We’re officially halfway through the fantasy season which means we’re not too far away from crowning this year’s most accurate fantasy football expert. Judging by the recent movement in the Year-to-Date standings, the top billing is still up for grabs for any expert who makes a 2^nd half push.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, though, let’s check in on how the experts did in week 8. We’ll examine who did the best job with their picks by breaking down the week’s top 10 experts (out of 72).

Week 8 Leaderboard

*See how all 72 experts ranked for the week

Notes:

• Congrats to the crew at numberFire (NF) for churning out the week’s most accurate advice. Their projections were particularly accurate at the RB position, where they hit on a number of key players. Specifically, numberFire rode the week 8 success of Fred Jackson (RB #2), Adrian Peterson (RB #3) & Ray Rice (RB #4). In addition to hitting on the studs, they also made a few good calls on players that the rest of the field wasn’t so high on. For example, while the expert consensus ranked the injury-riddled Beanie Wells outside of RB3 status, NF firmly recommended him as a “start” candidate (RB #26). This turned out to be helpful advice as Beanie gutted out a top 10 fantasy performance. Another solid pick was ranking Javon Ringer (RB #36) a full 9 slots ahead of the consensus. That essentially amounted to a Flex recommendation for Ringer which was risky given his role behind Chris Johnson. It was a gamble that paid off, however, as Ringer’s top 15 fantasy production was one the surprises of the week.

• The staff at FFToolbox cracked the top 10 for the third time this season as week 8’s runner-up. FFToolbox’s best predictions came courtesy of their WR rankings (#1 overall). They did an especially good job of pegging the studs, managing to rank 8 out of the top 10 fantasy WRs as well or better than the expert consensus. This includes going against the grain by handing Victor Cruz his highest ranking of the week (WR #18). They were also one of the few sites to slot Malcom Floyd (WR #23) as a potential starter. Floyd rewarded that faith by posting 100+ receiving yards for the second time this season. It’s also worth noting that FFToolbox delivered with their mid-level picks. That’s always important since those predictions often represent the tough start/sit calls for fantasy players. A few of their best calls were having Doug Baldwin (WR #33) & Jason Avant (WR #34) slotted as Flex candidates. Both players were ranked outside of the consensus top 50 and finished the week within the top 30 at their position.

• Another expert that delivered well rounded advice in week 8 was Dave Richard (CBS Sports). Richard ranked in the top 10 at both RB (#1) and QB (#8). At the RB position, he was ahead of the curve in giving Steven Jackson (RB #8) a top 10 rating. That paid off for him as Jackson turned in his best outing of the season (159 yds rushing, 2 TDs). Richard was also notably higher than the field on Beanie Wells (RB #21) & Reggie Bush (RB #22) and both helped his cause by putting up top 15 numbers. For his QB picks, Richard helped himself by outranking the consensus for several key performers: Cam Netwon (QB #2), Eli Manning (QB #5) & Matt Schaub (QB #8). He also came through by delivering relatively low rankings for a few of the week’s biggest disappointments: Tim Tebow (QB #13) & Tony Romo (QB #11).

• Last week’s accuracy champs, Gregg Rosenthal & Chris Wesseling (Rotoworld), kept up their hot streak with a 4^th place showing. This marks the 3^rd time they’ve finished in the top 5 this season, which is the most of anyone in the field. The duo now sits 9^th overall in the YTD standings and are in prime position to make a late season run at the accuracy title if they can keep up their strong run of advice.

That wraps up this week’s accuracy report. As a reminder, the results for the entire field of 70+ experts are available over at the accuracy section of our site. You can see how the experts rank overall and by position.

If you’d like to get involved with your own predictions, be sure to check out this week’s Beat the Expert Contest vs. Chris Wesseling (Rotoworld). The contest is completely free with a $1,000 prize pool courtesy of our sponsor, FanDuel. Good luck!