NFL Week 9 – Industry Expert Grading

Who would have thought that a Marcus Mariota/Delanie Walker stack would be one of the top stacks of the week? Well, Walker was a fairly popular pick at tight end, but only one expert we graded called the Mariota play (find out who below in the Extra Credit section). Week 9 saw a lot of value plays come through on the Industry Consensus list such as Derek Carr, Jeremy Langford, DeAngelo Williams, Michael Crabtree, Brandon LaFell and, of course, Walker.

The experts struggled at the top of the quarterback list this week with three of the top five picks receiving a “D” grade. You had to go down to the “Suggested” section to find more consistent QB selections. Running back was a little better with some good selections spread out between all of the sections and even the so-so selections likely didn’t kill your lineup. Wide receiver is where the experts made the money this week with five “A+” or “A” selections and only two “F” grades. It was hard to go wrong if you picked three wide receivers off of the consensus list this week. However, tight end was a different story as only the aforementioned Walker had a big day while the rest was more miss than hit.

Be sure to check out the season long scores for all of the experts that we are tracking at the NFL Industry Expert Grading page.

On to the Week 9 grades, class is in session!

Week 9 Consensus Recap

Each week I will recap the top consensus picks that were posted to review how they graded out. The Industry Consensus picks finished in the middle of the pack this week with a 14th place finish out of 28 experts graded.

Quarterbacks

Highly Touted

B – Ben Roethlisberger – Could have had an even better game if he didn’t get injured
D – Tom Brady – Solid game for Brady, but not good enough with the high price you pay to roster him
D – Philip Rivers – Let down a lot of DFS owners on Monday night

Recommended

A+ – Derek Carr – Another big game for Carr with 300 passing yards and 4 TDs
D – Eli Manning – Disappointing game for Manning

Suggested

A+ – Aaron Rodgers – Was able to put up some big number in late comeback attempt
A+ – Drew Brees – “Only” 4 total TDs for Brees this week, still elite production
A – Jay Cutler – Cutler was the better QB on Monday night
B – Jameis Winston – Rushing touchdown saved his day
D – Tyrod Taylor – Only 12 pass attempts limited Taylor’s upside this week

Running Backs

Highly Touted

A – Jeremy Langford – Langford had a very “Forte-like” game with 70+ yards rushing and receiving
C – Devonta Freeman – Freeman has a high floor when he can get a “C” with only 12 rushing yards
C – Todd Gurley – First game under 100 rushing yards since Week 3
D – Mark Ingram – Disappointing game for Ingram who failed to score despite numerous opportunities

Recommended

A+ – DeAngelo Williams – Williams has scored multiple touchdowns the last 2 games he has started
D – Darren McFadden – Had 27 carries for 117 yards, but only 1 catch and no scores
F – Doug Martin – Only had 13 touches and didn’t do much with them

Suggested

A – Adrian Peterson – Outplayed Gurley in battle of top RBs
B – LeSean McCoy – Big game for the reasonably priced McCoy
C – Chris Ivory – Only averaged just over 1 yard per carry, but 2 TDs saved his day
F – Dion Lewis – Injury in 3rd quarter limited his fantasy production
F – CJ Spiller – Only three touches for Spiller

Wide Receivers

Highly Touted

A+ – Antonio Brown – Monster game for Brown and he didn’t even get a TD
A – Alshon Jeffery – Back-to-back weeks with 10 catches and over 100 yards
A – Julio Jones – Another double-digit catch game for Jones
B – Odell Beckham Jr. – Needed a couple more catches or a TD to get an “A”

Recommended

A+ – Michael Crabtree – The cheaper Raiders WR was the better play this week
B – Stevie Johnson – Solid numbers for the value play WR
B – Mike Evans – Had 19 targets out of 36 Buccaneers pass attempts
C – Emmanuel Sanders – Caught a long TD, but it wasn’t enough for Broncos or fantasy owners
F- Demaryius Thomas – Worst game of the season with 5 catches for 50 yards

