The NFL season always flys by, but it still seems crazy that we are over halfway through the season already. As is always the case, there have been plenty of surprises like Tyler Boyd and James White, plus disappointments like Rob Gronkowski and Russell Wilson. Forecasting those from the start of the season is difficult enough, but when you break it down to a week-long sample size with loads of volatility, the challenge is multiplied. Each week, fantasy experts around the industry take on this task and at FantasyPros, we want to provide you with the information of which experts have been the most accurate with those rankings. Since we are over halfway into the season, it’s time to take a look at the expert accuracy standings so we can see who has provided rankings closest to the actual results. While we are here, let’s first see which experts had the best fantasy football rankings in Week 9. As always, you can check out the entire standings in our accuracy section.

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Week 9 Accuracy Results

*View Full Accuracy Scores (133 experts) | Combine Top Experts into Consensus Rankings

Congratulations to our very own Mike Tagliere (FantasyPros) for taking home the #1 spot on Week 9’s expert accuracy rankings leaderboard. Tags has finished in the top 10 for an entire season multiple times, but this is his first time grabbing the #1 spot for a week. He managed it by placing in the top 2 out of 132 in his quarterback rankings, running back rankings and wide receiver rankings this week. Pulling that off in even two of the four is usually enough to net the top spot, but he somehow managed to accomplish in in the three most important positions.

Some of Mike’s best calls were fading players most of the industry had ranked much higher. For instance, Jordy Nelson was the consensus #34 wide receiver while Tags ranked him #47. He also nailed DeSean Jackson (-9 vs. ECR), D.J. Moore (-9 vs ECR), Jared Cook (-3 vs ECR) and Marquise Goodwin (-14 vs ECR). On the flip side, Mike was quite a bit higher than the expert consensus on other players that ended up performing above expectations. Believing in Dalvin Cook and Amari Cooper were his best picks as he had them ranked 13 and 16 spots above the expert consensus. He was also 4 spots better than ECR on Duke Johnson, 9 spots on Curtis Samuel and 3 spots on Matt Ryan.

Congratulations to Tags on a terrific Week 9 performance!

Biggest Surprises

As always, we recognize the experts that did the best job of ranking the surprise performers from Week 9. Below are several key players that came through beyond expectations for fantasy owners along with the experts who delivered their top ranking.

Matt Ryan (ATL)
Consensus: QB #11
Actual Rank: QB #3
Best Rank: QB #6
Top Experts: Dylan Chappine (White Wolf Sports) and Raju Byfield (Win My Fantasy League)

Tevin Coleman (ATL)
Consensus: RB #22
Actual Rank: RB #4
Best Rank: RB #14
Top Expert: Donald Gibson (Fantasy Fusion) and Site Projections (numberFire)

Duke Johnson (CLE)
Consensus: RB #34
Actual Rank: RB #6
Best Rank: RB #26
Top Expert: Matthew Bowe (Razzball)

Adam Humphries (TB)
Consensus: WR #70
Actual Rank: WR #2
Best Rank: WR#45
Top Expert: Jeff Paur (RTSports)

Maurice Harris (WAS)
Consensus: WR #84
Actual Rank: WR #12
Best Rank: WR#57
Top Expert: Michael Florio (Fantrax)

Jeff Heuerman (DEN)
Consensus: TE #19
Actual Rank: TE #4
Best Rank: TE #13
Top Expert: Muntradamus (Beast Dome)

Biggest Disappointments

On the flip side, there is plenty of credit due to the experts who did the reverse. The experts warned many off of players who would have otherwise wrecked their weeks. Let’s take a look at some of the most disappointing fantasy players from Week 9 and the experts whose rankings were closest to their lackluster performance.

Kirk Cousins (MIN)
Consensus: QB #7
Actual Rank: QB #23
Best Rank: QB #12
Top Expert: Seth Klein (Fantrax)

Tom Brady (NE)
Consensus: RB #4
Actual Rank: RB #16
Best Rank: RB #10
Top Expert: Kyle Richardson (RotoBaller)

Adrian Peterson (WAS)
Consensus: RB #7
Actual Rank: RB #44
Best Rank: RB #18
Top Expert: The FFGhost (Dynasty League Football)

Mike Evans (TB)
Consensus: WR #8
Actual Rank: WR #78
Best Rank: WR #14
Top Expert: Emil Kadlec (Football Diehards) and Rudy Gamble (Razzball)

John Brown (BAL)
Consensus: WR #20
Actual Rank: WR #85
Best Rank: WR #31
Top Experts: Kyle Richardson (RotoBaller) and Emil Kadlec (Football Diehards)

Jared Cook (OAK)
Consensus: TE #2
Actual Rank: TE#28
Best Rank: TE #13
Top Expert: Mike Randle (Dynasty Trade Calculator)

Year-to-Date Accuracy

*View Full Accuracy Scores (133 experts) | Combine Top Experts into Consensus Rankings

With more than 50% of the season behind us, Jared Smola (Draft Sharks) sits at #1 thanks to two consecutive top 10 weeks. In Week 8 he finished #2 out of 131 experts before placing #9 in Week 9. In fact, this was his third time finishing in the top 10 with a #3 finish taking place in Week 1. Perhaps as important, however, is the fact that Smola has managed to consistently place in the top half of a very difficult field.

While Jared certainly has the upper hand going into the second half, there are some big names right behind him that always seem to find their way to the top spots on the leaderboard. Jake Ceily (The Athletic) is currently #2 which should come as no surprise, seeing that he has finished within the top 15 all five years he has been a part of the contest.  Likewise, Robert Waziak (Pyromaniac) was also a top 10 finisher last season.

If you are wondering where Sean Koerner (The Action Network) is and whether he has a chance at defending his back-to-back-to-back titles (yes, really!), the answer is yes. Sean is currently #24, which is still well within striking distance with 8 weeks remaining. Remember, Koerner was not only first place last year, but the difference between his #1 accuracy gap and the #2 finisher was larger than the difference between #2 and #24. If he returns to that pace, you’d have to think Sean would be able to pull off the four-peat.

We’ll be back again after Week 13 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.

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