Week 9 was not the week to rely on your studs. Unless they were studs on a cowboy boot.
In Week 8, the top 15 players by Fantasy Games Won (FGW) were all started in at least 84% of leagues and 14 of the top 15 were started in at least 89% of them. In Week 9, only seven of the top 15 players were at 84% or better. Perhaps most notably below this percent started number was C.J. Stroud.
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Games Won (FGW)
Schrodinger’s Quarterback
I go over the FGW statistic in last week’s article. For a deeper dive, check out my blog. TL;DR: 0.15 = 15% increase in your chances of winning a fantasy matchup.
According to Yahoo! data, C.J. Stroud was started in 43% of leagues in Week 9. Expert rankings had him around the ninth QB for the week, which typically corresponds to 57% started, so managers following expert advice had only a slightly higher chance of getting him in their starting lineup.
As a result, the highest scoring week for a QB this year (Stroud had 46.8 points by a common scoring system) was only the ninth most beneficial week for a quarterback so far in 2023. This is due to the high chance he was on your fantasy bench.
Here are all the QB weeks in 2023 that were more beneficial to your fantasy team than Stroud’s Week 9:
| Week | Name | Points | Percent Started | FGW |
| Week 04 | Josh Allen | 40.5 | 100% | 0.36 |
| Week 07 | Patrick Mahomes | 37.9 | 100% | 0.33 |
| Week 07 | Lamar Jackson | 36.9 | 91% | 0.29 |
| Week 08 | Jalen Hurts | 31.4 | 98% | 0.22 |
| Week 03 | Justin Herbert | 32.3 | 90% | 0.21 |
| Week 08 | Josh Allen | 31.1 | 97% | 0.21 |
| Week 05 | Justin Fields | 37.0 | 65% | 0.21 |
| Week 05 | Josh Allen | 29.8 | 98% | 0.18 |
| Week 09 | C.J. Stroud | 46.8 | 43% | 0.18 |
C.J. Stroud may have won you your week. Or maybe he didn’t. Let’s see how he stacked up with the rest of Week 9.
Who Won Week 9?
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | % Started | FGW |
| 1 | Cleveland | DEF | 23.0 | 100% | 0.31 |
| 2 | CeeDee Lamb | WR | 22.6 | 97% | 0.22 |
| 3 | Rachaad White | RB | 25.9 | 82% | 0.22 |
| 4 | C.J. Stroud | QB | 46.8 | 43% | 0.18 |
| 5 | Amari Cooper | WR | 22.4 | 82% | 0.18 |
| 6 | Younghoe Koo | K | 19.0 | 79% | 0.18 |
| 7 | Josh Jacobs | RB | 21.8 | 96% | 0.18 |
| 8 | Stefon Diggs | WR | 19.6 | 99% | 0.17 |
| 9 | Dak Prescott | QB | 31.4 | 74% | 0.16 |
| 10 | Austin Ekeler | RB | 20.0 | 98% | 0.15 |
| 11 | Jalen Hurts | QB | 27.9 | 98% | 0.15 |
| 12 | Los Angeles Chargers | DEF | 27.0 | 37% | 0.14 |
| 13 | Baltimore | DEF | 15.0 | 82% | 0.13 |
| 14 | Justin Tucker | K | 14.0 | 97% | 0.12 |
| 15 | Rhamondre Stevenson | RB | 20.9 | 71% | 0.12 |
- Cleveland is the first defense to lead a week in Fantasy Games Won. It wasn’t the highest score by a defense — Dallas had 0.41 FGW in Week 1 — it’s just the first to lead a week. Another example of how disappointing the fantasy studs were in Week 9.
- CeeDee Lamb managers are “Stayin’ Alive.” If you invested in the Dallas passing game, you were happy this week. Dak finished ninth overall. Jake Ferguson also hit an FGW number of 0.11. Tony Pollard, on the other hand, came in with -0.11. I, for one, did not have a Tony Pollard decline on my 2023 bingo card.
- Rachaad White with the top RB week. This should mean we can feel confident with him going forward. I’m predicting his 82% started number will hit 95% next week.
- Austin Ekeler was two for two, scoring on his goal line carries. Watching the Chargers feed him made me feel like it was 2005 again when Shaun Alexander rushed for 17 touchdowns from inside the 5 on 24 attempts.
- Rhamondre Stevenson with his first appearance on the winners list this year. 71% started might seem high, but the season’s Least Valuable Player list (by FGW totals) includes seven running backs in the bottom 10. Link to that list in the leaderboards section.
Who Lost Week 9?
