Jordan Howard was said to be the Bears’ backup

Week 8 was the first week with six teams on byes, and wouldn’t you know it, plenty of surprising, and even obscure players put forth some of the top weeks. We saw Jordan Howard claim the Bears’ running back job and crush a tremendous defense, J.J. Nelson lead all of the talented Cardinals’ wide receivers in every category and Tyreek Hill put together another impressive week. A few experts, some new and some repeat, were able to predict several of these bizarre scenarios. Let’s take a look at which experts fared well in Week 8. As always, you can check out the entire standings in our accuracy section.

Week 8 Accuracy Results

*View Full Accuracy Scores (140 experts) | Combine Top Experts into Consensus Rankings

Congrats to Kevin Steele (The Fantasy Authority) on a fantastic Week 8. Kevin was able to secure the top spot on this week’s leaderboard by notching an 8th place finish at the quarterback position, 7th at running back, 21st for wide receivers and 19th on tight ends. He was one of the top experts on Derek Carr this week, ranking him QB #6, while the expert consensus had him as QB #9. Perhaps his most impressive pick came when he was 12 spots closer to the actual ranking on J.J. Nelson than the consensus, who had him all the way down at WR #55. His other key picks include Theo Riddick, Bilal Powell and Alshon Jeffery, who Kevin accurately predicted would each perform at a higher level than the expert consensus anticipated.

Peak Performers

As always, we recognize the experts that did the best job of ranking week 8′s peak performers. Below are several key players that came through beyond expectations for fantasy owners along with the experts who delivered their top ranking.

Blake Bortles (JAX)
Consensus: QB #21
Actual Rank: QB #4
Best Rank: QB #8
Top Expert: Muntradamus (Beast Dome)

Jordan Howard (CHI)
Consensus: RB #26
Actual Rank: RB #1
Best Rank: RB #17
Top Expert: Scott Whitfield (Roto Rankings) & The FFGhost (Dynasty League Football)

Jonathan Stewart (CAR)
Consensus: RB #18
Actual Rank: RB #2
Best Rank: RB #11
Top Expert: Alex Gelhar (NFL.com) & Mike Krueger (FFToday)

Theo Riddick (DET)
Consensus: RB #25
Actual Rank: RB #4
Best Rank: RB #14
Top Expert: Rudy Gamble (Razzball)

Derrick Henry (TEN)
Consensus: RB #39
Actual Rank: RB #7
Best Rank: RB #29
Top Expert: Heath Cummings (CBS Sports) & Michael Fabiano (NFL.com)

J.J. Nelson (ARI)
Consensus: WR #54
Actual Rank: WR #2
Best Rank: WR #33
Top Experts: R.C. Fischer (Fantasy Football Metrics)

Dez Bryant (DAL)
Consensus: WR #18
Actual Rank: WR #3
Best Rank: WR #6
Top Expert: Muntradamus (Beast Dome)

Jamison Crowder (WAS)
Consensus: WR #32
Actual Rank: WR #4
Best Rank: WR #17
Top Expert: KJ (Fantasy Team Advice)

Tyreek Hill (KC)
Consensus: WR #70
Actual Rank: WR #5
Best Rank: WR #42
Top Expert: Rudy Gamble (Razzball)

Kendall Wright (TEN)
Consensus: WR #53
Actual Rank: WR #6
Best Rank: WR #31
Top Expert: Matt Harmon (NFL.com)

Year-to-Date Accuracy

*View Full Accuracy Scores (141 experts) | Combine Top Experts into Consensus Rankings

We did not see much movement in the top 10, thanks to each one of the top experts posting strong weeks. Some even managed to finish in the top 10 yet again. Jake Ciely (RotoExperts) backed up his No. 1 performance from Week 7 with a No. 3 ranking this go-around. That moved him up to No. 2 in the year-to-date rankings. He is still far behind Sean Koerner (STATS), however, as Sean put together yet another top 10 ranking. At the current pace, Koerner seems like a safe bet to finish the year at the top of the leaderboard. Brett Talley (The Fantasy Fix) also had another top 10 week, propelling him one notch higher in the year to date standings this week.

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We’ll be back again after the games this weekend to provide another update on the experts making the most accurate predictions. Until then, be sure to check out the experts’ weekly rankings to help with your lineup decisions.