Get ready for a spicy Week 9 in the world of fantasy football as the Fantasy Island Podcast serves up some fresh waiver wire hot takes! No, we won't bore you with déjà vu recommendations; these guys have a motto - better early than late.

First up, we've got Will Levis, the Titans QB who made DeAndre Hopkins look like a touchdown magnet. But beware, he faced Atlanta - even P.J. Walker looked like a superstar against them!

Next in line is Zach Charbonnet from the Seahawks; a Pete Carroll special - expect him to join the timeshare party soon. Leonard Fournette's 'fresh-off-the-couch' gig in Buffalo, oh boy, but seriously, what do the Bills have against James Cook? #FantasyFootballMysteries

Oh, and the tight end to watch out for, Trey McBride. Just one question, who's chucking it to him?

Finally, the star of the show, Cam Akers in Minnesota, where the running game needs a boost, especially with Kirk Cousins' drama. #BackfieldShiftAlert

Join us for a not-so-NSFW but definitely wild ride through Week 9's waiver wire gems. Fresh names, fresh takes - stay one step ahead, folks! #FantasyIIsland #Week9 #WaiverWireWinners

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Week 9 Waiver Wires

Welcome back Islanders. Week eight is in the books. It is time to go over our week nine waiver wires, but before we get into that, as a reminder, please like, follow, subscribe to All Things Fantasy Island Podcasts that is Island With Two i's you can find us on any platform where you find your favorite podcast.

I'm Bombo, and I'm going to take you into our Week 9 Waiver Wires. Let me preface it by saying, we aren't like some of the other talking heads or some of the other fantasy football content creators, uh, that are going to have a humongous list just to give you names or just to fill up a time slot. I got an alert earlier, from... Creator that I follow that had a list of 12 must ads for the WaiverWire week 9. I have no clue where this guy was able to find 12 players. We've said it before on the island, we're not gonna repeat names. We've already told you to pick these guys up weeks ago. We're not gonna tell you again. We told you to pick up Pooka back in August, so he didn't make our week 2, uh, WaiverWire.

That's just one example. We're going to go over fresh names every week. Remember, we follow the motto, it's better to be early than late. So let's get right into it. Week 9 waiver wire pickups are a little bit slim. We're getting to that point of the year where you can get who you want to get.

It really doesn't matter your waiver position. Some of your league mates are pretty set on their rosters, but you are more likely going to have to pick up somebody due to injury, uh, due to unforeseen circumstances with bye weeks. Little note to future players, check your bye weeks when you're doing your drafting and when doing your trades.

You don't want to be stuck with your RB1, RB2, wide receiver one all on the same bye week. That's clown shoes. That's amateur.

We're going to start with Will Levis, Tennessee Titans quarterback. I mean, this guy came out and threw a perfect game. Brought back DeAndre Hopkins, brought back DeAndre Hopkins to the end zone.

Made everyone in Tennessee forget about Ryan Tannehill, at least for one Sunday afternoon. This is the starter going forward. But, don't get swindled by this performance that he just put on. Because it was against Atlanta, and just to keep it in perspective, I saw P. J. Walker do the same thing last year against Atlanta.

So, he's definitely somebody that you should pick up if you were some poor sap that was starting Tannehill for some reason. Or if you just lost Kurt Cousins and your quarterback, Waverwire, in your league is a barren wasteland. You can do worse than Will Levis, pick him up. Just don't expect him to drop 40 every game.

Our next Week 9 Waver Wire Pickup, running back Zach Charbonnet from the Seattle Seahawks. If you follow the Seattle Seahawks, or if you've ever had any piece of the Seattle backfield in the past five, six years, , you know that Pete Harrell gets his other running back involved towards the end of the season.

We've seen him do it with Chris Carson, Kenneth Walker, Rashad Penny. These are all guys that didn't start off the season as the guy, and eventually were in a timeshare with the guy, leading to the guy getting taken over. Uh, I expect Zack Charbonnet to get plenty of run going into the back half of the season.