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | % Started | FGW |
| 15 | Isiah Pacheco | RB | 6.6 | 87% | -0.13 |
| 14 | Ja’Marr Chase | WR | 6.1 | 99% | -0.13 |
| 13 | Puka Nacua | WR | 4.7 | 83% | -0.13 |
| 12 | DJ Moore | WR | 3.9 | 75% | -0.13 |
| 11 | Travis Kelce | TE | 2.9 | 100% | -0.13 |
| 10 | Davante Adams | WR | 5.4 | 94% | -0.14 |
| 9 | Zay Flowers | WR | 1.6 | 62% | -0.14 |
| 8 | Adam Thielen | WR | 5.4 | 95% | -0.14 |
| 7 | Chris Godwin | WR | 2.6 | 68% | -0.14 |
| 6 | Gabe Davis | WR | 0.0 | 56% | -0.14 |
| 5 | George Pickens | WR | 0.9 | 67% | -0.16 |
| 4 | Bijan Robinson | RB | 4.9 | 97% | -0.18 |
| 3 | Lamar Jackson | QB | 11.5 | 92% | -0.19 |
| 2 | Kenneth Walker | RB | 2.2 | 93% | -0.22 |
| 1 | Justin Herbert | QB | 7.1 | 87% | -0.25 |
- New Jersey native Isiah Pacheco with his second straight week in the bottom 15. His managers are starting to wonder if he had too many fat sandwiches on his last visit to the Rutgers campus.
- This was Travis Kelce’s worst week since Week 8 of 2021 when he scored 2.7 points and pulled an FGW of -0.14. The fact that it’s been so long since he’s had a game like that really just shows how good Kelce has been.
- Gabe Davis is having a season that will cause many fantasy managers to never draft him again. In his weeks where he’s started in less than 20% of leagues, he’s averaging 16.0 ppg. In the weeks where he’s started in more than 20% of leagues, he’s only averaging 1.7 ppg. Classic fantasy football.
- It’s been a while since we’ve had long-term stability in the Seahawks backfield. Though this might have just been a bad game for the Seahawks, and not the beginning of the end of Kenneth Walker’s reign atop the depth chart.
- As a Jets fan, as well as someone with a lot of shares of Justin Herbert…Monday night was not fun.
Week 9 Junior Varsity All-Stars
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | % Started | FGW |
| 1 | Indianapolis | DEF | 26.0 | 12% | 0.31 |
| 2 | Noah Brown | WR | 24.3 | 0% | 0.26 |
| 3 | C.J. Stroud | QB | 46.8 | 43% | 0.24 |
| 4 | Tank Dell | WR | 26.6 | 18% | 0.24 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Chargers | DEF | 27.0 | 37% | 0.23 |
| 6 | Cade Otton | TE | 20.0 | 4% | 0.23 |
| 7 | Cole Kmet | TE | 20.5 | 17% | 0.20 |
| 8 | Jonnu Smith | TE | 18.5 | 16% | 0.17 |
| 9 | Chase McLaughlin | K | 16.0 | 0% | 0.17 |
| 10 | Dalton Schultz | TE | 22.0 | 37% | 0.17 |
| 11 | Las Vegas | DEF | 19.0 | 31% | 0.17 |
| 12 | Keaton Mitchell | RB | 19.9 | 0% | 0.15 |
| 13 | Joshua Dobbs | QB | 26.9 | 0% | 0.13 |
| 14 | Taysom Hill | TE | 19.6 | 47% | 0.12 |
| 15 | Jake Ferguson | TE | 18.6 | 55% | 0.09 |
*bFGW is the FGW total lost due to low percent started numbers. Essentially, points scored on fantasy benches or free-agent lists.
- Noah Brown now has the best week in 2023 from a 0% started WR.
- The C.J. Stroud/Tank Dell stack wasn’t super common in Week 9. If you did start that particular combo, your chances of winning were 99%.
- Between Cade Otton, Cole Kmet, Dalton Schultz, Jake Ferguson, Trey McBride, and I could go on, there are a lot of tight ends you can talk yourself into right now. Might be a frustrating year for offloading your backup tight end at the fantasy trade deadline.
Leaderboard Updates
No change at the top of the MVP leaderboard, although the Travis rankings saw a swap.
The best “values” of this year still appear to be first round picks.
The race for Least Valuable Player is a tight one.
A couple of first round running backs are disappearing your investment with the best of them.
CeeDee is now on the All-Time (since 2021) leaderboard!
Meanwhile, Colonel Raheem Mostert isn’t sticking out as such a huge value in the late rounds anymore.
How Deep is Your Love…for Texans?
If you had a lot of Texans or Cowboys in your lineup this past week, you probably spent Tuesday on the dance floor. If you instead spent much of your Tuesday at a desk with YouTube running in the background, perhaps you’ll appreciate my weekly Fantasy Games Won video (link below). Good luck in Week 10, and see you back here next Wednesday.
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