Suggested

A – Brandon LaFell – Over 100 yards for the inexpensive Patriots WR
B – Amari Cooper – The “other” Raiders WR did pretty well himself
C – Eric Decker – Scores a TD every week
D – Julian Edelman – Too many good WRs this week makes Edelman’s 5-50-1 line fall short
F – Stefon Diggs – Only 5 targets resulted in first bad game for Diggs

Tight Ends

Highly Touted

B – Antonio Gates – Had TD called back by penalty, otherwise it would have been an “A”
F – Rob Gronkowski – Worst game of the season for Gronk
F- Heath Miller – Experts were expecting more in a juicy matchup

Recommended

A+ – Delanie Walker – Was good and lucky this week
B – Greg Olsen – Another solid game for Olsen
D – Jordan Reed – Last minute TD still only enough for a “D”
Incomplete – Austin Seferian-Jenkins – Still waiting for ASJ to get back on the field

Suggested

C – Benjamin Watson – Decent game with 5 catches for 50 yards
F – Charles Clay – One target, one stinking target

Head of the Class for Week 9

Each week I will highlight a few of the top experts for the week. Here are the experts that deserve a “gold star” for Week 9 based on their cumulative grades for all players they touted this week.

#1) DK Playbook-Bales/Noonan (Score: 4.35) finished in the top spot in Week 9. They had 6 “A+” grades this week out of 17 selections. They hit on some consensus picks such as DeAngelo Williams, Antonio Brown, Derek Carr, Michael Crabtree, Drew Bress and Delanie Walker.

#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.22) finished in second place for their second straight week with a top 3 finish. They had 6 picks receiving a “B” or better out of their 9 selections. Key selections were DeAngelo Williams, Delanie Walker, Alshon Jeffery, Ben Roethlisberger and Greg Olsen.

#3) DailyFantasySportsRankings and Rotoballer (Score: 4.00) tie for the third spot this week. DailyFantasySportsRankings also finish in the top 3 for the second consecutive week, they had 3 players with “A+” grades including DeAngelo Williams, Antonio Brown and Michael Crabtree. Rotoball had 2 players out of 9 selection receive an “A+” with the Derek Carr/Michael Crabtree stack.

Study Time for Week 9

If we are going to give a gold star to the top experts of the week, we also need to determine which experts might need to put in some extra study time to pull up those grades. Here are the Week 9 experts that didn’t make the grade this week.

• VenoDFS-Rob O’Connor (Score: 2.08) struggled this week receiving only 1 “A” grade or above out of 12 selection. They were let down by most by Doug Martin and Heath Miller.
• ESPN – Matthew Berry Love/Hate (Score: 2.10) also had a rough week with 7 “F” grades out of 20 selections, including Dion Lewis, CJ Spiller, Martavis Bryant and Stefon Diggs.

Extra Credit for Week 9

In this section, I will look to give some extra credit to experts that received an A+ grade on a player that they recommended when very few other experts did. Week 9 extra credit goes to the following…

A+ – Marcus Mariota (DailyRoto-Mayo)
A+ – Cam Newton (FantasyAlarm, DK Playbook-Bales)
A+ – Lamar Miller (FantasyPros, VenoDFS-Derek)
A+ – Sammy Watkins (DailySportsGeek-Brandon)
A+ – DeMarco Murray (DK Playbook-Jennings, DK Playbook-Ulrich)
A+ – Blake Bortles (VenoDFS-The Cap Room)

Overall Leaderboard

To see the full leaderboard through Week 9 head over to the NFL Industry Expert Grading page.

VenoDFS-Rob Veno moves into the top spot in the overall standings in his second week being graded by DailyOverlay, up from third place last week with a score of 3.73. Moxyball-Matt holds steady in 2nd place with a score of 3.44. While RotoCurve moves up two spots this week into 3rd place with a 3.32 score. VenoDFS-Derek who started strong last week faded a little bit this week dropping into 4th place with a 3.29 score. And rounding out the top 5 is the Bleacher Report who dropped one spot with a score of 3.24 for the season.

As for the Industry Expert Consensus picks, they held steady in the 15th spot out of 30 experts listed.

Let’s see who can make the grade in Week 10!

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