Week 9 Fantasy Football Rankings: Projecting Top Scorers for Each Position

Adrian Peterson's Minnesota Vikings are on a bye in Week 9. The league's leading rusher certainly hasn't been dominant every single week, but he's still one of the top scorers in fantasy football and will be sorely missed by owners.

He's not the only big point-scorer out this week though.

Carolina quarterback Cam Newton and wide receiver Steve Smith will also be noticeably absent this week.

Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jaguars will also be out as will the high-scoring duo of Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions.

Needless to say, we could see some surprise top scorers in Week 9.

QB: Eli Manning, Giants

If the New York Giants are going to beat the New England Patriots they are going to have to do it through the air.

Bill Belichick's defense is the worst in the league in yardage surrendered through the air, but they can stop the run.

The Giants, legitimately, cannot run the football (how many times have we been able to say that in the last few years?), but can throw it.

Manning has single-handedly put this team on his back and is playing as well as he did during the Super Bowl run, if not better.

Don't expect it to stop against this secondary.

RB: Frank Gore, 49ers

The 49ers have to travel across the country this week, but they're taking on a Washington Redskins team that is crumbling at the seams.

Gore has ripped off four straight 100-yard rushing games and isn't going to stop this week against the 21st ranked rush defense in the league.

Expect the 49ers to pound the Redskins and Gore to be a big part of it.

WR: Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals

Going out on a bit of limb here, but without Megatron and the reborn Steve Smith this week, Larry Fitzgerald is going to get some credit.

The Cardinals are a downright ugly football team and Kevin Kolb is not playing well, but Fitz is too good to be denied the end zone for this long.

He hasn't found the end zone in four straight games and that has to change.

The Rams secondary is far from talented enough to handle him and should the Cardinals actually get into the red zone the ball should be thrown his way every play.

TE: Jimmy Graham, Saints

The league's top tight end was limited to only four catches for 39 yards in the loss to the Rams.

Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton will not let that happen again this week.

There is too much riding on this NFC South showdown for Brees not to find his target at least 7-10 times this week.

Expect catches and some touchdowns out of Graham this week.

DEF: 49ers

San Francisco is the league's ninth rated defense, but they are No. 1 against the run and give up a league-low 15.3 points per game.

This week they'll take on the quickly-imploding Redskins in Washington.

They'll have little trouble taking care of business, forcing turnovers and possibly scoring points of their own.