He's a good pass catcher. He runs hard. And best part, if you pick up Zack Charbonnet cause you have a spot on your bench where you can stash him. If Walker was to go down for any reason, Zack Charbonnet is a... League winner as a potential workhorse. Pick up Zach Charbonnet. Same with the running back position.

An old name in a new place. Playoff Lenny, Leonard Fournette just got a job. Fresh off the couch, straight to Buffalo, New York, as the Bills have signed Leonard Fournette. Let him get his feet wet on the practice squad a little bit. Let him get those carries. But, my gut tells me, I fully expect him to probably take over the Latavius Murray role.

There's no way that anybody can convince me in a five days of practice per week that Latavius Murray is outshining Leonard Fournette on the practice field. I expect him to take those carries. I expect him to eat into Latavius Murray fantasy points and carries going forward.

But the question is, what do the Bills have against James Cook? This is a guy that we were really high on on the island for a couple years now. It just seems like he has the traits that you want from a three down workhorse back. And for some reason, Buffalo just doesn't feel like that's the route that they want to go.

They want to rotate backs in. Recently lost Damien Harris. And bringing in Leonard Fournette shows they are committed to giving you a plethora of running backs. Next guy to pick up, we mentioned it earlier on our Ballers, Bums, and Overachievers, but this guy definitely deserves a spot. He should have been on here last week.

My apologies for not telling you guys to pick up on him. I was too busy picking him up to let you guys know to pick him up. Didn't mean to gatekeep, but it's Trey McBride from the Arizona Cardinals. Don't overthink it. This guy has the goods. He has the measurables. He has everything to be a top five tight end for fantasy purposes and a top tight end in real football.

The only question is, who's throwing him the ball? It's going to make you have to do your homework with Arizona to see exactly when Kyler's coming back. Or who they're actually going to have back there throwing since they just got rid of Josh Dobbs. But like I said earlier, don't overthink it. Trey McBride needs to be picked up.

Get him off of your waiver wire. And the last player we're going to tell you to pick up. Running back Cam Akers for the Minnesota Vikings. He's taking over this backfield, folks. And this quarterback injury to Kirk Cousins is only going to help their running game, which has been pretty non existent, uh, for the first eight weeks.

Or it's been mediocre. We won't say non existent, but it's been mediocre. And that's because they've been giving Alexander Madison all the run. Remember, Madison was the choice of the previous regime. Yeah, they got rid of Dalvin Cook, which is definitely looking like a positive move on their part, but it balanced out because they were going to roll with Madison as their workhorse and it's just not working out.

Cam Akers is a fresh body. He's coming into this offense. He knows Coach Kevin O'Connell. It's safe to say he's probably that coach's guy. He's definitely getting the run like it. He's getting the more fantasy friendly touches and he's getting the goal line work. Most of all, he seems a little bit more elusive than Madison because sometimes it looks like when Madison gets hit, he's not going to get back up. So, I would say this backfield is shifting. And if you're going to pick up a guy, you want to pick up a guy that's going to be on the right side of a backfield shift. That's Cam Akers. Pick him up. We know that in deeper leagues, the running back position, especially on the waiver wire, is a desert. Campmakers could be an oasis. Pick him up. Monitor his usage. I predict that he will be someone that you can start in a flex position, probably from week 10 on.

That is your week 9 must pick ups on the waiver wire. Like we said before, we're not going to go into too much detail and bore you to death with names of guys that you should have already picked up or should already be off of the waiver wire. We have no desire to see some of these guys get their usage all the way up to above 50 percent before we take them off the list.

We're going with fresh names every week here on the Fantasy Island Podcast. I'm Bombo, making sure that your team stays one step ahead of all your league mates. On behalf of Mr. Sweet Tea, and Mr. R. W. King, and the rest of the crew at Fantasy Island, Peace out.