Emmanuel Sanders, Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker's Post-Week 9 Fantasy Reaction

Owners of Emmanuel Sanders, Demaryius Thomas and/or Wes Welker hoped for a shootout between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos in Week 9, but instead were treated to what mostly amounted to a fantasy wasteland.

By the midway point of the third quarter with the Broncos down 27-14, Emmanuel Sanders was the only notable fantasy performer of the three thanks to his six grabs for 89 yards. Thomas had four for 71, while Welker had three for 31.    

The final stat lines were a tad better as the Broncos continued to take to the air in an effort to come back:

	REC	YDS	TD	TGTS	Fantasy Pts.
E. Sanders	10	151	0	16	15
D. Thomas	7	127	0	11	12
W. Welker	3	31	0	7	3

Really, the performance should have been easy to see coming, as the Patriots entered the game surrendering the second-fewest points to wideouts on the season.

Case in point—in the above time span, Darrelle Revis and the New England defense funneled the production to the ground game and tight ends. Ronnie Hillman scored on the ground and Julius Thomas caught a score.

There is little reason to panic, though. The Broncos are not going to encounter such a strong secondary each week, nor will Peyton Manning continue to be forced out into the cold on the road. As Troy Renck of The Denver Post notes, all three names were blanketed by a strong cast of defenders:

Despite this, the targets were relatively even all night long amongst the trio. This is nothing but good news as they get the mediocre defenses of Oakland and St. Louis in the coming weeks.

Thomas needs to be tightly gripped in all leagues considering he entered with four straight weeks of double-digit production. Sanders has not been as consistent, but his propensity for big outputs (30 points in Week 8) makes him a worthwhile add for a low price.

Welker is the wild card who continues to befuddle his 64.5 percent of owners. He is a decent add or low buy for owners who need some bye-week reinforcements in the coming weeks given a favorable schedule.

In short, Sunday provided owners with no reason to hit the panic button on any of the three. If anything, it made costs to obtain mostly productive receivers and a slot man with high upside even cheaper, which is a win for those in need.

All scoring info courtesy of ESPN standard leagues, as is points-against info and ownership stats. Statistics courtesy of ESPN.