Fantasy Football Week 9 Start 'Em And Sit' Em: Deebo Samuel Vs. DJ Moore

Commanders WR Deebo Samuel and Bears WR DJ Moore are the subject of this Week 9 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em decision. Similarly ranked for this week, fantasy football owners have a tough decision to make. Should they start Samuel or Moore for Week 9?

Oct 5, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Washington Commanders wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) runs against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Welcome to a new wide receiver Start ‘Em and Sit’ Em decision for Week 9! 

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at whether fantasy owners should be starting Deebo Samuel against the Seattle Seahawks or DJ Moore against the Cincinnati Bengals. Both receivers have been dealing with injuries lately, so we’ll also have the added “fun” of paying attention to their injury status this week. 

Shawn Childs has a great Week 9 wide receiver projections article that dives into the numbers behind this decision (and others!), but let’s go through the decision and see if we can come up with our own thoughts on Deebo Samuel vs. DJ Moore this week.

WR Deebo Samuel, Washington Commanders

Ranked as our WR27 this week, Deebo Samuel is WR21 on the year in PPR leagues. He’s had a decent season, but has been dealing with injuries (both to himself and to his quarterback) as of late. Samuel is averaging seven targets per week, so he’s been very involved in the Commanders’ passing attack. And with Terry McLaurin already ruled out of this week’s game against Seattle, Samuel should push double-digit targets this weekend.

Seattle has a good-but-not-great pass defense and will benefit from the return of Devon Witherspoon (although they just traded Tariq Woolen so might be a tad short-handed this weekend). They’ve allowed almost one touchdown per game to opposing wide receivers, so Samuel should have an opportunity to find the end zone against the Seahawks.

Samuel will also (likely) get Jayden Daniels back from injury this week, so he’ll get a boost at quarterback after playing with backup Marcus Mariota last week. 

WR DJ Moore, Chicago Bears

DJ Moore has had a tough 2025 season as he’s WR40 of the year, and comes in at WR35 in our rankings this week. He actually has relatively similar stats to Samuel, but hasn’t found the end zone as much with just one touchdown on the year. Otherwise, his receptions, targets, and yardage totals aren’t that far off from where Samuel’s are.

The Bears receiving corps has a relatively tough matchup this week as they’ll play a Bengals team that has held opposing receivers to 141.9 yards and 0.6 touchdowns per game. Even when Cincinnati allowed 39 points to the Jets last week, New York’s leading receiver still only had 64 receiving yards.

It’s worth noting that Moore carries a questionable tag heading into this week’s game against the Bengals as he’s been dealing with a hip injury, but it looks like he’ll be able to suit up on Sunday as he returned to practice on Thursday.  With Rome Odunze also questionable for this week, there’s a chance Moore could see WR1 duty against Cincinnati if Odunze is forced to miss the game. 

The Verdict

While we have Samuel ranked quite a bit higher than Moore this week, I think this will end up being relatively close by the time Sunday’s games are over. We need to keep an eye on both Moore and Odunze’s status, but I’d give Moore the nod over Samuel if we see that Odunze is out.

However, with the information we currently have available (assuming Odunze is playing), Samuel has a better path to production.

I’m locking in Deebo Samuel over DJ Moore for Week 9.