Broncos fantasy football outlook for Week 9 at the Cowboys

The Denver Broncos won last week against the Washington Football Team. That wasn’t a great opponent, and WFT is certainly not one of the best teams in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys are that team. The Broncos travel to face the Cowboys in Week 9 on Sunday, and this is going to be a much tougher matchup.

Fantasy general managers will be starting all their Cowboys players, but choosing to start Broncos players in this matchup is going to be difficult.

Here is advice for fantasy GMs considering starting Broncos players in Week 9.

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Teddy Bridgewater – average QB2

I’m not trusting Teddy Bridgewater in this game. The Cowboys have a pass defense that can be picked up, but they are an opportunistic group that can make plays by forcing turnovers. After seven games, they have the No. 28 pass defense in the league by allowing 278.1 yards passing per game.

Bridgewater could succeed against the Cowboys, but will he be safe with the football? The Cowboys have the no.3 defense in the league when it comes to turnover percentage. A whopping 17.5 percent of drives against the Cowboys end in a turnover. Bridgewater can move the ball through the air, but the Cowboys defense is always lurking.

They have a league-leading 11 interceptions, and they have played only seven games. Dallas only sends a blitz on 23.4 percent of the time (league average is 24.0 percent), but they have the fourth-most quarterback knockdowns in the league (33) and again – they have played seven games, not eight games like the Broncos. Bridgewater is good when blitzed, but the Cowboys don’t need to send extra rushers to get after him. It could be a good-not-great day for Bridgewater, making him a QB2 from a fantasy lens.

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Melvin Gordon – RB3 | Javonte Williams – deep flex

The Broncos have two good running backs, and they don’t use them enough thanks to offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. As I write every week, all the time, both Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams are playing good football. Shurmur does not use these backs enough to maximize their high fantasy potential.

Gordon can get more work as a receiver, but it would be nice to see him rip off a long run like he did in the season opener. The Broncos are rotating backs on each drive (for the most part) which means he can be hot only to go to the sidelines the next drive instead of building on that momentum.

I love Williams, and he is an exciting player to watch. His run-after-contact ability is arguably the best in the game (well, no.2 behind Derrick Henry), and he’s only played eight NFL games. Williams does dance too much in the backfield at times, and this leads to carries with minimal gain or lost yards – something you don’t really see with Gordon. I wish Williams would just stick his foot in the ground and go…and I wish the offensive line were giving both backs better holes to run through.

Shurmur abandons the run at the first sign of trouble, so Gordon and Williams are not hot fantasy options. The talent to have a big game is there, but they don’t used enough.

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Jerry Jeudy – WR3/flex | Courtland Sutton – WR3/flex | Tim Patrick – “What the Heck” Flex

The Cowboys can get after the passer, and cornerback Trevon Diggs is arguably the best in the game at his position. He will blot out one of the Broncos receivers, but which one is that going to be? Diggs, a college teammate of Jerry Jeudy, could just follow Jeudy around the formation. Want to shut down Courtland Sutton? Diggs has the size and length to do that too.

Where Diggs lines up and who he covers is going to shut down one receiver and open opportunities for the other one. Last week against the Vikings, Diggs held superstar receiver Justin Jefferson to just two catches for 21 yards. There is no question he can shut down a receiver for the Broncos.

We don’t know how Diggs and the Cowboys defense will approach these receivers. That uncertainty is not great for your fantasy team. Jeudy is a WR3/flex option and so is Sutton. That means you may not be starting your Broncos receivers outside of Tim Patrick as a ‘what the heck’ flex. If you guess wrong on Diggs coverage, the player you bench could have a good game. Be prepared to be frustrated by the Broncos receivers, regardless of how you play them (or don’t) in Week 9.

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Albert Okwuegbunam – Low-end TE1

We’re going to see Albert Okwuegbunam get the start at tight end for the Broncos this week. Noah Fant, the team’s regular starter, was put on the COVID-19 list on Tuesday and is expected to miss the game against the Cowboys on Sunday.

That means Okwuegbunam gets to start – and he could take advantage of that opportunity. He’s larger, faster and stronger than Fant. Okwuegbunam is as much of a threat as Fant as a receiver, and he’s a better blocker to boot. I feel like Fant is a smoother route-runner, but Okwuegbunam will fight for yards after the catch and will make a catch even though he’s going to get hit. Okwuegbunam also is unlikely to get penalized as much as Fant who has seven penalties in eight games this season.

You can move the ball through the air against the Cowboys. They will get pressure though, and that means Bridgewater will be looking for reliable targets near the line of scrimmage. Fantasy GMs could have picked up Okwuegbunam this week on waivers and start him with confidence as a low-end TE1 in Week 9.

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Broncos Defense – On Your Bench

The Cowboys offense is one of the most explosive units in the NFL. At the time of this writing, it looks like superstar Dak Prescott is going to start against the Broncos. That’s terrible news for the Broncos defense.
Denver’s defense is bad, and they’ve been the biggest problem in 2021. Prescott will be able to pick on this highly-paid and poorly-performing secondary. Even with Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb a little banged up, they combine to create arguably the best duo of wide receivers in the NFL. Add in breakout tight end Dalton Schultz, and you can see how Denver can’t possibly stop all these weapons.

Add to that a backfield that features two great backs in Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, and it becomes clear how the Broncos are clearly in trouble. Don’t start the Broncos defense in Week 9. In fact, they may hit your waiver wire in favor of a better performing defense.

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For more of my fantasy football work, check out Footballguys.com.

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