Premium fantasy football trade tips, trending NFL news, and our expert NFL picks sent to your inbox. 100% FREE!
Hey all, and welcome to Week 9! Week 8 was half decent as my top QB Bo Nix was found on the winning ticket of a few GPPs. Sadly, Bijan Robinson’s name was on too many of my lineups, and I often paired him with the Falcons defense, which kept me from a high finish. Thanks for nothing Atlanta! Let’s try and get a little better this week.
Reminders:
Let’s dive into it!
While Caleb has been cold as of late, the hapless Bengals defense could be a ticket to right the fantasy ship. Cincinnati has allowed over 26 points in 7 straight games and is consistently letting opposing QBs have ceiling weeks against them. This team is also going to be without Trey Hendrickson on Sunday. While the Bears could elect to lean heavily on RB D’Andre Swift (7%) in this tilt, the opportunity is there for Caleb and the passing attack so long as Joe Flacco (6%) actually plays in this game and helps to keep the Bengals competitive (I’m putting the finishing touches on this article early Friday afternoon and do not have practice reports yet. I would anticipate that he’ll be a game time decision). Just know that if Flacco is ruled out, then that likely effects how much Caleb will be needed to keep the offense going and I will be less interested in him and more interested in Swift. Rome Odunze (8 – 9%) is the primary stacking option with Williams.
I was able to sneak in some breaking news here. D’Andre Swift is out for this game as is Roschon Johnson. This makes Kyle Monangai (25 – 30%) quite chalky as he should have the backfield largely to himself.
Beyond the Steelers defense yielding passing yards at a top 10 rate, giving up 7.5 yards per pass attempt and 11.1 yards per completion, as well as allowing 450 total yards in each their last two games, they will be without S DeShon Elliott in this matchup. Dimes is QB1 in football in first half scoring, but the Colts turn to their stud RB Jonathan Taylor (8 – 10%) in the second half of games. That trend could buck this week as it is likely that Aaron Rodgers (2%) and the Steelers will be able to keep up with the Colts. The injuries that the Colts are dealing with in their secondary is exactly the type of thing that Rodgers can exploit. The 50.5 total along with a close spread suggests the potential of a back-and-forth affair.
Alex Pierce (3%) and Michael Pittman (10%) have advantageous matchups against the outside CBs of Pittsburgh. Tyler Warren (6 – 8%) also goes up against the group that let fellow TE Tucker Kraft put up a stat line of 7-143-2.
Dart is in line to be the top-owned QB in Week 9. He has some serious splits in success when pressured vs not being pressured. Without Nick Bosa in the lineup, the 49ers have had issues generating pressure. Additionally, the 49ers are yielding over 300 passing yards per game and a completion rate of 70%. Advantage Dart.
San Fran is giving up the 3rd most fantasy points per game to slot receivers. This puts both Wan’Dale Robinson (12 – 15%) and TE Theo Johnson (10 – 12%) in good spots. The return of Darius Slayton (5%) helps to open things up for them as well.
It really doesn’t matter who starts at QB for San Francisco on Sunday in terms of what that does for Christian McCaffrey (30 – 40%). It looks like CMC could be the highest owned player of Week 9. The 49ers had one of their toughest matchups of the season in the Texans defense last week. Due to limited time on offense, a trailing game script, and a stingy defense, CMC had his worst fantasy week of the year. I don’t expect a repeat of that with the Giants. I like CMC much better on DraftKings due to his involvement in the passing game. Regardless of which QB starts for SF, McCaffrey should return to his normal fantasy acumen. Just know that a lot of lineups will feature Dart, Robinson and CMC.
These two come in tied in my QB model, always interesting when the two QBs in question are in the same game. Mahomes looks back to his heavy passing ways. We fantasy folk have missed you Patrick! He has 3 TDs in all of his last 3 games, is completing about 70% of his passes, and is running for roughly 30 yards a game. When pressured, Mahomes’ completion rate drops from 74% to 47%, which is what the Buffalo defense will attempt to do here as their pressure rate is 44% of plays.
Rashee Rice (11 – 13%) and Travis Kelce (9 – 11%) are the primary stacking options with Mahomes. I see Matt Milano and company making things a little difficult for Kelce, but a 2 TD day shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities. Xavier Worthy (6%) could always bust free for a big game, but will usually be held to single-digit fantasy performances.
On the other side of this game I am bullish on Josh Allen. While the Chiefs defense has been quite good, Allen’s fantasy track record speaks for itself. He’s averaging 26.5 fantasy points in his matchups against the Chiefs. Part of the reason for that is due to the amount of times he uses his legs, over 10 rushing attempts per game in fact. If DC Steve Spagnuolo stays true to recent matchups, he will blitz Allen fairly heavily. While Allen’s aDOT decreases significantly in those scenarios, his passing completions increase as does his scramble rate. I like the idea of playing Allen naked and hoping he has a 2 rushing score day.
Matt has been playing fantasy football since the early 2000s and Daily Fantasy Sports since 2015. He has been writing about DFS since 2020 and is excited to be a part of GridIron Experts. He has a wife (proving someone can stand him) and a daughter. Matt loves the beach, skiing, hockey, soccer, and football. He attempts to teach high school English, and aspires to make a ton of money in DFS. Follow him on Twitter @Borisnow00.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Gridiron Experts is an advisory website with fantasy football experts providing content and advice to help you win your fantasy league. Nearly all our fantasy football experts have over 15+ years of experience in drafting and fantasy strategy.
email: info@gridironexperts.com
Friends & Partners
@Copyright 2025 Gridiron Experts | All Rights Reserved
SEO and Digital Marketing by Ethical Champ