.6% of the passing plays.

Winston was 8-of-11 for 147 yards (13.4 Y/A) and a touchdown under center on Sunday.

Watson averaged 5.7 Y/A under center.

Winston also got the ball out of his hands.

He averaged 2.41 seconds to throw, 4th in the league in Week 8.

55.9% of his throws were out within 2.5 seconds, 7th in the league this past week.

He did get away with some things, but that is what Winston (and Flacco) does (did) sometimes.

He was tied for the most turnover-worthy throws in Week 8 (3), but the defense caught none.

We want to build up a larger sample to gauge consistency before putting Winston in as a locked-in streamer, but Winston is in play as a volatile QB2 based on the system's success over the past two seasons. 

To this point, the Chargers have not faced a strong schedule of passers, but they have held the ones that they have faced down.

Los Angeles is 4th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.322), allowing 6.7 Y/A (8th) and a 2.7% touchdown rate (6th).

Running Back

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