Week 9 features five matchups between teams that previously have met in Super Bowls. The first of those games kicked off the week, with the Colts and Jets playing in a rematch of Super Bowl III. Fantasy takeaways:

QUARTERBACKS:

Carson Wentz has made some untimely mistakes, most recently with two late interceptions against the Titans, but he’s settling in and playing some good ball. He’s thrown multiple touchdowns in six straight. He’s throwing more deep balls, I think, than anybody in the league. But it’s a conservative offense, so his yardage totals tend to be modest. He’s thrown for more than 231 yards in only four of his nine games.

I wanted to see more of Mike White. He was out there for a couple of series, and I liked what I saw. He had the 400-yard game in his first start, and he might have gone for another 400 in this one (the team finished with 412 after he left). I think he’s better than Zach Wilson right now, with more ability to quickly recognize where the ball needs to go. That puts the Jets in an interesting spot, with Wilson being the No. 2 pick of the draft. White was a fifth-round pick back in 2018, but he looks like he can play – he threw 63 touchdowns versus only 15 interceptions his last two years at Western Kentucky. I wonder if this will develop into a situation similar to what the Browns were in a dozen-plus years ago, when Derek Anderson was better than first-rounder Brady Quinn.

RUNNING BACKS:

With Derrick Henry shelved, Jonathan Taylor is looking like he’ll lead the league in rushing. Both backs benefit from playing in the AFC South, and Taylor more so than Henry tends to thrive in the mismatches against crappy defenses. His four career games with 140-plus rushing yards have all come against overmatched opponents – Raiders and Jaguars last year, and Texans and Jets in the last month. Taylor sat out a series in this one after getting shaken up near the goal line, but came back in the second half and ripped off a long touchdown. Nyheim Hines also ran well. Marlon Mack wasn’t even active (but no doubt was wishing he could have gotten a few carries against this defense).

Michael Carter entered this game having caught at least 8 passes in back-to-back games. That went away, with just 1 catch for 37 yards. He may have been more involved in that capacity had Mike White stuck around. He wasn’t much of a factor as a runner, with 13 carries for 49 yards. With the Jets not being much of a running team, that was actually better than usual for him (the 49 yards, was his 3rd-highest of the season, and the 88 yards for the team was its 3rd-highest). Ty Johnson looks pretty much interchangeable with Carter when he’s out there, but the team seems to prefer the rookie (just 4 carries for 21 yards for Johnson, with another 40 yards and a touchdown on 2 receptions).

WIDE RECEIVERS:

Michael Pittman has emerged as the No. 1 receiver for the Colts. He’s big, and they go to him in the clutch situations. He had another red-zone touchdown in this one, scoring for the fifth time in five games. His overall workload (5 for 64) was limited this time by the Colts being able to run the ball so effectively. In general, is looking like a top-10 wide receiver nowadays.

I will concede that Zach Pascal had one more target than Pittman. Pascal finished with only 1 fewer catch and 8 fewer yards. But with limited size, speed and playmaking ability, he doesn’t seem like a guy who’ll still be a starter a year from now. He’s finished with fewer yards than Pittman in eight straight games. Pascal looks more similar to Ashton Dulin than he does to Pittman. I’m more interested the rest of the way in T.Y. Hilton, given his speed and the way Wentz is uncorking deep balls.

For the Jets, they use a ton of receivers, usually spreading the field with 3-4 wide receivers. They had three different wide receivers who saw 7-8 targets in this game (Elijah Moore, Keelan Cole, Jamison Crowder) and another three wide receivers who saw 3-5 targes (Braxton Berrios, Denzel Mims, Jeff Smith). And their No. 1 wide receiver, Corey Davis, wasn’t even playing. For fantasy purposes, I find that troubling – tough to count on any one wide receiver, I think, with this being a lesser team anyway.

Elijah Moore in this one had his best game, catching 7 passes for 84 yards and 2 TDs, but he didn’t stand out to me as being a breakout guy. I don’t remember any catches that weren’t pretty routine. Is he better right now than Cole? Cole had the phenomenal one-handed touchdown catch against the Bengals that was overturned, and he had a pair of really nice grabs in this one as well. The Jets will probably go back to Wilson at quarterback in a week or two, and that probably will cause the passing game to bog down. Moore to me didn’t look like a guy who’ll be surpassing Corey Davis in the pecking order anytime soon.

TIGHT ENDS:

Mo Alie-Cox had been on the upswing, with 4 TDs in four games, but I think we can put that away. He got shut out in the loss against the Titans, and he caught only 1 pass in this one. Their other two tight ends (Jack Doyle, Kylen Granson) also caught one pass catch each, with Doyle’s being a 1-yard touchdown. I don’t see the Colts having a tight end who can be counted on for top-15 production anytime soon.

New York uses two tight ends on most downs, and neither is a big-time receiving threat. Tyler Kroft in this one had a really nice contested catch for a 26-yard gain. But he left early with a chest injury. Their other tight end, Ryan Griffin, finished with better numbers, catching 4 passes for 28 yards and a touchdown.

KICKERS:

We don’t normally talk about kickers in this space, but Michael Badgley is worth a mention, with him being one of the top streaming kicker options for Week 9. He was held back in this one by the offense consistently putting the ball in the end zone. But he got a field goal late, helping him finish with a solid 9 points. The Colts have another one of these shooting-dead-fish-in-a-barrel matchups next week (against Jacksonville), but they’ll need to decide on a kicker. Rodrigo Blankenship is eligible to come off IR, and Frank Reich says he’s not sure which one they’ll be going with. Whether it’s Badgley or Blankenship, he’ll likely be in the top 5 among kickers on my board.

And that’s probably a good place to call it a wrap.

—Ian Allan