Fantasy Football: Tyler Shough's impact on Saints offense among QB situations Matt Harmon is keeping an eye on in Week 9

Yahoo analyst Matt Harmon takes you through five quarterback situations he’s keeping an eye on for fantasy football going into Week 9.

New Orleans Saints

The Saints have elected to start rookie quarterback Tyler Shough the rest of the season after pulling Spencer Rattler mid-way through their Week 8 loss to the Buccaneers. It was only a matter of time, almost no matter how well Rattler played, as the team needs to get a look at the guy they took 40th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft before making a potential quarterback decision in the top-five next April.

What complicates this for fantasy managers is that Rattler was playing at least competent football. Despite turnovers, the last two weeks that cracked the door open for his benching — something you can’t really just overlook — Rattler had generally kept the Saints offense on the tracks. His 47.1% success rate ranked 15th among quarterbacks with 100-plus pass attempts this year, putting him just behind guys like C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts. His numbers look solid because he wasn’t taking many sacks and kept the unit on schedule with some timely scrambles. It hasn’t been a “bench-worthy” season.

There’s a chance Shough proves to be a downgrade based on Rattler’s down-to-down consistency. However, I’d be foolish to be overly confident in any sort of strong feeling for how Shough is going to play. Perhaps the rookie adds different dimensions here as an over-the-middle passer that Rattler didn’t bring to the table.

Either way, someone like Chris Olave can survive the change unless Shough proves to be unplayable, thanks to immense play volume in the offense. New Orleans is playing at a fast pace and ranks second behind only Washington in no huddle rate. They’ve run the 10th-most plays per game. As long as Shough can stay on schedule and avoid sacks, Olave should be fine. The ceiling is the question. We’ll see if Rashid Shaheed is still on this roster, as he’s one of the most likely trade candidates at the upcoming deadline.

Arizona Cardinals

Kyler Murray is set to return as the starting quarterback for Arizona coming off the team’s bye week. I’m curious about both how he performs and how long his leash will be in his return. I sense that this regime is on the ropes and Murray is in “prove-it” mode regarding his status as the team’s franchise quarterback. You have to go back to him now that he’s healthy but that doesn’t mean he’ll hold the job if his volatile play continues.

I’m not sure that backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett gives Arizona a better chance to win but he does stabilize the passing game. In the two games he started, the team averaged 274 passing yards per game and converted 57% of their third-down plays, ranking second and first in that span. They ranked 30th and 17th in the first five weeks with Murray under center.

Again, that doesn’t mean Murray is bad or shouldn’t be a starter in this league but Brissett accesses throws in this offense that he doesn’t take as consistently. My feeling on the dynamic between Murray, Marvin Harrison Jr. and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing is that all of these guys are fine on their own merits but just don’t gel with each other. A separation is needed for each to access their ceilings. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong the rest of the season. They get a gorgeous matchup with the generous Cowboys defense to begin busting the multi-year slump.

Minnesota Vikings

Now that Carson Wentz has been placed on season-ending IR, Week 1 starter J.J. McCarthy will reassume his job as the QB1 now that he’s healthy. Minnesota’s plan, and explanation of their quarterback handling this season, has been confusing, at best, and weird, at worst. It’s time to see what McCarthy can do over a longer stretch of games. This team isn’t going to the Super Bowl this year. The offensive line hasn’t been the unit they wanted thanks to injuries and the defense isn’t as lock-down as last year. Let’s give McCarthy a runway and see how that informs their plans at quarterback this offseason.

Of course, it’s worth noting that this season got off to a very poor start for McCarthy. Outside of one quarter against the Bears, he was uninspiring. The Vikings scored 16.5 points per game and ranked 30th in passing yards per game in the first two weeks of the season. They could not sustain drives, as their time of possession per series of 2:11 ranked dead last.

Wentz was not good before getting hurt and never played at a level where you could consider starting him the rest of the season while abandoning your long-term plans, but he at least got the ball to the playmakers. If McCarthy operates at the level he did in Weeks 1 and 2, it’s going to be a major problem for Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. One piece of context is that his poor showing against Atlanta looks a lot less hideous in hindsight now that we know the Falcons defense is an improved unit that makes life difficult on quarterbacks. Still, we just need flat-out better play from McCarthy for the fantasy options to stay afloat. This situation is much riskier than many are willing to acknowledge.

Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons are one of the most difficult teams to get a hold of right now. They are one of 11 teams with a point differential below -30 on the season and none of the other non-injured teams in that bucket are serious contenders, which Atlanta comports itself to be. The Falcons have had some impressive moments this season, including a dominant win over the Bills on Monday night a few weeks back. However, they have blowout losses to the Panthers and Dolphins on either side of that win with a combined three points scored.

The Week 8 loss at home to the Dolphins, who couldn’t stop any ground game prior to that week, was the most mystifying. After reviewing the film, I thought Kirk Cousins was better than a disastrous box score, which is a low bar, and was much more let down by the pass catchers. It was yet another reminder of how important Drake London is to this unit, even if it feels like the Falcons sometimes forget that.

Michael Penix Jr. has had four games out of his nine career starts with an adjusted yards per attempt over 7.0. London’s target totals in those games were 18, 16, 15 and 10. Perhaps I’m oversimplifying it but “just throw it to your good player” should be the answer as the team tries to get Penix back on track following an injury.

Man coverage has given this team some issues this season and their Week 9 opponent, New England, ranks 12th in man coverage rate, per Fantasy Points Data. However, the Patriots allow the second-most points per dropback in man coverage this year. It’s time for this Falcons offense to get rolling and break their way-too-stark tendencies. It should begin by ensuring London meets double-digit targets every week.

Chicago Bears

Unlike everyone else on this list, the Bears aren’t welcoming back an injured starter or making a change at the position. However, with how much oxygen the Caleb Williams wars seem to take up on a weekly basis, this is a good time to offer up a “prove it” week for the young passer.

For starters, the over-focus on Williams and the rush to declare him as this or that is foolish. The effort to rebuild him after a nightmare rookie season is going well, even if it hasn’t been a smooth ride or upward trajectory every week. The Bears rank 26th in offensive success rate but third in explosive play rate. That perfectly shows that there is good in this unit but the consistency isn’t yet there. Maybe that comes throughout the course of the season, maybe it comes next year. Perhaps it never arrives at all! The reality is, we just don’t know for sure at this moment but we don’t need to act like there haven’t been some signs of progress from Williams at all this year.

With that said, let’s dive into the muck of debate culture and set this up as a pivot-point week for Williams to show “the good.”

Chicago draws a matchup with the utterly beatable Bengals defense. That unit will allow you to move the ball any which way, but last week was a reminder of how much they struggle against particular concepts. Former Lions passing game coordinator under Ben Johnson and current Jets offensive coordinator, constructed a game plan to demolish the Bengals with a power run game that allowed the passing game to access its deep bag of motion and play-action to put the withering Bengals linebackers into a blender. Justin Fields completed 7 of 10 play-action passes for 109 yards, the fifth-most in Week 8.

Those chunk plays over the middle will be available for Williams on Sunday. He just needs to take them and hit them within the rhythm of the play as it’s designed. Too often, he’s either way too sped up or throwing far too late. He needs to find that just-right middle ground. He faces the exact right defense to match up with what Johnson designs in Week 9.

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